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 Posted on February 18th, 2010I believe I have mentioned that I work in sub-optimal conditions for a boat-builder, even one focusing on small craft. Our house is modest and my workshop is in the basement, overrun by stuff in storage. I count on being able to work outside, but this gloriously snowy winter (yes, I said “gloriously” – snow is fun too) has wiped that out. I plus along in the space I have, and thus you see pieces below laid out across living space.
So here are some signs of progress, albeit slow. As with the keel of the ama, I cut the first few feet and relaminated it to give it rocker. Here is that task, in progress.
I took a whack at laminating one of the frames. I have subsequently decided to junk this one. There were two issues. First, I am still figuring out my new bandsaw, and the strips were pretty lumpy (even after some planing). They didn’t lay together well. Compounding this, I also messed up the glue up and I wasn’t confident in the piece’s strength. Lots of learning there. Too many strips, too short working time, and too little glue (using Titebond III).
I decided to use the frame to further test and cut out some of the mortises. The keel scarf is not yet glued, but I was able to mock things up by means of some clamps: one frame, the full keel, and two stems. Great to see.
Here’s the same set-up looking forward (excuse the living room). You can see the bow stem is cocked to starboard. Seems there is a little twist in the keel. I have to see if I can pull it straight with the gunwales.
Posted on January 22nd, 2010
I have so engaged in designing and building that I haven’t been on the computer as much in the PMs. I have clearly been missing out on what some of our traditional boat peeps have been putting up. In case you missed it directly, here is some stuff to check out:
Indigenous Boats
Bob over at Indigenous Boats always has great stuff. No falling off as we checked in.
70.8
Tom at 70.8 has a few really nice posts: » Continue reading Catching up with the traditional boat blogosphere – recent stuff from some peers »
Posted on January 19th, 2010
So we went back to the drawing board for a bit on the skin-on-frame outrigger canoe project, as we noted last month. It was a productive venture – we made some improvements, got a lot of problems solved, and got some useful planning in. We confess, though, that we were eager to get back into the building phase, and around the holidays, we were finally able to do so. First step: stems.
 I decided to do sawn stems, which I think has worked out well. I got the components glued up and then waited for my Christmas present to come in: a band saw. To be clear, I barely have room for such a toy, but gosh – is it wonderful! I put it through its paces cutting the shape of the stems and then cutting the bevel on them. It will literally make this project possible. I also splurged on a new dust-collection system: $19.00 on a small shop-vac form Target. Oh yeah, we are gettin’ faaannnn-cy.
 So here are the results, minus sanding and some seam-filling. I am pretty happy with the results and am getting psyched to pull the keel together. I have the scarf cut and am ready to put the rocker in next. I’m getting giddy…
Posted on December 23rd, 2009
One of the aspects to designing and building my own boat is the noodling on very specific problems – how would X work, how do I need to construct Y, how big does Z need to be, etc. To think through these issues I have done some mini-lofting – full-sized drawings of pieces of the frame. I thought I’d share some of these drawings so you can see what is difficult to tell in my lousy reproductions.
I had a rough idea of how to do the inwale / outwale construction from my reading, but I had to think through a number of details when it came to the two laminated frames that are the key structural elements amidships.
Somewhat less complicated, but still worth some thought, was » Continue reading Design details on the skin-on-frame outrigger canoe »
Posted on December 20th, 2009
Thanks to Bob over at Indigenous Boats for his recent post highlighting Paddle Making (and other canoe stuff), a blog by a Canadian canoeist / paddlemaker / artist named Murat. The site has a gallery tool to view paddles Murat has made – they are almost universally stunning. Well worth keeping this one in mind.
Posted on December 19th, 2009
It was thrilling to hear an inquiry from our friend Bob Holtzman over at Indigenous Boats on the status of the skin-on-frame outrigger canoe project. Our last update showed off a completed ama frame, and, truthfully, for various reasons, there hasn’t been any building progress since then.
What I have done is go back to the drawing board to make a few design adjustments based on earlier feedback. I nudged the ama forward and adjusted the internal layout a bit accordingly. I also adjusted the sheer and keel lines a bit to ease construction. The biggest difference, though, is that the split rig is gone in favor of a single lanteen sail. I couldn’t make balance work right otherwise. I am eager to try the rig and I think it fits well – it gives it more of a Southwest Indian Ocean flavor (e.g., Madagascar).
Construction hasn’t changed much, but I have figured out a few more details.
Posted on December 18th, 2009
Last Winter we finally read one of Tim Severin’s books, The China Voyage: Across The Pacific By Bamboo Raft and posted some reactions, all positive. One of our friends said, at the time, that if we liked that book, Severin’s The Brendan Voyage: Across the Atlantic in a Leather Boat was better still. Well, we finally read it. And we concur. It is an absolutely fantastic read.
The Brendan Voyage is also half sailing yarn and half archeological text. There is, apparently, a medieval Irish text, Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis, that tells of a voyage St. Brendan took in the North Atlantic in a leather boat, what we now call a curragh. It is, in fact, conceivable to interpret the text to say that St. Brendan and a crew of Irish monks reached Newfoundland around the sixth century, long before Leif Erikson’s boys and WAAAYYY before that poser Columbus. Scholars, of course, disagree about the extent to which it is factual or fantasy. One of the grounds for skepticism was that a leather boat could never make such a voyage. Severin set out to build a replica, using sixth-century technology, and sail it from Ireland to North America, specifically Newfoundland, Canada. Given the subtitle, I don’t think I am a spoiler to say that the crew proves the hypothesis and completes the voyage, adding evidence to support the Irish being the first Europeans to hit these shores.
Everything about the book is amazing. » Continue reading Fantastic read: Tim Severin’s “The Brendan Voyage” »
Posted on December 15th, 2009
We realized that we have been running this blog for over four years now. This is the second iteration of it, as of last Winter, so our analytics are incomplete. It is the case for the last several months, however, – and we promise that it has basically always been the case – that one of our first posts, on the Wayfarer Dinghy, is the most popular on the whole blog. Specifically, we called out the poor decision on the part of designer Ian Proctor’s descendants and the various Wayfarer Dinghy associations to not publish plans for the Wayfarer so they could be built at home.
We find it interesting that this post has had such legs and dare to think that it might mean that we are not alone in searching for the plans. Want more evidence, over the same period (3/14/09 to 12/14/09), one of the top search terms that brought visitors here was “wayfarer dinghy plans.” We think there is unmet desire here and it is time to publish the plans. Again, we are all for fair one-design racing, and we also think that issues raised by home-built boats in this context could be mitigated (e.g., validation by the association at the owner’s expense). We just don’t find the reasons for holding back compelling.
Posted on December 9th, 2009
In combing “back issues” of my Google Alerts I noticed that our sometime mentor Paul Gartside got married recently. Even better, he met his bride at The WoodenBoat School and he wooed her sailing in their sweet collection of boats. Very cool. Belated congratulations, Paul!
Posted on October 25th, 2009
It’s always fun when a real, live subject of a post stops by, even if it is to dispute your opinion. Heck, so much the better – we put ourselves out there, so we deserve whatever comes of it. So many thanks to designer Tony Dias, who found one of our very first posts, on on his Arey’s Pond Daysailer. I think he and I must agree to disagree, with no disrespect involved. I wish I could review more of Tony’s portfolio, but I can’t find a valid site. Tony, if you check in again, please let me know if there is a spot to which I can point other readers.
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