|  Posted on February 23rd,2013 Chesapeake Light Craft’s John Harris had a great blog post a bit back on two faering designs he developed. The post gives a good overview of these lovely Scandinavian working boats,but the thrust of the piece is that John designed his own faering for stitch-and-glue construction.
At the moment,plans to make a fully-fledged kit for this boat are in limbo,but here’s hoping CLC goes forward with it. While their current fleet does have a nice traditional feel,notably,in this case,the existing Iain Oughtred-ish Skerry,this faering design extends the offerings to include a more interesting,“exotic,”traditional boat. That,in turn,introduces kit builders to designs beyond the more established set. Understand I have absolutely nothing against dories,skiffs,and prams –I just want a wider interest in all the other kinds of craft the world has to offer,and kits like CLC’s are a great avenue for achieving that end. I was even more intrigued by the second boat Harris introduces,a scaled up version based on a Scandinavian craft called a fembøring. This craft includes a small,aft cabin. Harris’s boat includes such a cabin as well as a sliding seat,a lug rig,and a self-draining cockpit. An exceptional pocket cruiser / camp-cruiser,in other words. This one is unlikely to make it to kit form,though I believe I read Harris correctly that plans could be available. It’s a pretty cool-looking boat. Posted on September 20th,2012 I took the afternoon off to get AL DEMANY CHIMAN sailing again –I’m still tinkering with the leeboard and steering –expecting I’d have a peaceful outing in light airs of Pohick Bay,VA. I had that,but I also got a pleasant,unexpected surprise. As I was launching,I glanced out and saw someone rowing a large craft with different lines –definitely not a gig or the like. It took me a minute to glance at her more to begin guessing,and,when she got closer I made out a distinct skin-on-frame look. Man of Aran –a curragh,there in the Potomac tidewater! In moments she was ashore and there were two out-of-the-ordinary boats on the beach,both skin-on-frame craft! The owner / builder is local and is a hardy rower. He was back from a few mile piece,pulling his 20-some foot boat solo (she has seats for three). Check out this nice Irish lass: 
Posted on July 14th,2012 I learned recently,via the Cheaspeake Maritime Museum Facebook stream,the the Apprentice for a Day program completed the North Shore Sailing Skiff I worked on for a day this spring. As expected,she came out quite well. She’s a nice design overall,and I hope I can take a few pulls in her at some point. 
Posted on April 22nd,2012 
Excellent times Saturday as I took advantage of a Christmas gift of another day in the Apprentice for a Day program at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. I hadn’t been there since the passing of Dan Sutherland,who ran the program for the past few years and a much-missed genius. Happily the program has rallied to continue Dan’s final project,a North Shore Sailing Skiff,“Miss B”Model,and I was thrilled to get a chance to participate in building this nice-looking classic small rowing and sailing boat. 
I confess I didn’t get to learn much about the boat. It was designed by Robert H. Baker and a version of it appeared in the very first issue of WoodenBoat. More recently,the hull,NELLIE,appeared as Miss November in WoodenBoat’s 2010 calendar (via Benjamin Mendlowitz,of course). CBMM’s blog has a bit of additional info. The boat had been fully planked and framed. The boat is going to be gorgeous. She will have a bright-finished Spanish cedar transom and I must call your attention to the black locust breasthook and quarter knees. My goodness,that breasthook is treasure.  
So,on to the work I did. The morning had us refining the fit of the seats. As is often the case,this meant a good deal of subtle tweaking and nudging followed by an extensive effort to find the right spot to cut the mast partners into the forward seats (there are two mast positions and the center-line had gotten a bit murky when compared with the seats). I eventually was able to have at it with the drill press and a 3″hole saw. A little more clean-up and the seats got pulled again and spent the afternoon in the finishing room with another participant.  
The afternoon was focused on figuring out the floorboards. The plans called for a single 3″plank running fore-and-aft about 5-6″off the center line. This seemed an odd choice and we decided,after extensive discussion and test-fitting,to add a second floorboard inboard of the designed ones. We milled the boards –barely –out of some sassafras and a spent the last part of the afternoon shaping and sanding these pieces. Satisfying as always. Posted on January 14th,2012 One more on checks I turned up during our clean-out. Here is the check I wrote to the late Harold “Dynamite” Payson for the building manual for my first boat,the Gloucester Light Dory. Pretty momentous purchase right there. 
If anyone is looking to build this great boat,Payson’s book is invaluable. Just get it. You won’t regret it. Posted on October 2nd,2011 I wanted to get these pictures of the 2011 Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival up right away;I’ll be adding captions soon. [UPDATE] Captions are now on there. I encourage you to browse through. There were some AMAZING AMAZING boats there. I’d highlight the sailing canoe SEVEN STARS,the Melonseeds,the sailing canoe in pictures 4 and 31,and,of course,the Coquina. Posted on October 1st,2011 Posted on February 25th,2011 As a father of a child afflicted with autism and as a avid supporter of boatbuilding and boat adventures I was in love with news in Chesapeake Light Craft’s e-newsletter today of a great new voyage. Neil Calore is a Philadelphia firefighter who built a CLC Northeaster Dory as part of a CLC class last year. He is planning to row and sail it from here in Washington,DC to New York City,a distance of 425 miles. His effort will be a fundraiser for Autism Speaks,a leading autism research and advocacy organization. I don’t know Neil,but I love everything about this project and I hope you will join me in supporting this voyage. Update:Neil has a blog on the voyage we need to follow. Posted on February 23rd,2011 It has been far too long (we do I always find myself starting this way? SIGH) since we here at Chine bLog highlighted the great posts others have offered the world regarding wooden / traditional boats. Yes,believe it or not,Chine bLog is NOT the only source. Really. It’s true. If you haven’t discovered it already,you should be sure to read the stuff below: Indigenous Boats
Bob Holtzman over at Indigenous Boats has been putting out a ton of great stuff of late,such that I can’t come close to mentioning it all. Some highlights I’d recommend: IntheBoatshed
Gavin at intheboatshed has kept his blog going strong. Check out: » Continue reading ’round the blogs –great stuff from elsewhere in the traditional boat blogosphere » Posted on January 3rd,2011 I noted recently that Jordan Boats in the UK has started producing Iain Oughtred design kits. They have licensed the patterns to Hewes &Company of Maine in North America. I am guessing that this a quality kits,though they are for experienced builders (no materials provided other than the cut lumber). Even so,this makes for a nice shortcut to a SWEET boat. | |
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