Chine bLog

Here are most of the other pictures I took at the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival.

Yesterday was another gorgeous day, with a light breeze and a clear sky. Chesapeake Bay looked gorgeous, shimmering below me, as a crossed it on the Bay Bridge, headed East again for another day with Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum's Apprentice for a Day program. Last week had whetted my appetite; yesterday I was hungry, though. I couldn't wait to get back in the shop and see how the boat was coming along. And here she was, already looking more herself:

Seeing a boat right-side up for the first time is always exciting, though I was interested to so how much had NOT been done in the week I had been away (which included two full building days). Most of her planking was done, but not all. There were a couple gaps up forward that seemed odd, until they were explained by my master for the day, Tony. It turns out, with these cross-planked boats, that there is so much twist up forward that the conventional way, even after steaming, doesn't work. The forward planks were literally being carved from solid blocks of pine. Wow - what a chore! This boat was going to be authentic, but there is a reason most boats have fore-and-aft planking, and this might be part of it. Can't say I hadn't already learned something, and class had yet to begin.