Chine bLog

I was pleased to be able to at least see a picture of the two-masted crabbing skiff I worked on last year during my Apprentice for a Day stint at Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Here she is, and she is still for sale. A bargain at $10,500. This boat would be a wonderful, solid say-sailer / camp-cruiser with loads of character. If you are in the market, you really should take a look. To learn more, see my past posts on this boat: day 1, day 2, day 3, and day 4.

And so, it came, my last of four trips out to Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum's Apprentice for a Day program. What a great experience it has been - I can't wait until life's other demands allow me time to head out there again.

The boat is coming along well. The frames and deck knees are all in and shaped, the forward deck beams are in, and the centerboard trunk is now snugly in place. Having worked on a number of these pieces over the last few weeks, I love seeing them in their rightful home.

Geez - it has been too long. Apologies to my loyal readers - yeah, you three - for keeping you hanging. Last weekend brought me back to Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum's for another installment of the Apprentice for a Day program. And a great day it was.

The boat has come along a bit more since I was last back. Frames installed, a couple deck beams, centerboard trunk coming along, and preparation of deck knees. And deck knees were the task for the day.

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.

As my regular readers know (you know who you three are), I am longer on boat building desire than I am on facilities and time to actually do it. Ergo, I blog... That all changed today, however, and will again three out of the next four weekends. Courtesy of a thoughtful Christmas gift from Mrs. Chine bLog, I am spending four days in the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum's Apprentice for a Day program. This is the perfect deal for someone like me. I get to head out to St. Michaels, on Maryland's Eastern Shore, and spend a day in a working traditional boat shop guided by the museum's boatwright staff. It was great, needless to say.

Click on image to see lines drawing

The current project is a 17ish foot crabbing skiff, which looks like it will be a beautiful and solid boat. She is being built to lines taken off by Chapelle in his invaluable surveys of traditional American craft. I arrived to find the hull still upside-down, with planking in progress. One pair of fellow apprentices set to work on a day of fun with bevels, creating the forward bottom planking from cedar stock. I headed aft...