A Dory for Gazela Primeiro and at the end tips on glass application

A while ago I received a nice email from Tony Souza regarding construction issues with a new dory he intended building for the old Portuguese barkentine Gazela Primeiro.

Hello Ross,
Thanks for your recent article "Stems and Trailers".  In that article you discuss natural timber vs plywood construction and show the merits of plywood glued lapstrake for boats that are dry stored.
Im trying to choose a construction technique to use for a reproduction dory that will be "dry sailed".  The dory is a Grand Banks dory of 17 feet overall, 13 feet on the floor. The new dory has to resemble closely the last of the three dozen Portuguese grand banks dories that sat on the deck of Gazela Primeiro, the 100+ year old Portuguese barkentine on which I am one of the all volunteer crew.  Last winter we patched and repaired the last dory, and this year Id like to build a dory to be used often for the teaching of boat handling, rowing, and dory sailing.  the boat handling includes launching and retrieving over the side using hand operated boatfalls. The new dory will spend most of its time stacked inside the old dory, the two as deck displays of what was used in long line fishing of the early 20th century.
As a matter of resemblance the new dory will have four frame sisters overlapped, removable thwarts, 5/8" cedar planking, solid gunwales, a mast step on the floor and two sets of oarlocks.
For ease of construction and in keeping with the dry storage idea I plan on using modern materials where I can.  The flat bottom will be Meranti plywood already on hand, no need to soak the floor seams closed before putting boat into the water.  The frames are already built from laminated ash. Tree crotch and buttress sections are too difficult to find.  I plan to epoxy the garboard plank to the bottom, glass tape and epoxy the inside seam.  After planking I plan to turn the boat over and glass the bottom and garboard with cloth.
After that long prologue we come to my uncertainty area, the clinker planking joints.  Its tempting to use lap-stitch aka ship lap joints, easily cut with a router and epoxy fastened.  On natural, i.e. not plywood, timber that may lead to splitting along the grain at the join.  Likewise dory lapped (rolling bevel) joints likewise glued might suffer splitting.  I should have said earlier that using modern glues and eliminating metal fastners is a goal.  The old dory is a pincushion of steel nails on the planking joints which has resulted in rusty streaks and rotten wood.  (Of course dories were not supposed to last more than a couple years in ocean service. Old dory is probably 40+ years old.) 
Would it be better to caulk the planking seams with Boat Life, a polysulfide, rather than epoxy fasten?  The frames are there to give cross grain strength.  With your expeience you might see that Im headed for problems not yet envisioned.
Any suggestions will be very welcome and gratefully accepted.
Gazela can be seen at www.gazela.org.
A picture of the old dory is attached. 

Here is part of the text of my reply: -

I agree totally with your concerns regarding "hard" gluing of either "lapstitch" or dory-lap joints when using natural timber rather than plywood - I believe that they would definitely crack at the point where the planking thickness returned to single-plank. Harry Bryan wrote about the matter when he did a couple of articles for WoodebBoat Magazine about the building of his Daisy design. She had either double-planked cedar (glued with epoxy) for the bottom, or a single sheet of plywood. The topsides were planked with lapstrake cedar planks in the normal manner (I think using copper clench nailing from memory). The important thing in our context is that he expected her to be dry-sailed, and after completing the planking in the normal way, he dragged a sharp, flat-blade screw driver along the underside of the lap on the outer side of the planking. This produced a sort of square-shaped groove of about 1/8" x 1/8" in the underside of the lap. He then filled the groove with a bead of polyurethane (I would use 3M 5200 or Sikaflex 292, using a polyurethane-specific primer)

Having said all that, I wonder whether you could just glue the entire lap with polyurethane (I dont know enough about polysulfide to say anything about its adhesive qualities where no fastenings are used). The polyurethane is strong enough, but I dont know whether a fully-glued lap would allow enough movement to overcome the cracking problem, even given the flexibility of the compound - but my guess is that it would be ok, especially if the glue-line was thick.

If I was doing it, Id go the copper-fastened route, with the polyurethane (or polysulphide) run into the groove under the lap.

I think that the garboard arrangement you propose would be fine. The glass on the outer face should supply cross-grain reinforcement, and the tape on the inside will extend some distance beyond the vulnerable line of intersection between the inside faces of the bottom and the garboard.

On two boats I built (one of which ended up in the Jody Foster film, Nims Island - see the recent comment made on Duckworks http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/10/reports/may/index.htm ), I made the bottom from Western Red Cedar glued strip, continuing around the turn of bilge, after which I continued the planking as plywood glued lapstrake. I cut the bevel on the bottom planking to accept the first lapstrake plank before glassing the bottom. When glassing the bottom, I continued the glass right around and onto the bevelled face. This meant that when the first plywood plank was glued on, the glass was sandwiched between the WRC strip planking and the inner face of the plywood - the aim being to prevent splitting in the WRC.  This explanation is a bit clumsy, but I havent got time right now to do a sketch. In your case this will not be necessary, as you will have the glass on the outside of the cedar planking anyway.

??

Western Red Cedar bottom planking

???

Bottom covered with 400gsm (12oz) double-bias glass and the first two planks of plywood lapstrake attached - the first plank going over the glass, which itself had been laid over the bevelled edge of the cedar bottom planking.

???Here is Tonys latest up-date: -

Hiya Ross,
Here are three pix of the dory project to date.  This boat is a copy of the last original belonging to Portuguese fishing barkentine Gazela Primeiro.  You can see more pictures on www.Gazela.org and my facebook page. My version of the dory has a meranti plywood bottom and white cedar planking over laminated ash frames.  The gunwale and cap are white oak. The dory will essentially be dry sailed i.e. living on Gazelas deck most of the time and occasionally be used for crew training and exhibition at home and ports of call.
After corresponding with you some time ago I took your advice and epoxy joined only the garboard plank to the bottom.  The rest of the construction has followed traditional methods. The upper edge of the garboard and the remaining planks are dory lapped and copper riveted.  Planks to frames are joined with Si bronze screws.
I think we talked about covering the bottom and up to the upper edge of the garboard with synthetic cloth and epoxy. 
Now areas where I could use advice:
What cloth would be appropriate? I dont think the dory will ever see a beach, but it might. So a light cloth should do.
Is there an advantage to graphite additive to the epoxy?
Any tricks to applying the cloth?
Thanks for your help,
Tony Souza

And part of my reply: -

Dear Tony,

Thanks very much indeed for the up-date, and for the nice photos. The boat looks super to my eyes, and Id love to take her out in the rough stuff - preferrebly with some weight in the bottom to represent the ballasting effect of a load of Cod!

My appologies for the delayed reply - we have been recovering from the devastating flash-flood which wiped us out on January 10, and priorities tend to be re-arranged!

For the cloth, the simplest would be 200gsm (6oz) woven glass. This is light and easy to use, and gives a good level of protection, and more importantly, provides a sort of screed to ensure an even thickness of epoxy. Dynel is also a good option (4oz, I think, but you would need to check with the supplier). Dynel is bulkier than glass for the same weight, and it has superior abrasion resistance - I like it on decks - but it doesnt have the tensile stiffness of glass so it will have less structural effect on the garboard-to-bottom joint. For a hefty boat like yours which may get handled roughly, Id give serious thought to using 400gsm (12oz) double-bias glass cloth. It isnt woven, so it takes bends fairly well, and with the fibres aligned 45 degrees/45 degrees, every fibre crosses the longitudinal joints. It is cheaper than woven glass, but is heavier than the normal 6oz stuff.

I normally use the dry application method (for weights up to 12oz). I lay the cloth over the dry, sanded, and vacuumed surface, and them smooth it into position with a dustpan brush or a wide, dry paintbrush. Tape any troublesome edges down with temporary bits of masking tape. Then start by mixing small quantities of epoxy and pour them onto the glass (or Dynel) and spread them with a squeegee - I use rectangles of 1/16" model aircraft balsa as they can be bent along the grain if required, and the corners dont snag on the glass.  Dont press too hard, as you will end up aerating the epoxy and making it go creamy with minute air bubbles (just like what happens when whipping cream). Just use a gentle figure-eight sweeping motion to get it out onto the surface. Dont fuss about getting it to wet-out - that will happen automatically. Keep on mixing, pouring and spreading until the entire surface is covered. Small batches are good, as they dont heat up so rapidly in the container.

When the surface is covered, use disposable brushes and/or disposable foam rollers with about a 1/8" nap to distribute the resin evenly. I use dry brushes and rollers - they pick-up from the excessivcely wet areas and put down in the dry areas. When all is even, use the squeegees again (held at about 45 degrees to the surface) to scrape off excess resin so you end up with just the wet cloth, but no visible pooling of liquid resin.

After the epoxy has gone off enough to be certain that the cloth wont float up off the surface - this depends on temperature and rate of cure - but when it gets to a "green"state of cure, lay on several more coats of epoxy to fill the weave so that when you finally sand the surface (after removing any amine blush with water and cloths, sponges or Scotchbrite pads) you are only sanding epoxy and not going through to the glass.

Have a look on my website under the button labelled "First Mate Photos 3" for a brief pictorial demonstration - the thumbnails enlarge if you click on them.

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Michael Storer Talk and Messabout at Clint Chase Boatbuilder

Dana, Clint, and Michael getting things started...

Clint introducing the speaker and asking everyone to share a bit about themselves...

Lots of visuals during the talk...

Including an amateur built rudder and rudder box for a Goat Island Skiff.


On November 1st I was pleased and honored to introduce Michael Storer, an Australian Boat Designer reputed for his simple, elegant, and approachable boats, to a group of 21 members from the wooden boat community in Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Some knew of Storers work, others have built his boats, and many knew him as an important name and wanted to learn more about the man and his message. His message was simple: that we can vastly improve our boats by paying a great deal more attention to three areas: the centerboard and rudder foils, the spars and sail, and the hull itself. With regards to the foils, Michael convinced is audience that it is the way they are made -- with care towards fair, accurate foil shape and towards a smooth surface -- that most matters. Michael has taken research in optimal foil design and applied these foils to boats that, without them, would not sail nearly as well upwind and would be much trickier to handle. These foils are flat in the middle, thin for reducing weight and wood use, and closely approximate the hydrodynamics of a true NACA shape, without the expense and fuss and awkwardness of a wing-shaped foil in a square centerboard box or rocking around on a flat work bench during shaping.

With regards to spars and sails, Michaels point was clear that the most important aspect of spars is that they flex and bend in the right way, the right amount. Spar bend is critical to the ability of a sail rig to absorb a gust, reducing heeling and putting the energy into forward momentum. The sail need not be a 600-dollar racing sail, but a simple polytarp will do cut with round to create the draft necessary to create power in the sail. His PDR Oz boats are a case in point. They all sail with polytarp sails, about a $30 dollar investment. And because they all use the same cloth, they can race against each other without the "upping the ante" attitude that has cause racing to be more expensive and less accessible to more and more people around the world.

Interestingly, Michael left the hull out for last. He says the hull is less important because of the way quality foils and spars can make a good boat go faster than it should. The PD racer is a square hull and wide flat bottom. As evidenced by the messabout after the talk, it does go beautifully. Why? Because of the foils and spars, but also because the hull is light. Michael discussed the keys to making a hull light, using light plywood in a hull that is reinforced the right way, using stringers, fillets, butt joints, and interior compartments that create a light, stiff structure with nothing more than 6mm plywood. Fiberglass is heavy and Michael stressed that fiberglassing adds weight with little gain in structural integrity or even abrasion resistance. Most boats being glassed with 6oz cloth do not need it for structure and are not being used in such a way they it is needed to protect the boat from abrasion. Cloth as light as 2-oz cloth will be enough. He said that builders have also succumbed to the "upping the ante" mentality, trying to do things better and better and better than anyone else, ending up with heavier boats and poorer performance.

Australia saw another 25-plus years of wooden boat development that America and Europe did not see because of the way that market forces drove us to Fiberglass boats much sooner than they did in Oz. The result is much further refinement of glued-plywood construction and testing in the small boat racing circuits around the country. We are just now learning here in the States, thanks to Michaels generous knowledge sharing and this trip he has made to the USA.

Afterwards we enjoyed some great rowing and sailing off Portlands East End. Pictures of the messabout can be seen at the WoodenBoat Forum and at Michael Storers own Oz Forum:

http://www.woodenboat.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2372819#post2372819
http://www.woodworkforums.com/f169/

Folks will see many of Michaels philosophies played out at Clint Chase Boatbuilder in the Spruce-Composite oars, Birdsmouth masts, and soon foils, tillers, and other components made to improve the performance of customers existing dories, skiffs, dinghies, and utility boats. Please check my website as updates will be ongoing as product development progresses and made available for sale.

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Wildlife at the Boatshop

Im starting the years posts with a slightly off-subject entry. It is now six years since we moved away from our coastal workshop to live and work in Esk, Queensland, Australia. Although we only moved 100 kilometres (62 miles), the move was directly to the west - away from the coast. Many people thought we were mad, but we needed to locate ourselves in a quieter place, further away from the scores of casual visitors who had been in the shop at all hours. I like talking to people about boats, and I particularly enjoy explaining building procedures, and therein lay the problem. I was spending long hours in the shop, but not getting enough paying work done!

The old workshop in Wynnum. The office is under the sign at the far left, and workshop area extends to beyond the far right of the photo - it was a paradise!

Looking through the building from just outside the office. Notice the wooden floor and low ceiling - perfect for boatbuilding.

Well, moving into a rural area where horse-floats and cattle trucks outnumber the boats 500 to 1 may seem like a dumb thing to do, but we had our reasons (mostly financial). As it has turned out, we are very happy and enjoy the quiet surroundings. There is a 35 kilometre-long lake just down the road, and if we want to get to salt water it is only an hour-and-a-half by the highway.

The Esk workshop. Since this photo was taken there have been improvements, such as a concrete slab under the lean-to, but it is still basically 9metres x 10.5 metres (29ft x 34ft) of concrete under tin sheds, and a separate 6 metre x 6 metre storage shed. However, I work alone most of the time, assisted by my wonderful wife when things get tough, so I am pretty happy with what I have.

Inside one of the workshops

Being in the bush has its inconveniences, but the advantages outweigh the negatives many times over for a hermit like me. One of the significant benefits is that we get to observe native wildlife at close range, and come to take it all for granted.

Possum in a model aircraft

My wife with a totally wild Rainbow Lorikeet

Same fellow up close after eating apple

A King Parrot - once again, totally wild

A Koala ten paces from the workshop door

A buck Wallaby making friends with our cat through the front door glass!

For those of you who may be interested in Australian wildlife, here is a youtube video which I shot over the last couple of days. The quality is not high, as I didnt have a tripod, and there was too much backlight in some frames - but if you have never seen a Wallaby Joey in its mothers pouch, or seen a Koala climb a tree, take a look. All shots were taken within five yards of our door!

These photos may not show you how to build a boat, but I can assure you that the presence of these animals helps me to retain some perspective on what is important in life, and Im sure that my building and designing benefits as a result.....

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November at the Studio

Progress on mkII Deer Isle Koster

The new KDI kit in CAD file view

Files and plans are in the last week or two of development for the KDI, mkII. I am taking orders for kits and plans. There are four excited builders waiting for them to arrive. Wont you join them!?

Many want to know the changes from MkI. Mainly, the boat has been brought back up to the original 510" beam that Bruce drew on the original KDIs. Another change is that the nearly flat garboards and solid wood keel have been replaced by a piece of 3/8" plywood and the first two planks. The joints are glassed and the bottom sheathed (see hatch markes in picture below). This will make building simpler and alow the builder to make a very durable bottom for beaching. The mk II wll be roomier inside and I expect it to have faster off-wind speeds. The specs for the new KDI are below.

KDI SPECS

LOA 14

BEAM 510"

LWL  125"

Beam WL 51 1/4"

draft 5"

Displace. 595 lbs

Sail area 97 SF

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Teaching at The Wooden Boat School Tradional Modern Oar Making

After work at Shaw and Tenney, I had my debut teaching job at Wooden Boat School. One of my favorite (and most labor intensive) specialties is oar making, so I was to teach the traditional way and the modern way, using composite blades. Each students chose an oar type of their choice to fit a boat they had or wanted to have. We had everything from 7 flat blade Spruce oars (for a Nutshell Pram) to laminated plywood spoon blade sculls to a Greenland style kayak paddle.

 

We were able to get out for two solid rows where CLint coached some fixed seat rowing and we all just enjoyed learning how to use oars and be comfortable in rowboats. We were able to use the schools fleet of rowboats, including this Joel White Shearwater.

 

Students quickly learned that oar making is mostly a wood removal activity, but they also learned some of my tricks, like adding decorative laminations on the outside of the upper looms. They also learned that there is a bit of engineering and art in making oars. Because we were able to get on the water, we also so the clear link between how we shape oars in the shop and how they react on the water.

 

Finishing oars after sanding is as much work as shaping them. One of my big pet-peeves is that oars are balanced and we spent a couple hours balancing everybodys oars with a little lead in the handle. It does not make the oar heavier, effectively, because the oars weight is on the gunwale. Therefore, it is the balance that makes oars feel lightweight. Leathering the oars is a project as well as sealing and varnishing. Everybody left with the oars largely done. One student had a good challenge. He brought in a pair of hollow sculling oars and wanted to make a replacement (or back up) pair in a week. So, we made the loom solid, sized down, and laminated a pair or plywood blades much like I do in my shop for customers oars, over a laminating jig. The blades are glued on the shaped loom and the finished result looks like this, and I might add he is very happy with them. In fact they are no heavier than the original, hollow sculls!

 

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Top 5 Thanksgivings at Clint Chase Boatbuilder

We are certainly thankful at CCBB for five big things:

#1: The new shop. The goal by the time we were sitting down for turkey was to be in the new shop and pretty well set up so we could get back to customers projects with as little delay as possible. We are a few days off the goat but still pretty darn thankful for this 1100 SF space where well be able to build above 30 or have multiple smaller boats in construction, or new construction and a prototype, or one big boat, mastmaking, and oarmaking all happening under one roof for the first time.

The new shop on moving in day October 1st

#2: Our customers. We wouldnt be here without them. A handful now are out there building our boats around the States, from Maine to Washington, Montana to Texas. Thanks to those who have helped me start out and who help me keep on!

#3: The designers we contract with have been key to our success and I thank all of them: Francois Vivier, Michael Storer, Bruce Elfstrom, Eric Risch, Ruud Van Veelen, Rodger Swanson, Roger Long, and all those who have helped contribute to our grand plan.

#4: Casco Bay and Maine: Though we are in a semi-industrial, urban neighborhood, it is but a 3 minute ride to the ramp that accesses the most beautiful waters in the Northeast. I am very thankful to have access to these parts, the islands, the open ocean and the memorable rows and sails weve had.

Fort Gorges in Portland Harbor

#5: Of course my family who have been unbelievably supportive in my ventures, not the least of which is starting our business building beautiful boats, spars, oars and selling boat kits to others whose dream it is to build their own boat.

Drake and kids in Flanders Bay, Maine

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Beginning at the Bottom

The first step was bending the forward end of the long battens into position by sawing a horizontal kerf back almost to the frame and then installing screw eyes and turnbuckles to pull them down into position. The kerf was sawn on the table saw before they were epoxied in place.

The fitting of the first bottom piece involved making some measurements to determine if I could start with a half sheet of plywood. The answer was "Yes, but not a perfect rectangle". I needed about 24 1/2" from center line of the keel to the widest part of the side. So I split the 4x8 sheet with a slight angular cut, 25" wide on one end and 23" on the other using my circular saw and 8 guide board. I positioned the sheet onto the bottom using the factory 90 degree corner straight edge along the centerline of the keel with enough length forward to make it to the tip of the stem. Three positioning screws were put in along the straight portion of the keel. Then screw blocks were started about midway down the side and put in every 3" to pull the bottom down into place. After several blocks were installed, a line could be traced underneath by bumping the panel down into position and marking the underneath side, however the most forward part could only be guessed at because the panel was too stiff to bend into position. Then it was removed, rough cut to shape, and reinstalled.

Then the forward part where it needed to be fit perfectly into a butt joint was marked for another rough cut. The marking was done by putting a heavy coat of purple crayola along the previously fit side edge and then bumping the bottom piece down into the crayola to leave a line marked on the underneath side of the bottom. The panel was removed again and trimmed with the circular saw to within about 1/16" of the crayola line. Back on the boat and the slow process of fitting the forward butt joint was done - inch by inch. My 1" rabbet plane was great for getting the fit pretty close. Files and a paint scraper were also used. As a part of the joint was fit (sitting on the panel would push it into place), another screw block was put in place to bring it home. As the fit progressed, screw blocks were also placed along the stem to bring this side of the panel along. The panel began to overlap the stem as it twisted into position and excess material was cut alway with a handsaw. Every bit of extra panel removed made the bending easier. After about 4 hours of trimming, sitting and fitting, it was in place.

Then all remaining screw hole placements were marked along the chine and keel, the panel removed and screw holes placements were marked for the battens. Countersunk screw holes were then drilled for the remaining chine and keel holes that would not be using screw blocks. Straight holes were drilled for the battens as machine screws would be used for these during glue up. This panel was then temporarily clamped in place upside down on the other side of the boat to make sure it would be a good starting point for the other side. It was. It was traced onto the other half of the plywood.

A coat of epoxy was spread on the underneath side of the panel and all mating surfaces on the framework were coated with epoxy. Then a batch of thickened epoxy was spread on the framework. The forward part of the long batten was un-turnbuckled, the kerf coated with thickened epoxy and then re-turnbuckled into submission. The panel was then placed on the boat, the locating screws put in place and all screw blocks reinstalled. After putting in a couple along the chine in the middle of the boat, I moved forward to the transition joint and ensured that it was all coming togther in the same location, secured a screw block and then filled in the rest moving forward towards the bow. Then remaining holes got silicon-brass screws along the keel and chine. Machine screws #6, 3/4" long were used to secure the battens. A 24" reversible squeeze clamp was converted to a pusher and used from underneath to push the battens up tight to the bottom prior to screwing.

The next day, screw blocks were removed, countersunk holes drilled and 7/8" silicon-brass screws installed. The butt joint looked good with the largest gap being about 1/32". Excess epoxy was cleaned up and the forward part of the panel trimmed along the keel back to centerline or in the most forward part, cut and filed flush with the stem.

Back to the other panel with the traced line from the first panel. A bevel was hand planed on the panel edge where it would butt along the certerline of the keel to the previously installed panel. The bevel would provide a tight fit. Then it was rough cut, put on the boat and the whole fitting process began again. I thought it would be faster, but the keel centerline where the stem begins to curve also had to be precisely fit, and I think I was getting tired. It took forever, just like the first one. No clamps could be used on this one, so I had to make a few more screw blocks. It all came together nicely...epoxing in place would be another day.

The next evening, my friend Rick was recruited again and he dismantled the second bottom piece from the boat while I cleaned off my working table so we could put in screw holes and epoxy away. Rick is now a fully trained professional grade epoxy applicator guy so Ive got him ready for helping with fiberglassing the hull. This second bottom piece went in place nicely and a couple of beers were consumed in celebration.

The next part was the last two pieces to finish the bottom. The first step was to make the reinforcing butt pieces for the joint. Pieces of 1/4" plywood were ripped the approximate width to fit between the battens. Each piece is about 9" long. They were then fit, epoxied, clamped and screwed with about 4 each of #8 3/4" screws. Then the bottom piece was cut, fit, epoxied, screwed and clamped. Pretty simple compared to the rest of the bottom and side pieces.

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Three Bolger boats under construction at once

Here are a couple of photos showing three Phil Bolger-designed boats under construction in our old shed, all at the one time (there were three other boats being built as well!) To paraphrase somebody else, "I can remember doing it, but I cant remember how!"

The boats in the photo are two of Phils Hope design (see last posting) and a Harbinger. Phil Bolger has often been associated with what some people call "Bolger Boxes". Well, the boxes are works of art in their own right, and demonstrate a rare understanding of hydrodynamics, allied with the application of common sense - but none of the three boats shown here could be called boxy!

Two examples of Hope (foreground and upper-left) and one example of Harbinger (upper right)

Here you can see the wooden pattern I made to allow for the casting of a bronze "Y" shaped propeller strut.

The shapely bow of one of the Hope designs in slings. The cuddy-cabin design was mine, as was the clinker construction plan - but Phil Bolger was consulted in writing and approved of the alterations.

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OK I admit Im at a loss

An island of interest, a question of justice, and in the "outrageous" department...

Has anyone seen a really clever (dare I say cunning?) method of stowing a pair of bikes on a sub forty-foot sailboat?

If so, care to share?

Listening to a bunch of Rolling Stones covers

So it goes...

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Family Boatbuilding at Wooden Boat Show

We (myself, Christophe Matson, Eric Risch the designer of the EBDS, and Steven Bauer) had a wonderful time guiding three wonderful families through the construction of 3 beautiful Echo Bay Dory Skiffs this past Friday through Sunday. The skiffs were all made from precut kits, allowing for the quick, efficient construction.

Day 1 was assembling hull sides.

Day 2 was attaching chine logs, gunwales and bottoms.

Day 3 was installing seats and outerkeel as well as doing some shaping and sanding.

Then all 3 familes launched their creations. In fact, out of nearly 30 boats built at the Show, we were the only 3 that launched!

Not one boat leaked. One family rowed across the river to their home and the others loaded on the cartops to drive home to New Jersey and Colorado. They will receive sailing kits to complete their boats.

Big thanks to Wooden Boats support of Family Boatbuilding, to Eric Risch for giving us the design rights to use this boat, and to Christophe Matson for his patient skilled help with the families. Finally, thanks to the families for signing up with us. It was a blast, especially seeing you all rowing on Sunday.

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A lot of activity at the boat shop!

Carbon oars are in style at Clint Chase Boatbuilder! These are a pair made by Clints students. They can made at any size, shape, and part of any length oar. They make most sense on 8 or longer oars where outboard weight must be kept to a minimum.

On the Dory design front, the lines are complete. To learn about my design approach, click here.

Other news: coming into the shop will be a vintage Flying Fifteen the building of which was supervised by Uffa Fox himself in the ate 1940s. Photographs will be forthcoming. The plan is to give the boat a total restoration. Everything is orginal: oak spars, Egyptian cotton sails, laminated mahagany hull (varnished).

Quite a few inquiries into Shellback Dinghies have been coming in with one order in place. If interested in this great boat, please let us know!

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