Marisa, Cosette, and I attended our first ever Wooden Boat Show at Mystic Seaport this past weekend. No, we didn't go to Mystic Pizza, but we still had a great time and even learned a few things. If you are interested in boats made out of something other than plastic, I'd recommend you do it at least once. There are a lot of great vessels—from dinghies to ships—to look at and, if you are inclined, interesting workshops to attend. Virtually all the advertisers in Wooden Boat magazine, which co-sponsors the event, set up a booth on the Seaport grounds, so there are a lot of experts around if you have questions. West Systems was in the house: so was Lee Valley, Jamestown Distributors (promoting their Total Boat line), Mas Epoxy, Chesapeake Light Craft, and many more. A marine lumber supplier was there with some very luminescent slabs of mahogany and spruce. The restored shipyard also functions as a mill and was selling some of their surplus, as well. There was even a guy selling a portable sawmill you could take home.
Four of the workshops interested me in particular (not so much Marisa or Cosette, who spent most of the time on a park bench fielding compliments. I am pretty sure the two got more than any of the boats.) The workshops that I had scribbled on the program as MAs, or MUST ATTENDs focused on sharpening, lofting, steam bending, and vacuum bagging. I don't want to sound conceited, but the main thing I digested at these workshops is that I am much more informed about these subjects than 96.2% of the other folks present. Another thing I learned: the apparent target demographic of this group is a 63-year-old, white, very nerdy male wearing sandals. All apparently were sussing out retirement options. Boy, did I ever feel out of place! I'm only 59.
A few tidbits from the classes:
—The biggest difference between furniture makers and boat builders is that furniture makers like a straight edge on their planes and chisels, whereas boat builders like theirs curved. Makes sense when you consider that there are very few 90 degree corners on a boat.
—When you are using a batten to draw a curve on a layout board, there's a cool device you can use to pin the batten down at various spots along the curve that doesn't distort the shape and allows you to position the batten precisely. It's called a spline weight. It's made of lead and kind of looks like a little whale with the top of a coat hanger for a head. (The are also sometimes referred to as spline ducks.) You can see some in the foreground of the photo below. This tidbit comes from the lofting class. The term "lofting" comes from the place where boatyards did most of this work because it was the only place around that was even remotely clean. The attic or—ta da—loft.
—You need freshly sawmilled green wood for steam bending, especially in the case of white oak. Steam for about an hour per inch of thickness up to about 3 inches thick. The wood needs to be free of knots and the grain needs to run straight the length of the board. If the grain curves and runs out of the wood, it will probably break when you bend it.
—Vacuum bagging is pretty easy and can be done with inexpensive materials like Mortite (a clay-like substance that's mostly used for insulation), cheap plastic drop cloths, mosquito screen, and an air pump taken out of an old discarded refrigerator.
I'll be doing some steam bending and vacuum bagging as part of the project to restore #48, so you'll get to see whether I do it right or foul it up. I might even see if I can get or make some of those spline whales and try out that technique, too.
I bought a book at the show that I'd never seen before (Preliminary Design of Boats and Ships), but my biggest splurge was for two old wooden blocks that I got for $40 each from an antique tool vendor. I probably could have negotiated a lower price, because it turned out the vendor has been drowning in the things for years. When I asked how he got them, he described an anxious phone call he received a few years back from a family whose patriarch had died. Their panic related to what they had uncovered in the dead man's basement. Are there antique tools?, the vendor asked hopefully. Not really, the family replied. When the antique guy arrived at the house and went down the basement stairs, here's what he saw: a huge pile of more than 1,000 old wooden blocks saved from old ships. It had apparently had been the primary life mission of the deceased man to rescue these old blocks.
Now, I have two of these rescue blocks in my shop, right along with my rescue dog, rescue boat, and the rescue project that is yours truly. The blocks are really nice, still work, and it's easy to tell that every bit of them was crafted by hand. You can still see the marks the blacksmith made when he pounded out the iron parts. I wish the next picture was a little better (There's too much red in it for one thing: the block is just a dark wood. Damn iPhone.), but I think you'll get the idea.
Several people have asked me if I am doing a "museum quality" restoration of #48. After looking at many of the many boats at Mystic, I can now answer that question with a resounding conviction: NO. My restoration is going to be vastly superior to the work done at Mystic in attention to detail, in finish quality, and in on the water performance. I'm not saying the Seaport workers don't do a good job, but I think they have to work quickly on a budget and simply don't have time for a lot of truly fine work. They want the boats to look presentable and to retain the materials and methods used in its original construction. So they don't use a spray gun, for instance, for painting. Everything is done with a brush, just like the old days.
My goal on the other hand, it to try to produce a truly beautiful boat. The only boat I saw at the Wooden Boat Show that met the standards I hold for myself was a homemade DN Iceboat. It had been expertly crafted by a very nice young guy from New Jersey. I took a bunch of pictures of it and will show two. One is a close-up of the boat's head support for the reclining driver. The other shows the strut that supports the rear runners.
Nice, huh? I was really impressed with the DN, a boat I've always wanted to try and may yet make myself. They've been North America's most popular ice boat class ever since 1953, when the Detroit News sponsored the design contest that launched the boat. I also like the fact that the DN is named after a newspaper, blending two areas of personal interest. They race over on Lake Hopatcong in Jersey (when there is enough ice and not too much snow.) They go 60 mph in 20 knots of breeze. Talk about frostbiting!
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