WoodenBoat's Cool - Fretwater Boatworks

I took a bit of a break after the hectic, exhausting, but productive spring, puttered a bit, and caught up on a few projects. I made it up to Green River to induct our replica of the Bert Loper boat into the John Wesley Powell Museum.

We gave Cataract a new coat of paint and sent her off to Utah with Cricket and Glade, her new caretakers. They had a lovely Grand Canyon trip, Cataract delivering a clean trip to Glade. She’s a sweet old boat.

But between Cataract’s return to the river and now…

It was off to Maine for a month to teach. Our rental car was made of plastic, so we had to put our car magnets on the cabin windowscreen.

We built an extra floor for our pole barn workshop so we’d have a good spot to build a second Doryak. Glade came with us for the first week and took a sailing course, which may turn out to be a problem. He had a little bit too much fun.

A welcome back sunset at Naskeag Point

Monday morning we were off and running, building a pair of Doryaks with an eager crew of ten. On day one we lofted the boat, drew up the ribs, and began building parts. On the afternoon of day two we assembled the hulls.

Day three, bottoms on. Courtney is touching up the glass on the outside while Cricket and Garth are inside smoothing the glass chine.

Our inside chine lay-up is two layers of pre-saturated 24oz biaxial with matt–a 4″ strip and a 2″ strip, with a fillet bead of thickened epoxy behind it. Once the bottom in place, the inside person smooths it out and overlays it with pre-impregnated strips of 6″ 6oz (or 10oz) cloth for a nice finish. We use Resin Research 2040 resin–accept no substitute! We use slow-kick for this process to give the inside person time to smooth everything out.

The impregnation team is saturating strips of fiberglass to hand in to the under-boat team to smooth on over the biaxial glass chine.

And on with the bottom glass. For this we use Resin Research 2040 with fast-kick hardener (2100F).

The rubber outer chine strips are going on the first boat while the second boat bottom is getting glassed.

And up we go, to start the long process of cabinetry. Everything slows way down at this point. Brian is trimming off the stainless steel carriage bolts that connect the frames to the deck.

Witht the framing finished, the decks go on.

On a quick build like this we sometimes leave a few of the more time-consuming things for the new boat owners to finish, like the finicky spare oar pocket. Not this time. Here we’re marking out one of four odd pieces to glass into each boat, to form the peculiar pocket for a spare oar.

More finicky work, glassing the hatch gutters.

Then it’s time to make the rimmed hatch lids, cut in latches, and fasten the hinges. And install weatherstripping. We may get them finished after all.

Day 8 was my favorite day. Not so much because of how things went with the Doryaks, although they went very well–but because Broc has a friend who is an oyster farmer out on Deer Isle, and Broc brought in 100 fresh oysters for tea time. Oh. My. God. They were beyond exquisite.

We often don’t build the adjustable foot braces in these quick builds either. But hey, we have a good group, so why not try?

Day ten arrived and we screamed into the finish line, installing foot braces and the electric bilge pump systems and about a dozen other last minute things.

Click here for launch music.

And they floated. Here’s Cricket in the Amesbury Dory Skiff we built last year, accompanying the two newborn Doryaks–shop names Pookie and Torrey.

And they work just fine for dinner tables at the lobster bake.

We got two days off before the next course and did little but try to recuperate. Here’s a foggy evening at Naskeag.

But then came the most harowing part of the whole adventure: a cribbage game while we were waiting for our laundry to dry. I turned to deal the cards on the side table and sneezed. Pop goes the ribcage! I’m still not sure if I broke a rib but it sure immobilized me for a few days. The arm sling is just to remind me not to be stupid and pick heavy things up. My prescription medicine is on the side table.

No rest for the wicked. We started off the next morning with a brand new class, scarfing sides and floor for a McKenzie. Meanwhile the class lofted the boat and began expanding and building rib sections.

Day two, assembling.

Broc, from last week’s class, came back in to lend a hand while I convalesed and grumbled.

Gunwales steamed and bending on.

On with the bottom. Meanwhile Cricket and Jeni are inside smoothing the inner chine glass.

Glassing the bottom.

On with the rubber baby buggy bumpers.

With the bottom done, we roll her up and begin building seats and floorboards.

There is a mountain of knotty cedar here that is a bit too jagged for lapstrake building, so we used a bunch to make live-edge floorboards.

Day six: We had an after dinner session last night to paint the hull–Kirby Paint as always, in proper dory colors, of course. This morning Andy is finishing up the stern seat while Tim, Russell, and Mark bang out a sweet set of nine-foot oars. Jeni is looking on, grappling with the fact that she has fallen in love with the boat.