Huckleberry

Here on the Oregon coast the huckleberry grows abundantly. The native precursor to the blueberry, it's a bitter sweet fruit, which once saved Doryman's life when lost and deprived of food in the Olympic Mountain Range of northwestern Washington State (but that's a story for another day...). The bateau Huckleberry is a tribute to this forgotten food, once very popular with the indigenous people of this coast.

Based on the early bateau of the southeastern U.S., but also reminiscent of native canoes, what more fitting name than a tasty berry that might garnish a meal of salmon and oysters fresh from the Yaquina River? There are huckleberry bushes leafing with spring foliage outside my window right now.

The bateau Huckleberry was launched for the first time last Friday. Indeed an auspicious day... She Floated!



You laugh. But for a designer and boat builder that's the proof. Did I design the water-line correctly? Yes. It's always a relief, to find it so.

Huckleberry floats high. Maybe she's lighter than I thought, but she draws two inches empty, maybe less.

She's tender!

Stay trimmed...

On the first trial she floated easily with little effort. Later, she proved her lineage by accelerating like a water bug, efficient use of the quarter horsepower capability of the human body.

While launching Huckleberry I made the acquaintance of a travel journalist named Foster Church who took pictures the following day of Doryman cutting capers with his new canoe. Who knows? We may, one day, be famous!

As is always the case, the design indicates it's shortcomings within moments. Next time this bateau will have a inch or so more bottom rocker. The nearly flat bottom (two inches of camber) makes tracking easy, but turning is sluggish. Since Huckleberry was built primarily for running with the current down tidal rivers, this aspect will be of little consequence. But improving on a design is an excuse to build another boat!






It's simple and easy to build a boat of this type. I would recommend the
Peace Canoe, by John Harris of Chesapeake Light Craft. If you've never built a boat before, this is a good place to start.













In a few uncomplicated weeks, you can have a craft that will give you many hours of simple, healthy enjoyment.





More proof that functional beauty is not complicated or expensive.

(Also pictured: the incomparable skiff Paku.)

Doryman's Boatyard

Tweezerman has asked the question and henceforth I am not responsible.
Since the addition of Lively to the fleet, the question is "how many?"
When the weather was sunny, I wanted to take a turn around the Doryman boatyard with a video camera, but when the weather is warm, Doryman is either working or sailing on a boat.

So, as the (unusual) freezing weather takes hold here on the coast, we'll take a pictorial tour instead. (It's pretty hard to build boats when it's 20 degrees F)


First is the bateau Huckleberry. She's a take on John Harris' Peace Canoe.When building Huckleberry, I thought I would shorten the canoe as planned, so that it would be the length of two sheets of marine grade mahogany plywood, thus saving the price of the remaining sheet.








The plans call for installing the sheer guard and chine log to the side panels before completing the boat. I used an African mahogany called Oboto, which resisted bending so much that Huckleberry ended up with a transom. Thus are new designs made!








Next up is the wherry yawlboat Lamb Chop. She is built of Port Orford cedar on yew wood frames. This little tender was used on the island of Nashawena in Massachusetts to rescue sheep who had fallen on the beaches and bring them to higher ground. Because of this, the boat has come to be known as the "sheep boat". Thus; Lamb Chop.
Pete Culler, famous for his yachty interpretations of working boats is responsible for this little wherry yawlboat.
































The Rhodes 33 Caper is a project in process. This classic boat is an orphan waiting to be loved. I am keeping her alive with infusions of TLC during the summer months that allow work outside. If I were a younger man, this fine old vessel would get a complete work-over, she deserves the best! Hopefully someone will take her to a good home. She is planked with African mahogany over oak frames.



















Love of my life! The Pete Culler Good Little Skiff Paku! She came to me as a pile of boards and with two years of loving restoration, this is the result. Constructed of cedar planking on mahogany frames, with a cross planked bottom of African mahogany, Paku is a durable skiff and beautiful, too.
Once again, Pete Culler outdoes himself.

She leaves me speechless.
























Sandy Douglas designed the Thistle racing dinghy in 1945 and this is hull #16 of that one-design class. Sweet Sixteen was built in 1946, the first year of Thistle production and was another old boat on the skids. It took three months of research to learn how she was originally designed. One-design rules dictate that the boats be held to a strict standard to be raced. There is no reason this 63 year old wood boat would not be competitive with a modern Thistle (made of plastic). She's a dream to sail, but I have to sell her. Can't keep 'em all, I guess!
























Mistral is my self designed/built 36 foot, five ton cruising dory. The design for this boat was conceived in 1989 and construction started in 1990. From then until now, I figure there are about 12,000 hours spent on her. The greatest fault with taking twenty years to build a boat is all the changes that can happen to the boat, and to the builder! The sail rig was an afterthought, so you might imagine what that entailed! She has not had a proper mainsail yet, but will as soon as the handwork is done. Stay tuned!


























Newest to the fleet is the Ed Monk 15’-6” Knockabout, Lively. Lots of fun! A simple and attractive plywood skiff, with thoroughbred sailing characteristics, easy to trailer and launch - we are very likely to hear more about Lively in the months to come.

With a new mainsail, I may be tempted to race her, she's that good!
























The boat in the shed is one of Sam Devlin's original Egrets. This boat was given to me this year and I think she deserves some attention. Can't say much about her yet, but when she's re-launched you'll be the first to know.

























One of the first boats I built is the 13 foot light dory Otter. A dory is measured on it's bottom. Otter is 15 feet over-all, built of fir plywood with stitch and glue construction.





After 30 years and many changes and upgrades, I gave her away this year. She's a great little boat and never shipped a single drop in all the trials I've put her through.

Her new owner has dressed her in all the finest.

When I see her again, I'll let you know...











This is a 20 foot Old Town Freight Canoe named Woody.

No, I didn't name her.

I had this idea that I would take this rare old canoe and fit her with oars, since the bursitis in my shoulders makes paddling very painful. She would be more like a peapod. I think this would have been a good idea, but as the boat's old luster began to surface, it became apparent that the canoe should remain true to it's heritage.

A 20' wooden freight canoe is a rare find.


As it turned out, Woody went back to it's previous owner who was intrigued by the fine looking boat that emerged from the dust.















The little dory and the canoe gave way to plans for new boats. (Can't have enough boats!;-)






First up on the list of new construction is an 18 foot Chesapeake Light Craft kayak. The plans are on my desk.












Sanpierota plans! I can't tell you how excited I am about this new boat. The sanpierota is an ancient Venetian design, and is still occasionally found there.
But I doubt if there is a sanpierota in the US, so I hope to be the first. The plans came from Gilberto Penzo in Italy and are notated in Italian and lofted out in metric. I don't read Italian and have never built a boat to metric specifications, so this boat is scheduled for next year to give me time to get up to speed!









Doryman is behaving like the kid in the proverbial candy store.

Too much Fun!

If I had a better memory, we could take a journey back to all the boats I've owned and built, but you've been given a reprieve for now...
.

Oars and Rowing

Yesterday was a fine day on the water for a quick row in the bateau Huckleberry. As you may already know, this is a new boat, in fact, this was the second time on the water. The first time out was at the Depoe Bay Boat Show in April and I used a new set of seven foot oars that I'd made specifically for Huckleberry. The bateau is a narrow boat (three feet extreme beam), but the seven foot oars seemed short. I'm accustomed to longer oars -- my favorites are a set of "Culler style" that run 8 1/2 feet -- so I took a longer set this time.
(A man can never have enough oars! I love to make them and nothing feels more natural in the hand than a loom carved in your own shop!)


This trial was with an eight foot set, and it was a mistake! At first all seemed well and the light bateau skimmed along, even against the tide. In a few minutes I found myself crossing my hands. Not a bad technique, but a sure sign that the oars are not balanced in the oarlock. After a half hour of shifting weight, my back hurt and I was done, time to head home.

The blades I used are light and worked well on the boat they were designed for, which was a foot wider. A small difference, but.....

I suppose the answer is to make another set of oars. Just the excuse I need! The best description of making a set of oars is found in Jim Michalak's work. Jim is a fan of the Culler style oar and has adapted the master's design to modern methods. His oars are laminated from one inch stock, which obviates the need for high quality wood.








I prefer the more old fashioned one piece stock, but adequate raw wood for a strong, light set of oars is fast diminishing (I'm not telling anyone where I keep mine!)

My oars are finished with two coats of clear epoxy and six coats of spar varnish.

Note the different lacing patterns used on the leathers. The lacings on the lower set of oars in the picture were done by my proud apprentice.
Each of the oar sets shown have a different handle pattern, as well. It's good to experiment and find the style that works best for you.
.

Sandman

Doryman is what I call myself.
Others call me The Sandman. (Wait! Is that a reference to my story telling ability??)

Don't get me wrong, sanding is not my favorite activity. Not even close.
Face it, now or later - for a good looking wood boat you have to sand. And sand, and sand, and sand. Then paint and sand some more.

I don't have a sophisticated shop. In fact, my shop is mostly mobile and much of my work is done by hand and eye, with a minimum of clamps and jigs. Thus I tend to use hand tools rather than bench tools. And the application of those tools is much like hand carving of any kind. The shape and texture of the object comes clear in the process of shaping it. If you don't like on-the-spot innovation, this is not the method for you!

Free form sanding and shaping requires immense concentration, since the slightest distraction can destroy the work.

The most effective all around tool I've found for a decent finish is a powerful, variable speed random orbital sander with a five inch self adhesive disk mounted on a foam pad. Using abrasive grits from 40-220 I can get a good, weather resistant finish that's attractive and will be a solid foundation for subsequent recoats.
It's time for me to confess. The mirror finish is for others. I'll go for what I call a 90%. Pretty nice, and worth a compliment or two. I'd rather see a slight imperfection than put a lot of putty in a boat. The patches and fillers will someday fall out, and the deception is laid bare. As with all tools, experience is the key. With judicious application of a quality sander and good quality paint, the true beauty of the hand made craft is realized.

A word of caution. The disk sander, random or not, is a potentially dangerous tool. It can take a flier, taking a piece of your hand or your work, or both. A lot of damage has been done to beautiful old boats by careless use of these tools, not to mention the blood loss.

Next is my small grinder with a four inch sanding disk replacing the grinding stone. This is a dangerous tool. With a course grit paper, it can be used to shape wood, much as you would use a block plane. Extreme care must be taken to avoid destroying your work in one quick motion, since any unexpected slight of hand will take away wood, never to be replaced. With caution and several years of concentrated study, I've been able to develop some nice shapes in a free form manner with this tool. It will leave scars and scratches, so enough wood must be left to plane or sand vigorously for a clean finish. And keep your fingers out of the way!

Compressed air sanders are better, all around, than the electric ones shown here. An air driven reciprocal sander is much lighter and more powerful than the one I use, but I've never made the transition to air driven tools.

Indispensable, but not my favorite since it makes me ache all over, is the hand sanding pad. Get used to it. If you want a finish to be admired, you must sand by hand. A lot. I use self adhesive paper on mine and it can be used for everything from shaping to fine sanding. The discarded paper is used later for sanding, with the fingers, into small corners.
The last refuge.

Also pictured is a belt sander. BEWARE! The belt sander is not a boat sanding tool! I used this one on the flat bottom of Huckleberry, to fair out a fiberglass mat finish, which may be the only application of a flat sander in all of boat building. You can sand a hull with a belt sander, but you will have to come back and fair it. If it's all you have, you could use a belt sander (requiring considerable skill and talent) to remove thick paint, but only on a hull made of thick planks! (I'll probably regret saying that...)

I also used the belt sander to shape a couple pair of oars yesterday.

In the background is a sanding block made from a 16 inch 2x4. I've used three sticky back sandpaper disks edge to edge to make a small fairing board. This is another shaping tool. By spreading the sanding edge over more surface area, trim pieces such as the sheer guard can be shaped with long, straight, smooth edges.

I haven't shown respirators or dust masks or ear protection, but I use them. And don't forget protective clothing and dust collectors. Most industrial boat sanding is toxic to all life forms.

It's been Sanding Week here in Doryland.
.

Ottering

Just 1/4 horsepower (the btu's of human muscle power) moves the dory Otter over calm seas. Or rough seas, for that matter. Doryman looks to know the score. (Third place in a nine mile river rowing regatta)



Otter is known as a "Gloucester Gull" design.

In 1961 Phil Bolger designed one of the sweetest looking rowing dories ever to grace the water. Bolger gave the plans to Capt. Jim Orrell of Texas Dory fame and he called it the Gloucester Gull. This design sold in the thousands and is considered one of Bolger’s best. Phil states in his book “Bolger Boats”: “This is certainly the best design I ever made: when I come up for judgment and they stop me at the gate and ask ‘what’s your excuse’? I’ll tell them I designed the Gloucester Light Dory and they’ll have to let me in.”

The build out of the boat is from sheet plywood and thus straight forward, however, as Phil writes in the Small Boat Journal: “I’ve spent a good deal of time in the past trying to warn people that dories aren’t the best solution for all nautical problems. They need lofting and jigging preparation that make them expensive to build one-off, and they’re full of sharp bevels that make them tricky for novice carpenters. All of them, and this one especially, feel terribly tender, and they’re hard to get into and out of in consequence. They have a wild, bouncy motion in a seaway, which keeps them dry… Be that as it may, these light dories are not bad boats. I’ve several times rowed 15 nautical miles in five hours… If a single oarsman has the sense enough to stay solidly planted on his or her butt, low in the boat, these boats will go through a wicked-looking sea.” And best yet, you will have one of the prettiest and head turning small boats ever conceived!

Gloucester Light Dory Particulars: LOA 15’ 6”, Beam at Sheer 4’, Trailer Weight 90 to 135 Lbs.

The Otter has had decks added as well as a centerboard, rudder and "Beachcommer Alpha" sail rig. An all around seaworthy boat.

Post script; March 2009: The Otter is probably more of a Banks dory than strictly a Bolger design. In the late 1970's my friend Jim and I acquired a jig from a graduate of the Wooden Boat School in Seattle, for the Banks dory as detailed by John Gardner in "The Dory Book". The jig had been used to construct the dory in a traditional manner, but Jim had been studying the building methods of the Gougeon Brothers (in fact original printings of the "Gougeons on Boat Building" and "Gardner on Dorys" occupy the same shelf in my office today). So, we decided to try building plywood dories using the stitch and glue method. The resulting boats (all our friends had to have one) proved to be extremely durable and seaworthy, once you got used to how tender they were. We called them Gloucester Gulls after Phil Bolger's design and felt proud to be part of a boat building revolution. I honestly don't know what the differences are in the two designs, maybe none. The design parameters for this light rowing dory are the basis for my 36 foot dory Mistral, if all the numbers in the table of offsets are doubled!
Otter stayed with me all these years, and was used and used and used. She needed repairs from time to time, but always came up singing. She eventually was outfitted with a Beachcomer Alpha sail rig, centerboard, rudder and an outboard bracket.
This last winter I decided to start over with a very light, car-topable row boat, slightly longer and much leaner than Otter, which became the bateau Huckleberry detailed in this blog. Otter sat dejected in the driveway, so I offered her free to a good home. My new friend David Birch wanted a rowing vessel to participate in Messabouts, so he took her home. I'm anxious to see what Dave has done to this versatile and durable little boat!

Bateau Update

Here is the bateau Huckleberry, with foot rests, non-skid strips and oar locks for one rower installed. The last picture shows the option of paddles for two people.
I really like the wood strips glued to the bottom as non-skid, they add a textural beauty in addition to their function. They are a pain and a mess to install, though! The foot rests are permanently glued to the hull, giving support for two distinct sizes of rower. They also stiffen the hull against the stress of the oar pressure.


The oars have been reshaped, reducing weight. They are an old set I bought used. Though they are made of high quality ash, they had been used with a clamp-on oar lock which crushed the looms. (I didn't notice the extent of the damage until, back in the shop, it was too late). The crushed looms have been repaired with epoxy and fiberglass which will be covered in leather chafe guards.

















Dressed in dirty sanding clothes, I will be buried in dust all day. Right now the boat has a coat of epoxy inside and out. Mahogany is a porous wood and is vulnerable to weather damage. The epoxy is a very good base coat which extends the life of the final finish.


It feels good to be this far --- it's only three weeks until the Depoe Bay Wooden Boat Show and Crab Feed! The boat needs at least two coats of varnish, inside and out, and a minimum of two coats of paint on the bottom. That's six distinct painting days, with intervals for sanding.

No rest! Spring is here.
.

Depoe Bay Wooden Boat Festival 2009

It was a fine spring weekend in the tiny Oregon harbor town of Depoe Bay (named for Chief Depoe of the Siletz Indian tribe) for their annual small craft boat show.

Doryman was there with the bateau Huckleberry, the skiff Paku and the Thistle racing dingy Sweet Sixteen.

A good time was had by all in the spring sunshine (a rare item this time of year on the rainy coast of Oregon).

More of this event to come in the days ahead! Stay tuned...

Wood Cleats for Wooden Boats

Given time and patience, mariners crafting their own vessels can make most of the hardware required for running rigging themselves.
Doryman recently cut out a dozen or so rough wooden cleats and is now shaping and fairing them to fit various boats.

The first picture shows a centrally located forward cleat and it's corresponding starboard chock. Each wooden hardware piece is made of mahogany and finished with one coat of epoxy for added durability, then polished off with several layers of spar varnish.


A close up of the rail mounted, hand carved chock. The design is simple and easy to make. Bedding compound is used and there is a bronze screw set diagonally on each side of the ears, where most chafe will occur.









The next cleat is mounted to the aft inwale of a Thistle and will be a dock cleat as well as the lead block for the spinnaker sheet. The hole in the middle has the sheet lead through it, from out to inboard, and a stopper knot tied in the end to capture that occasional runaway sheet. The sheet is lead around the outside aft of the cleat, then forward and across to the opposite side of the cockpit to the middle crew member. Since there will often be quite a load on the sheet (sail on one end and crew on the other), there is a reinforcing block supporting the inwale and cleat.










Another application of this cleat style is on the breast hook of the bateau Huckleberry. This bateau is light, so a wood cleat will work fine in this location. Since the forward cleats on a boat will occasionally be used to tow the boat, a wooden cleat should be made of a hard, weather resistant wood. In this case, though, it is made of the same mahogany and mounted with two through bolts.









The last example is a jamb cleat, used for tying off a line that requires quick release. The line, most likely a sheet, is lead around aft of the cleat and secured by a full wrap. One quick "rodeo roper" motion releases the line.


All featured wood hardware were cut, carved, shaped and sanded individually without jigs or specialty tools.


A hand carved piece of jewelry for your beautiful wood boat!