Wind and Oar Boat School

It's been a while since we had an update on the activities at the Wind and Oar Boat School in Portland, Oregon. Recently, Peter Crim, founder and executive director set me a note outlining last summer's activities:

"At one point in July, I had four boats under construction at the same time, the Vivier Ebihen 16 and three Bevin Skiffs. I had six instructors and was running between all of the builds almost daily. The final launch was October 5 with the Ebihen and the SEI Bevin, built with sophomores at Jefferson H. S. It was another beautiful day for a launch, although the winds were rather light. The staff (myself and two instructors) took the Ebihen out for another sail on Friday, 11/22, and made up for the lack of wind. It was blowing 28-34 and we really tested the rig, which performed great."

"The class that built the Ebihen turned out to be terrific. It took them thirteen weeks, plus one for fitting out, to have it ready for the show we put on in Pioneer Courthouse Square on Oct. 3. After the launch, we spent another three weeks fine tuning, without the kids. The funding source for the project was Worksystems Inc. and they were really excited about the outcome. Most kids said this project was why they got up in the morning. Here's a video taken at the mid point and at the final events:"

About the same time, Jennifer Anderson of the Portland Tribune wrote an excellent article entitled "Unsinkable Skills" , outlining Wind and Oar's mission.

In July, five of the original "Rosies", builders of the first Wind and Oar boat, traveled to Scotland to participate in the Skiffie Worlds competition with sixty St Ayles Skiffs. By all accounts they had a great time. Who won't?! Wish I'd been there myself.

For your enjoyment, here are a few shots of the  Vivier Ebihen 16 under sail. Thank you, Peter!

Depoe Bay Boat Show and Crab Feed 2013

Doryman just got back from this year's Depoe Bay Wooden Boat Show and Crab Feed. Being one of the first local shows of the season, the question on everyone's mind is the weather. The participants and visitors to this annual April event are true coastal denizens who know to bring layers of clothing and be prepared for everything from sun to hail to snow.

This year, the weather gods smiled on Depoe Bay and though we felt a few sprinkles, the sun peeked out from behind scattered clouds often enough to keep spirits high. The harbor is a tiny hole in the rocks named for old Chief Depoe, who welcomed white settlers here in the late 1800's. The once thriving commercial fishery has been reduced, but a lively charter service thrives on the local bottom fishery and whale watching. There's a lot of pride in this little coastal town and the residents pull out the stops to welcome guests with fresh cooked crab and amateur boat builders come from all around to show their craft and get caught up with gossip after a long, wet winter.

As for gossip, Doryman often gets so consumed with visiting, he almost forgets to take pictures to share with all of you. So here are a few, though to see all the boats, you'll have to stop in next year yourself. You won't be disappointed, I guarantee it. Don't forget your raincoat and sunscreen!

Wind and Oar Boat School

In Portland, Oregon there is a new wooden boat building school. The Wind and Oar Boat School is not-for-profit and community oriented. At present the school is in the middle of it's first build. The St Ayles Skiff is the boat and it is being constructed by a team of women who have never built a boat before.









I've told you about this group previously. At that time, the school was awaiting approval of it's application for non-profit status.





Now it's official and the Wind and Oar Boat School is on it's way.





Founder, Peter Crim keeps us up to date:


"The molds are all mounted and aligned using the string through the alignment holes method. The stem supports are attached. We are scraping and sanding excess epoxy from the frames we glued last Saturday so they can be mounted back on the molds."





"We built a scarfing jig for the keelson and we have a rough cut done on the first scarf. Students practiced planing yesterday on a piece of plywood.
The goal is to be planking by next Saturday."








"There's talk of a second women's boat and ADX has offered the location for it. We might start that one in August and with a youth boat build in September at OMSI, we could have a fleet by next June."







"A friend of Kelley Roy's [co-owner of ADX] has a partially finished river dory that's been sitting for many years at another community shop space and that she would like finished. Kelley has offered ADX for the project and there are people interested in working on that so we may make a boat shop of it yet."




Photos courtesy of Jann Lane.





In a recent conversation with Garner Pickering I learned that there are currently five St. Ayles Skiffs being built in the US.
Garner is the Marine Products manager at Hewes & Co., the producers of the boat kits for the entire United States.
Four more kits are on order.

Hewes & Co. are located in Blue Hill, Maine and they have arranged for Brandon Davis at Turn Point Design in Port Townsend, Washington to cut kits for interested parties on the west coast. If you'd like to get in on the action contact Garner Pickering, gardner@hewesco.com.

So far all but one of these boats are in Maine. Each of the boats in Maine is built by high school students although one of the kits on order is for an elementary school! Three St Ayles Skiffs are very close to being finished. Mt. Dessert Island High School, George Stevens Academy and Sumner High School are in a dead heat to be the first St. Ayles to be launched in the United States and are supported by WoodenBoat's BARC program.

We will keep abreast of developments concerning the splash of each new St Ayles in the US.

Stay tuned!
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The St Ayles Project comes to Portland

Here's a homework assignment for you. If you haven't been following the progress of the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project you have a lot to catch up on.

The concept of building the St Ayles skiff as a community effort is best described as an epidemic. If you have the time, please follow the links here and here to see what I mean.







The Scottish Coastal Rowing Project was adopted last year by WoodenBoat magazine with a new west Atlantic project called BARC or "Boat Building and Rowing Challenge".







Now - if you haven't drowned in internet links - behold, the newest St Ayles skiff - built in Portland Oregon!





One third of the globe away from it's birth, this project has incubated into an enthusiastic community project.

Peter Crim is the spark plug for this effort and it was my pleasure last winter to host him and some friends at our local Boathouse Youth Maritime Project to talk about the St. Ayles skiff and community boat building.
















Mary and I visited the St. Ayles Project in Portland last weekend and we were mightily impressed. This project is unique in that it is the first St Ayles built entirely by women. The crew, recruited by Jann Lane is possibly the most enthusiastic group of boatbuilders I have ever encountered.

The pre-cut kits come from Hewes and Company in the US, on contract through Alec Jordan in the UK.
I've never built a boat from a kit cut on a CNC machine but the advantages are obvious. Every piece necessary to build this boat comes precision pre-cut, including wooden clamps, framing molds and plank scarf joints.







The teachers of this build are volunteers trained at the WoodenBoat School. If you want to learn to build a boat, how much better can it get?








I asked Peter how he got to this point and it was an interesting story:

"The idea for a school has developed over a six-year period. It started with a concept for a gap year school where students would live aboard a large sailing vessel for about nine months and they would learn everything from diesel maintenance to marlinspike seamanship, including biology, ecology, literature, ship repair and building a small gig. I did a lot of research on other similar programs but somehow it just didn't seem right at the time and it was probably fortunate that I didn't go there, given subsequent economic developments."

"My long-term goal was to go to the WoodenBoat School in Maine. In June of 2010, I called WB on a Thursday and by Saturday I was on a plane east. The first class was a two week course in small boat repair where we did major fixes on a Beetle Cat, a Herreshoff 12.5 and a Joel White Haven 12.5. I then took one week off and hung around various other classes. It happened to be a week in which Iain Oughtred was in residence so I spent a bit of time with him - a truly amazing and unique person."


"The next class was a design class taught by Graham Byrnes, who had just been awarded a prize for best design in WoodenBoat Magazine's design contest. It was in this class that I met Travis. He told me that he and his girlfriend were moving to Portland." [Travis is a volunteer teacher on this project. ed.]

"By the time I was done, I had become a friend with most of Brooklin, ME and the people at WoodenBoat. The atmosphere they create is transformational and watching week after week of students metamorphose from anxious city folk into a community of like minded maritime aficionados was inspiring."



It is obvious that Peter is interested in re-creating this transformational experience in his hometown. He has partnered with a new design studio, termed ADX, for space to build the St Ayles and the women are hard at work.

Doryman will be anxiously following this project and keep you posted.

I can't express how excited I am about this process and it's intrinsic impact. Anyone who has taught a group of former neophytes to realize their potential as boat builders will understand the satisfaction of witnessing the transformation. Imagine the impact of such community building on a global scale!?



The design space ADX Portland deserves mention. This is a private enterprise that promotes creative individual exploration.

New kids on the block, they have set up shop area for metal shop activities, a wood shop and a digital media station. The focus is on creative construction and teaching with an emphasis on design creativity, coupled with production.
Imagine a shop class for geeks.
There is no hype here. I felt perfectly at ease while visiting ADX. No one tried to sell me anything, yet I bought the whole truck load.




People in the Portland, Oregon area owe it to themselves to visit the old warehouse at 417 SE 11th Avenue.


Please tell them Doryman sent you.

St Ayles Skiff in Portland, Oregon from doryman on Vimeo.

If you are interested in how well these skiffs perform in heavy weather, visit the Scottish Coastal Rowing site for photos of last weekend's Regatta at Anstruther. Racing in force 4-5 winds!
Those skiffs are truly amazing ocean boats.
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Depoe Bay Crab Feed and Boat Show

On the central Oregon coast it can rain all year 'round. Sun breaks are most holy. If the rain stops for five minutes, everyone comes out. Where are they hiding?

The small coastal community of Depoe Bay, Oregon sponsors a Crab Feed/Boat Show in April which is amazingly popular, considering you might have to wear thermal underwear with rain gear as a top layer.

By Sunday you will shed the rain gear and umbrellas, guaranteed.

Friday we experienced a thirty-knot, on-shore Pacific storm. Saturday morning the early morning mist still remained. As a result, many of the small wooden boats which had been registered to be displayed on the water this weekend, remained on their trailers in the parking lot adjacent to the boat basin. You might notice, this did not dissuade visitors from enjoying the festivities.

Frequent visitors here on DoryMan will recognize the boat building display tent from previous years. This year Boatguy and DoryMan are installing steam bent oak frames to the round-bottomed pram they planked last year, at this same show.

The design for this eight foot, round bottom pram comes from Geoffrey Prout. It is specified to be planked in solid wood, but in this case 1/4" mahogany plywood is used. The frames are set at six inch intervals and they are milled from oak. They are riveted, buy hand, to the hull with copper rivets and roves.

The guide hole for the rivet must be drilled at the plank lap, with a shallow countersink for the rivet head. The rivet is driven from the outside of the plank, then the rove is slipped over the rivet, on the inside of the hull. The rivet is cut off about 1/8th inch from the inside of the plank, then peened-over with a ball-peen hammer. The peened rivet must be hammered into a tight, mushroom-headed shape, to capture the rove and pull the two planks together.

All of this must be done while the frame is flexible from being steamed for about half an hour. The time required to render the frame supple enough to bend in the shape desired depends on the dimensions of the frame. In this case, they measure 3/8"x3/4".

Steam Bending Oak Frames to a Round Bottom Pram from doryman on Vimeo.

Saturday is captured and stored on Flickr, just for you.



Please, Enjoy!
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