A Fall Float Down the Yaquina River

Saturday last was the date set for the annual fall Yaquina River float. For Doryman, this been a Halloween tradition for eight years, on this beautiful coastal Oregon river. For others, (all comers welcome) it depends on the weather.

This year, the prognosticators said a big Pacific front was coming in and there would be rain, wind and more rain. Those of us who live on the coast tend to take the forecasts with a grain of salt. The most reliable prediction method is to look out the window.

The crowd was small and dedicated. As you can see in the photos, everyone was dressed for the worst. Which, of course meant that we were over dressed for a delightfully warm and mostly sunny day. Sorry those slackers less dedicated missed it.

This was the first time on the water for the completed Doryman Melonseed. I've christened her Aria. We left the sailing gear at home and loaded up the oars for the trial run. My good friend Jim Ballou dropped by the Doryman boatyard early Saturday with a smart little skiff needing some attention so, for the river run, he didn't have a ride of his own.

It was an excellent opportunity to see how the melonseed performed with a payload. Jim and I shifted our weight around to test for stability and I'm happy to say the melonseed is a wonderful little boat. She rows like a dream, can't wait to set up a sail rig and see how she flies.....

,

Bob, deep in conversation with Chuck and Shalline:

Jim taking it easy while Michael does all the work. (Just teasing you, Jim.)


Thanks to Shalline for the photos of Aria.





And a short video of Jim R, with Lucy the Dog, in the Lazy Duck skiff. Commentary by Jim B.


Fall 2013 on the Yaquina River from doryman on Vimeo.

If you haven't had enough, here's the rest of the pictures.

Doryman's Melonseed

The Melonseed hull is roughed out.

Patience is not a Doryman virtue, so waiting for glue to dry is a real challenge (or is it a cliche?)

The build continues on Flickr:
(photos will be posted there throughout this project).

Doryman's Melonseed

This winter's indoor project is a Melonseed Skiff, an adaptation of an old hunting design from the Delaware River Basin, on the eastern seaboard of the US.

One of the first modern reproductions of this 1880's New Jersey gunning skiff was drawn by Howard Chapelle. The design proved to be a favorite daysailer and has been praised by contemporary sailors as a responsive sailing performer, handy under oars, and just plain beautiful.

Today there are many techniques that can be applied to building these fine boats; stitch and glue, clinker (lapstrake), strip plank, cold-molding, and traditional carvel cedar planks.




This boat will have seven planks, a combination that, to my knowledge, has not been done before. The bottom is a flat wherry keel, symmetrically double-ended and about a foot wide amidships. The next plank is wide and brings the hull up to the waterline. The wherry bottom and the garboard planks will be joined with a flush-matched chine.
The topsides are comprised of two planks which will be lapped, clinker style. The finished boat will be half-decked, because with less than a foot of freeboard, there is a risk of swamping under sail. This low, sweeping shear profile is one of the Melonseed's most attractive features.







The most common sail rig found on a modern Melonseed is a simple sprit-boom, stepped far forward. Because many of these boats are approximately 13.5 feet long, the sail is small. The rig is designed to strike and stow in the boat for rowing and duck hunting.




To adapt this boat for gunkholing or a RAID, I have lengthened it two feet and maintained the same proportions. The resulting boat is perhaps 40% larger than a Jersey Skiff of the 19th century. Every effort will be employed to keep this larger boat from becoming too heavy for one person to row. The hull is planked with 6mm marine plywood and shaped with a minimum of bulkheads. Lightweight spruce stringers will back the plank seams or laps as necessary.

The sail rig as shown in the plan employs a gaff yard with a boom. It is considerably larger than the old duck boats and should power this racy centerboarder like a thoroughbred. There are many rigging options for this little skiff, so this design may change. But the hull is already underway, so there is no turning back now.



Work is progressing slowly since the temperature outside (and on the back porch too) is above freezing only four hours a day. This is unusual for our northern Pacific coastal climate so I expect daytime temperatures to rise soon, when the rains come back. Still, it takes days for glue to dry and the sun sets way too early. Looking out the window at three in the afternoon, I could tell the sun was already near the horizon by it's low reflection on the alder trees in the backyard.






I'll keep plugging away and posting photos to my Flickr site when there is any significant progress, hopefully once a week.



Please stay tuned.....