Ahoy...Boat Builders!

[Nate Carey]

Allan, the "keen eared" young person that you are is exactly who I was 40 years ago. Don't think too much about the things you want to do...just do them and don't look back.

[Mac McQuinn]

Guys,

I know you're all scavengers like me and with wooden boats in mind, I've recently discovered a new supplier for future projects. I was running to the Post Office one day last week and looked over at our local Habitat for Humanity "Restore" store down by the waterfront. There's always an overflowing of stuff fro sale from the store into the parking lot and what I saw caused me to make a U-turn and go back.

It was a production built wooden 19'? "Lightning" sailboat in very nice condition, Sitting on a trailer and appeared to only need some cleaning and a coat of paint on hull. Interior was well varnished and there appeared to be a set sails, full rigging and masts inside. I walked inside to get the scoop, $1500 was asking price and a family donated it due to lost storage. There's lots of older homes in the area with carriage houses this could have emerged from. My thoughts are this boat was very well maintained and built in the late 1950's or early 60's. The boat has since vanished although this week on the way to post office again, I looked over and saw a wooden lapstrake 16-17" Runabout, perhaps a Thompson or Chris-Craft. I need to check this out closer for price and condition although it looked nice on a roll and had a trailer under it.

So don't discount the out of the way locations for future boat building projects....


Mac

[Allan Froehlich]

Allan, the "keen eared" young person that you are is exactly who I was 40 years ago. Don't think too much about the things you want to do...just do them and don't look back.

Thanks for the advice.

My bulkhead patterns are all lined up on the strongback and I am tooking for some good lumber. Time to build a boat!

[Nate Carey]

Allan, take photos of your build and show them off (to us and others)! You've done good to start, now go forward slow and steady.

[Allan Froehlich]

Allan, take photos of your build and show them off (to us and others)! You've done good to start, now go forward slow and steady.

Time to cut some planks. Due to the nature of my shop and the available lumber, I am not going to use full-length strips. I'm trying to figure out the best way to join the planks end-to-end. I'll either do a finger joint, butt joint or use tiny wooden dowels.

If you think about using short planks, then you can create some interesting hull patterns.