Thank you to those of you who shared a photo of your current project. Here they are to enjoy…—Eds
Our friend Dale Simonson writes:
We’ve now moved back to our hometown of Victoria, BC, so haven’t contributed much to this build for the last bits, but I got over to Vancouver the other day to check on progress. Down at the floating shed in front of the Vancouver Maritime Museum, members of the Oarlock and Sail Wooden Boat Club are in the later stages of an Ian Oughtred “Gannet” in glued ply with a gunter sloop rig. She’s shaping up beautifully and the crew can’t wait to get her out into the bay!
Reader Jim White writes:
The attached pictures are the beginning of a Bolger “Teal.”
Phil was one of my heroes. I suspect he won’t take offense at the minor changes I have made to keep the weight down. Eventually she will have a sprit rig to keep the mast length down, and probably a window in the sail as I sew from a kit.
I think I found this “love” in Small Craft Advisor.
Reader Ben Bierman is making good progess on his CLC Jimmy Skiff.
Paul Bargren checked in with this update on another CLC boat:
My current project is this 24' CLC Team Dory, underway at our volunteer shop, All Hands Boatworks in Milwaukee. High school kids come in twice a week for about two hours to work on it. Launch date is May 22. This photo shows today's "fairy work" by me and another adult volunteer: a coating of clear epoxy. Kids will pick up tomorrow with another clear coat, painting to follow. The inside is primed and ready for a final coat. It's a four-place rowing boat, with coxswain. We built one last year, so now we'll have two, to race. The All Hands summer camps use them in the summer. Other boats built by the shop are in the background.
Reader Denis Wang is closing in on the build of a lovely John Gardner Downeast workboat.
Paul Schupbach wrote to say he recently helped his grandson build a half-canoe bookshelf. Well done.
Reader Kitrick Nielson sent this note about completing his own intriguing design:
This is my most recent build- an 11'3" 700lbs displacement dinghy of my own design. 11' waterline. 5' beam. 90 sq ft of sail that gets reefed often. 11/32" ACX doug fir ply on fir stringers, ash spacered inwales, and some oak for the step/partner. Glass exterior below the waterline and epoxy under the paint down low. The goal was trailerless transportation as living in Las Vegas finds dirt roads that find Lake Mead and Lake Mohave at the bottom of a wash. My wife says it's her favorite boat I've built, but I suspect that's just to keep me from starting the next one.
Reader Art Hoban sent photos of a Oughtred Tirrik he hopes to lauch soon.
Started in March 2023. ANNA will hopefully splash in 2024. 16’ 10” LOA. 5’ 7” Beam. Balanced lug rig. 9’ 6” spruce oars.
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SCA readers build more than boats, of course. Douglas Heisler is improving his shop with an assembly table on wheels.
Speaking of building other stuff, remember our article on composting heads? Rich Green sent us this note with a few photos:
To buttress the idea of Diane’s Rose’s composting head is one I built for my daughter’s place over in the higher country. She wanted a different design so I made it round. Then I installed the composting bucket under a more conventional seating arrangement rescued from GoodWill. She’s used it for years now—a workable variation on the old school “bucket and chuck it” arrangements once used on vessels.
•SCA•
Love all the pics & stages of build & especially the "Bucket & Chuck it. Love it .Les.
Jim White (and others): A way to glass around the transition from keel to bow, such as you show in a couple of your photos, is to cut a strip of "bias tape" out of a sheet of FG cloth. I lay a 4 foot metal rule diagonally across the cloth (doesn't need to be perfectly at a 45 deg. angle), and use a razor knife to cut a strip of cloth about 3 or 4 inches wide. When you lay this strip along the transition from keel to stem, the diagonal glass threads allow you to get a perfectly smooth layup. A curious thing about this bias tape: if you pull it from the ends, it gets longer and narrower; if you pull it sideways, it gets wider and shorter. Works on interior curves also.
This saves you from having to cut slits or gores in the tape, and obviates any need to grind out unsightly lumps in the glass. It really works.