The Last Two Saturdays

The last two Saturdays I traveled to Tulare to help continue the friendship building involved in building a wooden boat. Good friend Tim started us on this journey and Greg, Doug and I have been wandering along for a few years. Now that Tim is retired, he decided the boat should be finished in our lifetimes. The boat is a 13'8" Catspaw Dinghy for rowing or sailing. I don't have actual photos yet, but it looks surprisingly like the first picture.


From Pixdaus

The vertical pieces of wood will remain with the boat upon completion, but the horizontal pieces are used to form the vertical ribs and will not remain with the boat. These two Saturdays I helped place the first garboard plank and cut, steam mold and shape the second garboard plank into place for fastening. Garboard what? It is the first plank laid next to the keel, one on each side. This second picture has a few planks attached on each side, but you get the idea.


From the Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program website

What the pictures don't show is what it takes to get the cedar planks to fit tight and correctly, or to be "fair." Planks are not just standard sized lumber, but are shaped with a saw, beveled with saw and plane, then steamed and bent--in what seems to be about five different directions. Depending on where the plank is to go, it can be bowed and twisted after being steamed to help bend the wood to lay flat on the ribs.

It was a good day, and certainly beat looking at a computer monitor figuring grades.