One of the great things about being at school is that you get to do things you never really thought you could do before. Here's a case in point. This student was given the job of building an oar for the 12 1/2. The oar is the boat's emergency backup in case the wind dies. He'd never made anything like that before. So, with an example or 2 of existing oars to guide him, and some help from the instructors, he set out to draw and shape an oar.
Just in case you've never really looked closely at an oar before, you'd be surprised at the subtle shape changes and curves in a good one.
After you've decided on a shape, you have to pattern it out on your stock and cut to your line.
At this stage, it looks pretty chunky.
Here you can see that the basic shape of the handle has been laid out and cut.
The stock is still square right now. Lines have been drawn on it to mark the center, as well as various widths where the oar widens and thins. A little hand-made gauge is used to mark the layout lines to turn this from a 4-sided shaft to an 8-sided one.
It's just like rounding a mast. We go from 4-sided, to 8-sided, to 16-sided, to 32-sided. From there, round is just a modest sanding away.
The 12 1/2 itself has been primed to a very nice robins-egg blue. That won't last. The topsides are going to be a deep blue when they're finished.
Inside the boat, it's all detail work now. These students are going through the wildly exciting task of puttying and smoothing any minor dings in the interior planking.
Oh yes, boat building is just as exciting as they say it is.
The transom has been varnished and the traveller installed now. That little string you see leading up to the right?
It's holding the traveller block up in the air so that it doesn't flop down into the nice varnish.
The Gar Wood's bright finished hull is a beautiful thing to look at, but bright finish means lots and lots of varnish. One quick way to build up the many coats you need for a boat like this is a technique called rolling and tipping.
One person rolls out the varnish using a foam roller
while the other follows right behind him lightly brushing out the varnish, a process called "tipping" because you're just using the tip of your brush to smooth it out.
Painters use this technique all the time. It evens out the paint and prevents the distinctive "orange peel" look you get from just rolling alone.
Inside the boat, the story is the same: build up the varnish.
The back deck is finished and stained.
It too is ready for a coat.
The flag staffs for the front and rear of the boat:
also shaped, stained, and ready for varnish.
All in all, this giant is looking sleeker every day.
(photo credit: Kyle Rectenwald)
The story is the same over at the Chris Craft: coats and coats of varnish.
Like the Gar Wood, this boat's a looker.
For the first year students, the word is: ceiling.
The ceiling and margin planks go up the side of the boat, inside the frames. If a boat were a house, you'd call the ceiling the the wall, and you'd call the margin the baseboard.
In a boat, you stand on the sole, and lean on the ceiling.
A few of the first years are working on their margins here.
The ceiling planks can be a little tricky. Like planks, they need to be spiled. Here you can see the spiling batten set up on the starboard (left in this picture) side of the sole.
Jen, the first year instructor, is helping out on one of the boats by de-splining a ceiling plank pattern onto some cedar stock.
Things tend to go a little quicker after you get your margin in properly. The ceiling planks don't have a ton of shape to them, so it's relatively easy to get a fair curve and a good fit.
The ceiling planks have to follow the curve of the boat, and this means springing them into place as you go. Sometimes it takes a little creativity to figure out ways to hold them in place while you check your placement and fasten them down.
Some of the boats have their pintles and gudgeons installed now. These are the metal parts that form the hinge that the rudder hangs on.
The pintle is a small pin the fits into the ring of the gudgeon. And today's fun fact: the word "pintle" comes from the Old English pintel, meaning diminutive penis.
You'll never get which is the pintle and which is the gudgeon mixed up now.
Upstairs, the lapstrake Lawley tender is in her final finishing stages. The rear sheets are getting coat after coat of varnish.
The center thwart support has been turned and installed now.
The hole in the sole just aft of the support is there to allow for bailing out the bilge by the way.
Other supports have been turned on the lathe and are getting their final sanding before being installed.
The original Lawley tender, the one that the lapstrake boat is modeled after, is getting spruced up as well. She's got a new coat of topsides paint, and is ready for bottom paint.