Stephens, Waring & White Yacht Design of Brooklin, Maine, designed Zogo to meet their clients’ concern for treading lightly on their environment. Her owners are longtime summer residents of Stonington, Maine who enjoy low-impact kayaking and rowing around the pristine islands of Merchants Row. They wanted a quiet powerboat with a low carbon footprint to reflect their respect for the waters around Stonington. Continue reading
Above: Students of the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building and the recently built Caledonia Yawl.
Students of the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building in Port Townsend, Washington, recently built the Caledonia Yawl, an Ian Oughtred design. The boat was commissioned by the Four Winds Camp on Orcas Island in Puget Sound and is the second one the school has built for them. Instructor Bruce Batchely believes this is the best built boat to come out of the shop so far. They modified the boat to suit the camp’s need for buoyancy and storage and made the spars hollow to keep the rig light. Continue reading
Cover Photo: Top image – First GBI crew building GOLDEN DAZY in the early ’70s. Bottom image – The Gougeon Brothers, Inc. team in 2008.
2009 was the 40th Anniversary of Gougeon Brothers, Inc. 1969 marked a point in the Gougeon brothers’ careers when they applied all they had learned about wooden structures and epoxy technology to manufacture, for the first time, a product utilizing wood/epoxy composite construction. The full story of Gougeon Brothers, Inc. begins long before that date and is sure to continue well into the next 40 years.
Above: The varnished interior of my Arch Davis Sand Dollar has 10 to 12 coats of Captain’s
Spar Varnish™ over the 105/207 epoxy coated surfaces.
The Arch Davids Sand Dollar is designed as a row-able sailboat but, since my father, brother, and I have about a dozen sail and powerboats between us, mine would be a rowboat only. This meant I didn’t need to build a centerboard and trunk, a rudder, or a mast. The seats, bow deck, and gunwales are made of mahogany with Sitka accents. The lightweight Sand Dollar and its trailer tow easily behind a motorcycle. The interior wood was left natural—seats, bow deck and gunwales are mahogany with Sitka accents. The hull is painted with House of Color™ Midnight Blue Pearl. Continue reading
There is a simple way for those of us who may be “artistically challenged” to produce easy marquetry inlaid furniture, jewelry boxes, canoe decks, trays, etc. with a modest investment in equipment and materials, in a reasonable period of time, and with eye-pleasing results. I have no formal training in making marquetry inlays but have found a method that works for me. I showed this method to a friend who is a shop teacher; he now has students as young as ten incorporating it into their school projects with excellent results. My method is adaptable, user-friendly within limits, and forgiving of minor cutting errors. Even novices can produce great-looking marquetry. Continue reading
Above: At the Small Craft Builders Rendezvous, both wood/epoxy and traditionally built canoes and kayaks were on display.
In July 2008 I attended the Small Craft Builders’ Rendezvous in Peterborough, Ontario at the invitation of Ted Moores and Joan Barrett. Their company, Bear Mountain Boats, was one of the sponsors of the gathering which included modern wood and epoxy constructed boats as well as traditionally built wooden canoes. Those attending ranged from professional builders to serious amateurs. Continue reading
Above: At Bates Technical College, their vacuum infusion project is still in the tooling stages. Student Shawn Hanna fairs the hull plug—a labor-intensive job and a tough one to get the students to focus on.
Boatbuilding instructor Chuck Graydon of Bates Technical College sent these photos of some projects that its students have been working on using WEST SYSTEM® Epoxy.
Bates Technical College is located in Tacoma, Washington. They offer several boatbuilding and repair programs designed to prepare students for apprentice-level employment in the boat building industry and ultimately fill positions in shipyards, marinas, and private boat building companies. Continue reading
Above: One reason people build boats is that they give you the opportunity to find beauty in otherwise inaccessible places. Paddlers in a 16′ Prospector check out an amazing faulted rock formation in northwestern Quebec, September 2008. Continue reading
Above: A pair of Chesapeake 16 kayaks built by Chris Jacobson.
Cover Photo: Paddling the south shore of Ontario’s Lake of Two Rivers and into Pog Lake.
It all began when we went camping in Algonquin Park in 2005. We rented a couple of plastic kayaks and the kids loved it. We came home with the intention of buying a couple of kayaks but while on the internet we saw these stitch and glue make’m yourself boats. I purchased the books “The New Kayak Shop” and “Kayaks You Can Build. ”
Above: Meade fixes his broken spinnaker pole with a blend of WEST SYSTEM 105 Epoxy and fast curing G/5 Five-Minute Adhesive.
Adagio, our 35′ trimaran, was already off to a bad start in the 100th anniversary of the first running of the Chicago to Mackinaw race with an over-early call by the race committee. Everything went downhill from there when we had to deal with a broken spinnaker pole. Continue reading