Category Archives: Wooden Boat Construction
Building a Strip Kayak
By Alan Bergen
Before jumping into building a strip kayak, I wanted to find out all I could about the process. To begin, I read the book Kayakcraft: Fine Woodstrip Kayak Construction by Ted Moores cover-to-cover and referred to it frequently during construction.
LULU, the Biggest, Baddest Trailer Sailer
A home-built water-ballasted trailer sailer
By Brad C. Frederick
I’ve always wondered if LuLu wasn’t the largest trailer sailer on record. I’ve been sailing this 35′, self-designed and homebuilt trailerable sailer since launching her out of Morro Bay, California in 2010. I laid the keel in 1993 after three years of testing on a half-scale model I’d built. Her construction consists of ¾” planks bent over bulkheads on a strongback and closely fitted, layered joints held together with a lot of West System® Epoxy. I also used West System® when I sheathed her with fiberglass. Continue reading
Oh, the Places You’ll Go…
in a Wooden Boat
By Greg Hatten
I was anxious the first time I took my handcrafted McKenzie-style drift boat to The Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend, Washington. Realizing that boat builders and woodworkers with discerning eyes would be inspecting the construction details of my boat over the course of four days was almost reason enough for me to create a “change of plans” and not go. Continue reading
River Hornet
A MiniMax Hydroplane
By Jeffrey Carpenter
Cover Photo: Joshua and his Minimax Hydroplane
In late 2018, my son and I were given a unique opportunity by the Michigan-based Water Wonderland Chapter of the Antique and Classic Boat Society (ACBS) to build an 8′ MiniMax hydroplane based on original plans from the early 1960s. Almost anything from that era seems to be popular again. Maybe it’s nostalgia or maybe the designs of that groundbreaking decade were just ahead of their time. Either way, the MiniMax’s appeal seems as relevant today as it did in 1962. We accepted the challenge without hesitation. Continue reading
Morning Sun
A Workstar 17
By Chris Smith
Small communities benefit when local groups work together to produce results greater than the sum of their individual efforts. Three organizations combined their efforts to create such synergy in a coastal county on Lake Huron. The Iosco County Family Court, local Elks Lodge 2525 and Heritage Coast Sailing and Rowing (HCS&R) combined efforts to develop a positive training program for youthful offenders and provide a staunch safety boat for the new not-for-profit sailing school. Continue reading
ITALMAS Revisited
In Epoxyworks 47 we featured an article on the construction of Italmas. Today she’s nearly complete, and true to reputation, Van Dam Custom Boatworks never disappoints. Here are a few photos of the boat showing off some of the craftsmanship Van Dam is famous for. Continue reading
Building a Jericho Bay Lobster Skiff
By Brian Donaldson
Over the past three winters, the boatbuilding crew of the Saginaw Bay Community Sailing Association (SBCSA) strip-built a Jericho Bay lobster skiff. They used the plans from WoodenBoat magazine, which master boatbuilder Tom Hill measured from a Joel White-designed boat. More than twenty people have worked on the skiff. Continue reading
Chris Craft Baby Runabout
by Daniel Laeyendecker
I designed this project by scaling down a Chris Craft runabout from pictures I found online.
Hull and Drive Assembly
I started with five rib frames and a center beam temporarily mounted upside-down on a workbench. I glued and stapled the ¼” x ¾” bead-and-cove pine strips to the ribs. Once all the strips were installed, I removed the staples and sanded the hull smooth for the heat-activated 2″ mahogany strips I’d apply later.
The Joy of Six10
For Teak Gunwales on Prototype Clam Girl
By Hugh Horton
Meade Gougeon was excited in 2008. “I’m using Six10 for everything!” he said. He was working on his sailing canoe in Florida. In every phone conversation we had, he seemed to find a new use for Six10, “… even for composite layups because of its ‘shear thinning’,” a phrase new to me.
In May of 2018, a perfect application came along for Six10—the teak gunwales capping the plywood endgrain on my prototype Clam Girl.