Some Articles on My Boats

Recently two came out, one in Small Boats Monthly and the other on the brand new, UK-based Barnacle Bill. Small Boats covered the Calendar Islands Yawl and Barnacle Bill had a piece by a customer in the UK who has built and avidly rows a Drake 17.

http://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/calendar-islands-yawl/

A Calendar Islands Yawl based in Duluth, MN

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http://www.joomag.com/mag/0021558001447415734

The orogonal Drake 17 rowed by me in one of the Small Reach Regattas

Sorry these may not show much unless you have a subscription. Believe it or not I dont read much boats stuff....but these are very well worth he money. Both rags will require good contact and readership. So far the writing is excellent!

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Back to business boat kits and complete boats

First off, I am now in 100% complete control of my Gmail account again. Someone in Egypt hacked in because I was not careful enough about protecting my password. Upgrade passwords and never have it on email anywhere! Learn from my mistakes. My email, boatkits@gmail.com, is completely safe, now.

Pictured is a recent boat kit heading out of the shop...CNC (computer numerically control) precut plywood kit and a timber kit. The pieces of mailing tubes over the ends of the long parts protect the precut scarf joints while the kit is shipped (this one a kit to Durango, CO).

Back to business and to pick up from the last few posts, I want to share a PDF and link to my webpage about how my kits are produced, why it makes more sense to built boats out of my catalog from kits or full size patterns, and the general idea regarding the economics of boat kits (i.e., why the extra cost of a boat kit is smaller than many think) will come next time.

http://www.clintchaseboatbuilder.com/CNC.html

My pitch for building from boat kits PDF (Google Docs)

In a nutshell, boats designed in the computer are actually drawn full size already to a higher degree of precision (thousandths of an inch) than on the lofting full size by hand (1/16ths of an inch). The difference is that a planks can be precut in advance, glued together with a precut scarf, and bent around bulkheads, hitting every mark on the spot. Interior components and the building jig itself are drawn into the computer model to exactly fit the boat. Therefore, to take a computer aided drafted (CAD) boat and loft it by hand introduces natural errors that were carefully avoided in the CAD process.

Because the parts can all be predetermined off the computer model, they can be nested onto fewer sheets of plywood than a manually (scratch-built) boat can be done. Also, it avoids cutting mistakes which often requires buying extra wood. This offsets the extra cost of a kit and wastes less wood.

The time it takes to manually cut parts to a boat, if you look at it in a hourly rate kind of way, would also offset any remaining difference in cost between building from scratch versus building from precut parts in a kit.

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Rowing boats

"Form follows function" was the guiding principal behind the modernist movement as practised by the great designers and architects of the early 20th century.

But the fact is that traditional boat builders had understood that principal for centuries and it was perhaps reflected best in rowing craft which had to be fast, easily driven, carry a heavy load while at the same time be safe and stable.

Above is a delightful boat from the English west country, you can look at those lines and know she will run cleanly through the water, yet shes able enough for the sometimes choppy waters of the estuary where she was built to work.

Closer to home this slightly neglected yacht tender resembles a local punt or working boat; stable and designed to carry a heavy load.

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Three Bolger boats under construction at once

Here are a couple of photos showing three Phil Bolger-designed boats under construction in our old shed, all at the one time (there were three other boats being built as well!) To paraphrase somebody else, "I can remember doing it, but I cant remember how!"

The boats in the photo are two of Phils Hope design (see last posting) and a Harbinger. Phil Bolger has often been associated with what some people call "Bolger Boxes". Well, the boxes are works of art in their own right, and demonstrate a rare understanding of hydrodynamics, allied with the application of common sense - but none of the three boats shown here could be called boxy!

Two examples of Hope (foreground and upper-left) and one example of Harbinger (upper right)

Here you can see the wooden pattern I made to allow for the casting of a bronze "Y" shaped propeller strut.

The shapely bow of one of the Hope designs in slings. The cuddy-cabin design was mine, as was the clinker construction plan - but Phil Bolger was consulted in writing and approved of the alterations.

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How good are small boats

My three sons (one of whom built his first boat at thirteen, and a lapstrake sailing dinghy at age fourteen) seem to have picked up one of my bad characteristics - that is, having too many interests.

The boatbuilding boy is obsessed with sailing, model aircraft, engines, quality cars, and full-sized gliding. He recently confided in me that he had plenty of other potential hobbies, but time and space have already become critical. Welcome to life, I say!

Recently he and I went for a really good day of sailing in his recently-acquired-but-very-old Jack Holt-designed Lazy E (a.k.a. National E). We experienced 20 to 25 knot conditions, and had to work very hard indeed to keep the old boat on her feet. But what a ride we had! Lots of trapeze work, and lots of planing. At one stage as we were planing on a reach, my boy yelled from the tiller that if Green Island hadnt been in the way, we would have had to keep going to New Zealand, because it was too much fun to change tacks.

This reminded me once again just how much satisfaction you can get from sailing dinghies (dinghys? - I dont know how to spell it...). The interesting thing was that when I questioned this young man about which activity he would keep doing, if only one was allowed, he was emphatic in saying it would have to be sailing. This is despite the obvious attraction of the aviation and mechanical interests.

I have a theory that the human brain stores away the sounds, and sights of a days sailing, and that the beneficial effects last for weeks or months. It doesnt take much to keep me going, although more is always better.

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Share Boats lesson plans preschool

Boats lesson plans preschool illustration Boats lesson plans preschool Preschool Lesson Plans Preschool Daily Lesson Plan Template Preschool Theme Week: At the Seashore Basic Lesson Plan Preschool Template Row Row Row Your Boat Piano Letters

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