Boat Builders 2009

03/ 26/ 09

Today we put the bottom planking on our boat. First we made the bottom planks by using a planer to cut them to the same thickness. Then we used a hand planer to cut off a corner of the board to make a spot to put the cotton in. The cotton is used for waterproofing and put between the boards.  That’s how you make the bottom planks or floorboards. After that we put the first planks on the bottom of the hull.  We start by putting 5200 (a very sticky glue) on the two sideboards (or garboard strakes). Then we put a string-like strip of cotton in the 5200. Once we do that, we put the bottom planks on and screw them in. After that we cut the excess wood off that hangs over the edges of the garboards. Then we repeat on the next boards.  This has been lots of hard work and lots of fun.  Mr. Ansel is very nice and he is also a good boat builder.

Sean

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The first boat, which we built from a kit made at Mystic Seaport by Mr. Ansel’s son, is nearly complete. We have to put a coat of finish paint on the outside and apply a coat of varnish on the interior. The order of which we put the boat together was:

1.    We attached the garboard strakes (a strake is one of the boards that run fore and aft on the sides of a boat, the garboard strake being the lower strake) to the transoms (the boards across the ends) with 5200 (a sealing compound) and screws then planed down the bottoms of the garboard strakes with a jack plane to the edge of the mold and transom.

2.    We attached the bottom boards to the bottoms of the garboard strakes with 5200 and screws.

3.    We caulked the cracks between the boards with cotton. Then we puttied the screw holes and applied a coat of primer on the bottom.

4.    We attached the keel to the bottom with screws and gave it a coat of primer.

5.    We then flipped the boat over and attached the sheer strakes above the garboard strakes to the transoms with 5200 and screws.

6.    We riveted the sheer strakes to the garboard strakes with slaters nails and roves. All slaters nails have a star on them from when they’re pressed from the piece of wire they started out as. We drilled holes then drove the nails through both the strakes. Then we drove the roves on tightly with a bucking iron against the nail head and clipped the nail tip close to the rove. Then we mushroomed the nail over the rove with a ball peen hammer.

7.    We fitted the frames and attached them with screws.

8.    We attached the thwart risers and thwarts with screws.

9.    We bent the rub rail, which is the piece that’s supposed to hit the dock first, around the top edge of the sheer strake and fastened it with screws.

10.    We shaped the oarlock pads out of blocks of wood with a band saw and attached them to the top of the sheer strakes.

11.    Finally, we sanded the pencil and marker marks off the inside of the boat.

Right now we are working on the second boat and saving the other boat to catch up to it. We’re having a great time and I wish everybody had the chance to do what we’re doing with the amazing Wil Ansel.

Zeb

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Today we put the ore locks on and erased the marks on the sides of the boat. We were erasing the marks off the boat with a sander, until we decided to use an eraser, it worked perfectly. Then we primed the boat. We didn’t paint the inside of the boat. We did this because we were going to oil the inside. After that we put putty in the screw head holes and the spaces between the bottom planks and the side boards.

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This blog is following the production of a boat made by six students from Georgetown Central School. Mr. Ansel was kind enough to offer us this unique opportunity. They started this project on Feb. 28, 2009 and plan to end sometime in April. The blog will be everything from the story of finding the design to all the steps of making them.

One day Will was walking along the docks and found a lovely white boat. He knew that he was in charge of building a boat with six Georgetown students and didn’t yet know what to do. When he saw the boat bobbing in the water, he knew HE wanted to build that boat. He inquired about the boat, and found that the person who built and designed her was his very own son, Walter. He and his son talked about getting the designs, and what would be done with them, and soon he had it.

Walter was suppose to teach a class in mystic about boat building, and wanted them to build his boat, so he had everything set up. When no one showed up he was probably pretty upset, but chose to give everything to his father. So, it was decided. This year the six boat builders were going to make two boats. One from a set, and one from scratch.
Isabella
Feb. 28: The first day
The plan was to get the bottom done and to flip her over. What really happened was about an hour long lecture from our two teacher chaperones, twenty minutes of tool safety lessons, and ten minutes of going over the boat and what we needed to do. I didn’t sweat it because we still had four hours and thirty minutes left! What I hadn’t realized was how long it would take just to get the bottom on! First we had to bend these two boards onto the mold. Those became the garboards. Then we had to plane down the boards. And even laying planks was hard work! Every plank was 5200, string, cotton, repeat 100 times!!! Ok, not true, but it was hard work. And we had to literally cut each one down to size. That took the whole day. Tomorrow we’d have to do a lot more work.

Isabella

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For the third year running Georgetown Central School is working with local boat builder, Wil Ansel to create a wooden boat.  Once completed the boat will be ceremoniously launched and then raffled off over the summer.  The funds generated by the raffle go toward supplies for future boat building projects, making this a self sustaining/regenerating affair.

This year we get to build two boats.  Wil Ansel’s son, Walter, is also a boat builder at the Mystic Seaport in Connecticut.  He had already cut out the pieces for a twelve foot Snub Nosed Rowing Skiff of his own design, and very kindly offered to send this “kit” up to Maine for us to build.  So, we all thought it would be a great experience to build the kit first and hone our skills before tackling the same task from scratch.

There are six students working on this project.  Each child wrote an essay explaining why they should be chosen for the group, and we chose them!  The two teachers working with the group are myself (Mr. Kovacs), and Ms. Ayers (we did not have to write essays!).  Bob Trebona is a very active community member who is also donating a great amount of time and effort to the project.

We spent two full days working on the kit in the hopes of completing it quickly.  This was an ambitious plan that in the end did not come to fruition.  We were moving right along and were ready to screw in the final bottom plank.  This is called the “shutter plank” presumably because it is the plank that seals the bottom of the boat shut.  Wil was saying this plank should fit snugly and even shared an anecdote about a Portuguese friend who demanded that all shutter planks should have to be pounded in by a hammer.  With this image fresh in our minds, we began to bang the thing in with Wil’s beautifully worn live-oak mallet.  As the plank sank into position, Bob gave it a final thwack and watched in horror as the Garboard Strake (the bottom-most side plank) split in a jagged line from one side to the other.

We took an early lunch break…

Bob and Wil hatched a plan to patch the hull which worked quite well.  As of today, the bottom is planked and the keel is in place (a fine strip of white oak).  All six of the side supports are in place and will be fastened with brass screws today.  The strutcture should be completed after today’s work session or next Tuesday’s.  It is a great lesson to have the hull crack and then to figure out a way to repair it.  Wil is worried about the look of the repaired boat being offensive to the eye of any real nautical architect, but I think it’s cool.  The patch is like a scar, and scars tell stories.  Our boat has an interesting story and it’s not even built yet!  I will definitely be purchasing a few raffle tickets for this one!

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