I was asked by the people at Duck Flat Wooden Boats whether I would be interested in teaching at their Spring School. It is their first one for a few years and has the purpose of “getting people excited about boatbuilding”. I must admit that was pretty well how it went; serving as a highly productive wooden boat building school experience. Even with 12 different projects and sometimes up to 30 people milling around.
Wooden Boat Building School Projects and Progress
The projects were
- Two different CLC (Chesapeake Light Craft) Kayaks
- Four Iain Oughtred Clinker boats – Puffin, Fulmar, a pram and a Skerry Skiff.
- A couple of John Welsford’s designs a dory and a Jeanette.
- A Bolger Gypsy
- A Murray Isles Coorong Traveller
- and one of my OzRacers – The simplest, cheapest sailing, rowing, outboard boat
By the end of the week the CLC, Bolger and my PDR design all went together quite quickly with the boats very close to being ready to tidy up and paint.
All the builders made really significant progress with each of their boats, but from the point of view of the instructors. The Dory and the Jeanette required a lot more input compared to any of the others. The builders being confused by the plans. Not necessarily the fault of the plans. But we worked it all out eventually
The lag on the Jeanette was significantly reduced by instructor David Wilson who suggested on the morning of the second last day that the timber strakes that the chines be eliminated. Then the boat wired together stitch and glue style with a fibreglass tape run down the chine inside and out. Once skinned up in this way the Jeanette started to look like quite a nice little boat. Mike, the builder, will have lots of fun sailing her around the Lower Murray River.
Traditional Techniques at the Wooden Boat Building School
The Oughtred boats are more labour than the others but straighforward because of the step-by-step detail in the plan. A much more traditional type of construction, but the work was all straightforward with moulds set up and bevelled, stems laminated, patterns made for the planks and planks hung. Three out of the four boats were off the moulds and on the trailers at the end of our time. The builders all equipped with the methods to finish the boats at home. A great effort!!
