On old vices new media and timeless techniques

Chris Schwarz, owner of Lost Art Press and Editor-at-large of Popular Woodworking magazine, has a bit of a thing for leg vices. Though he calls them vises. Its a murican thing.
Last night after a lovely day out with our nephew in Greenwich I sent Chris a picture of the carpenters vice we saw on the Cutty Sark.
This morning its in a blog post on Popular Woodworkings website.
It used to take that vice weeks to cross the Atlantic, now its dashing back and forth shaking its unusual guide mechanism across the world.
Its such a bad picture Im not even going to post it here but he insisted on giving a credit. Its nice to be able to help someone from whom Ive learnt so much. I will, however post some photos of the ship. Which is amazing. I dont really like expensive restorations of rotting hulks that sit in dry dock and gather dust; boats should sail. The Cutty Sark exhibition is, however, astonishing. Not least because the boat seems to float over the heads of the people sitting in the cafe.
Its beautiful, educational and a masterpiece of engineering. Twice.
The restorers (or preservers I should say, since the ship wont work in its intended function) have tried to use a lot of the original material. Where they needed to add material theyve highlighted it. Original steel frames are white, new steel reinforcement is grey.  Its less obvious in the wood work. Much of the bright work is original and each restoration has added its own set of dutchmen, or patches, let in to the original, massive timbers. This has created a wonderful palimpsest that is testament to the longevity of our domestic hardwoods, the skill of the craftsmen and women who worked on the ship and the potential of wooden vessels to be maintained and repaired.
And that brings me back to the purpose of the blog: building a wooden boat. Little progress to report, Im afraid. Im building a bench at the moment. Chris Schwarz in one of his two (how much is there to say?) books on building workbenches says that a bench should have neither an apron nor a tool tray. Mine will have both. But then he also says "Disobey me!" so Ive taken him at his word. Im chopping mortices for the legs at the moment. Steve Branam has an excellent guide to building this bench, better even than Roy Underhills original description, so I wont be posting it here - its already done.

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Questions for the Old Man

I didnt expect myself to be talking to the old man, the designer himself, bouncing my dumb ideas off him and hearing the edge of concern in his voice.

I bought our Shantyboat plans from Glen-L Marine.  The company was started by and named after Glen L. Witt, a boat designer whos been designing boats for over 50 years.  When other boat designers needed to give people in-depth information about plywood boats or about fiberglass, they referred me to Glen Witts books on the subjects.  This is one of the reasons I went with the Glen-L plans.

From the 50s-era Glen-L Marine calendar.

Glen Witt is now retired in his 80s, and the company is run by his daughter Gayle.  When I emailed questions, Gayle herself personally and graciously answered them.  When I ordered stuff, it arrived quickly on my doorstep in good condition, exactly as described.  Okay, what more could I want, right?

This week, I had a question about materials needed to complete the Waterlodge plans.  I was on my way to the lumberyard, so I didnt have time to wait around for an email.  I called up Glen-L expecting to talk to some random employee.  Gayle answered the phone, and fielded my questions deftly, clearly familiar with this design, one of hundreds they offer.

I thought this might be an opportunity to get something off my mind.  Wed made changes to the design, and I really wanted to get the assurance of someone who knew better before we moved forward.  Wed messed up Glen Witts perfectly elegant design with the following changes:

• Reduced the size of the cabin by two feet to get a longer fore deck.
• Put a covered porch over the fore and aft decks
• Raised the cabin height by a foot to get more head room on the decks (and a sleeping loft in the cabin)
• Replaced the cabin roof with a gabled roof
• Added more and larger windows
• And proposed to build the cabin with board and batten for a traditional cabin-y look

Could Gayle answer these questions, or could she put some experienced boatbuilder on the phone to field my questions? Instead she said, "Well hold on, let me put Glen on the phone."

There was a little delay in which I had time to be a little star struck.   You mean the Glen L. whose plans Id been studying for a year?  Who wrote what appears to be the bible on plywood boats?  Was I really going to have to tell him how I was planning on ruining his perfectly good plans with my modifications?

An older man came on the phone, "Hello?"

I asked my questions to which most he replied, "Well, if you want to do that."  Though I expected something more like, "Good God, are you trying to be killed?"

But no, we talked about the height of the roof, in which his suggestion was to keep the weight low, and suggested that the "fair lines" of the boat were less important than the appearance I was looking for.  He had a concern about the weight of board and battens,. a concern which I shared.  I asked a few more questions about weight distribution and stuff, all of which he answered politely and knowledgeably. 

Overall, I think I received his cautious stamp of approval.

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What happens when Stitch and Glue boats get old

I came across this excellent article entitled "What happens when Stitch-and-Glue boats get old", posted on John Harriss blog "The Life of Boats".

John illustrates how epoxy-coated plywood boats age, and provides info on how to maintain and repair them.  Its an excellent article with very valuable info.

Here is the link to Part 1, and Part 2.

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Old Shoe

That would be the Oldshoe by Phil Bolger. One of his "Square Boat" series. My friend Tom Gale is a square boat fan.

Tom sent me these photos of the maiden voyage in his new old shoe. His first impression was that she had a lot of leeway in a breeze. Here hes trying to tack to windward and miss that dock.

My first impression was thats a boat designed for utility and simplicity.
The Oldshoe has been described as a twelve foot cockpit, with the rest of the boat left off. Big, roomy and safe. Just right for Tom and his family who like to cruise Lake Powell every year.

The skipper looks pleased. Ive never known Bolgers little square boats fail to bring a smile to the person at the tiller.





Thanks to Heather Gale for the photos.

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