WoodenBoat Show 2012

As usual, I headed down to the WoodenBoat Show at Mystic Seaport about this time last month.   Unlike other years, it was hot - like Africa hot.  And muggy.  And still. 

BUT!

That never diminishes the fun to be had at the show - sweaty or not!

I started out my Friday morning by running into a group of good friends just as I came in the gate.  The show always seems to be a place to run into friends both old and new and that's one of the things that's really great about it.  I then headed down to the DuPont Shipyard where a live display of steaming and hanging a plank on the Charles W. Morgan was happening.  They took volunteers from the crowd to help and I managed to sneak by to get some good pictures.  I posted about this previously here.

As I was starting to walk around and see what was on display, I ran into Nick Schade of Guillemot Kayaks strarting to strip a new canoe design of his in his booth.  It was one of the few booths where he had a good combination of shade and a cooling breeze coming off the water.  I asked if he might want a bit of help later - the response?  "Sure."  I'm not sure if he thought I was kidding or not...

I managed to take in most of the boats at the docks that I was interested in as well as most of the vendors before I had to head back to do my first stint in the WoodenBoat School booth.  C'mon - ya gotta have some "booth babes", right?  ;-) 

After that stint, I headed out to get a bite of lunch where I ran into one of my friends again.  I know he hasn't built a boat, but would like to.  I figured heading over to help Nick might give him the push he needed.  So, we went over and spent most of the rest of the afternoon helping Nick strip his canoe and enjoying the cool breezes from the harbor.

That evening when the show closed up, I headed over to visit friends at the annual EBS.  EBS?  Yup.  Elbow Bending Symposium - a gathering with great company, great food and a good time.  Thankfully, the host and hostess let us camp on the grounds for the evening which is very convenient.

The next morning after a hasty breakfast, I headed back over to the Seaport for another stint in the booth.  I arrived to find that the main parking was full and that the secondary parking was as well - they were putting people on the grass at the sides of the road!

After my stint in the booth, I went out and took a good look at two particular things.  The first was the Interlux sponsored, "I built it myself" display of boats.  Most are built by amateurs and it is fun to see the creativity and talent that is on display.  What is always particularly interesting to me are the unique solutions that they come up with for challenges that they find in the building process.  Some of the solutions are really neat.

The other excellent event is the Family BoatBuilding that goes on under at tent at the show.  Families that have signed up for this event build a boat from start to finish in 3 days.  When the three days are up, all they need to do is to paint, varnish and launch!  Always an impressive display.

I'll leave you with a few of the sights from the show.

Enjoy!

WoodenBoat Show 2011 at Mystic Seaport : Part 1

Here's a quick little video of what was seen at the seaport this weekend. If you haven't been yet and are within a few hours of the Mystic, Connecticut, you still have time to get there!

Only 45 more days...

...until the 20th annual WoodenBoat Show at Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut. Lots of great things to see and do. If you've got an interest in boats - particularly wooden ones, you owe it to yourself to go. Be sure to check the link above for information on events, exhibitors, family boatbuilding activities and the tribute dinner honoring Lance Lee this year.

This year, however, there will be a bit of a twist. For the first time, the John Gardner Small Craft Workshop will be happening at the Seaport on the same weekend. The Workshop is intended to get people interested in small traditional paddle, rowing and sail and oar boats. As part of this goal, there are boats that are available for the public to try. I think this will be a wonderful combination!

Mystic WoodenBoat Show 2010 : Episode 4

One of the great things that goes on at the WoodenBoat show is the Interlux "I Built It Myself" exhibit. This is a display of owner-built boats from the very small to the fairly large and from the pedestrian to the completely unusual. As this year's honoree was Iain Oughtred, many of the boats that were present had been built to his designs.

These are boats built by people like you and I who have decided that it is time to get started building a boat. These boats are built in sheds, garages, basements and yards. Very often most builders find that once they get started, all of the worries and fears go away and they get what advice, materials and tools they need and just build. I think some even find that they like the building process as much or more than using the boats.

A very nicely made Beach Pea - designed by Doug Hylan. Very tempting...


An Iain Oughtred designed, Jll Yawl named Nina S. Benjamin built by Andrew Kitchen. Most, if not all of the hardware on this boat was hand made. Truly amazing - I'm sorry I didn't get more detail shots of the hardware and the rigging.


Here is something interesting - two Herreshoff-Gardner pulling boats. The top one is Plus One and the bottom one is, obviously, Ruby. What's interesting here is the different take that the two builders had on the finish work and the hull itself. Plus One's builder made her a little bit wider for his use as a fishing platform while Ruby's builders seem to have plans to go fast in her.



This stunning little Delaware Ducker certainly caught the eye. It's very much like a slightly wide sailing canoe in some regards. A very pretty and very traditional build.


Tiller and rudder:
Bow detail:


Ness Yawl, Goldberry by Garth Jones - another Oughtred design - seeing the pattern here?


Willow, built by Howard Sharp to Iain Oughtred's Ptarmigan design:


Annie - a very beautiful double-ender. I'm not certain of the design, but she was certainly a well built boat.




Finally, a still-to-be-named Humblebee pram built by Steven Bauer for use as a tender to his folkboat. Hand made oars as well. She had her maiden voyage at the Seaport on Saturday. What a great memory to have.


Humblebee's Interior.

Mystic WoodenBoat Show 2010 : Episode 3

Now personally, I'm a small boat kinda guy. The big stuff holds some interest, but I am always interested to see what others have done with their canoes and kayaks. As a result, I've decided to devote today's post to canoes and kayaks at the show. The picture above shows some restored and un-restored beauties on Robert Ross's trailer. Robert Ross is the owner of Ross Brothers and they specialize in the sale vintage canoes and sporting goods among other things. Here's a nice detail view of an un-restored boat:


I think that the un-restored boats can be as beautiful as the restored boats. Often, the un-restored boats (like those in the Rossi Mill building at Mystic Seaport...) show artwork and detail painted on them that you don't often see put back on restored boats. Things like gilt work and hand painted scroll work. The old boats had some pretty fancy stuff.

Here's another view of Robert's booth showing a lovely courting canoe with long decks and wide thwarts. I love the way that varnish glows in the sun!


Detail of the deck:


He also had this cute 10' long pack canoe and a variety of paddles and oars. DD would probably enjoy something like this as it's a bit wider than my Wee Lassie.


Nick Schade of Guillemot Kayaks had a booth again this year and was featuring his nearly complete Mini-Bootlegger. This kayak was made from 1/8" thick Mahogany strip that was organized as it was cut from the board. The trim was Tiger Maple. A gorgeous effort - and it is available for sale. A mere $23,000.00.


Just look at the grain. Gorgeous.


Chesapeake Light Craft was back as well with their lovely boats on display. I can't say I'm much of a guy for plywood kayaks, but they do a nice job. This is only a small selection from their display - they offer an impressive number of designs for the home-builder.


In the, "I Built it Myself" area at the show this lapstrake sailing canoe based on a Rushton design was just arriving as I was leaving and had no signs on it.


This gentleman built a Redbird to the design of Ted Moores from Bear Mountain Boats and customized it very nicely. One of the customizations was lowering the sheer a bit at the bow and stern. My father and I built a canoe to this design and it is a pleasure to paddle, but the high bow and stern can be pushed around when the wind is up.


A very nice sculpted cherry yoke:


Bird's Eye Maple decks and grab handles:


A slick sliding seat arrangement for the bow paddler. This is a nice feature as such a design will let you shift the seat to adjust the fore and aft trim for paddlers of different weight.


A nice sea kayak - I missed the builder and design information - Oops!


A Tom Hill designed Charlotte lapstrake double-paddle canoe. This is a very popular design and there are quite a few of these about. They are nice, lightweight canoes that let you go where you cannot go with larger boats. I've got the marine plywood and the patterns cut out, but I've got too many other projects going to really get moving on this before I wrap up others!



Finally, a beautiful Wee Lassie built to the design of Mac McCarthy of Feather Canoes. Sadly, Mac's health has not been good, but I'm sure he would be heartened to know that his design won Best of Show for Human Powered craft. This build was faithful to Mac's design and well executed. Michelle Corbeil of WoodenBoat and I were nearly tripping on each other trying to get good photos of this boat. I'm sure her's are much better than mine!


The happy builder with his winner's award.


Still more to come!

Wordless Wednesday

Mystic WoodenBoat Show 2010 : Episode 2

One of the great reasons to hold a show like the WoodenBoat Show at a place like Mystic Seaport is the fact that there are many things to see besides the show itself. I know that I've heard from several people who took others who were not "Wooden Boat People" who still had a wonderful time enjoying the museum while they took in the show.

For me, one of the more interesting draws is the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard. It is neat to watch traditional boat building as it happens. (FYI, another museum with this "plus" is the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michael's, MD - just not on the same scale. The past two years, the museum has had the Charles W. Morgan hauled for some well-deserved restoration and maintenance. The Charles W. Morgan is the last surviving American wooden whaling ship and was built in New Bedford, MA in 1841. A unique treasure.


She is a really large ship.


Over the past 69 years, the Morgan has been at Mystic as a display piece for the museum. Because of the way she was rigged and loaded as well the fact her underwater timbers were in poor condition, she began to "hog". (develop a hollow in the keel) a Here is a shot of her keel from last year not long after being hauled:

A project was begun to restore the Morgan including the improvements to the shipyard's marine railway and other equipment used in the restoration including the ship's saw. Live Oaks that were lost to Hurricane Katrina were brought up for timbers. Lots of work has gone on in the bilge area of the ship and this year, her keel looks nearly straight.

She remains a wonderful exhibit - even as she is being restored. Here's a view from the stern lights:


And a deck prism:


There is still a ways to go before the Morgan is ready to be in the water again, but she should be in great shape when she does!

Mystic WoodenBoat Show 2010 : Episode 1

I took the day off on Friday to go down to the WoodenBoat Show at Mystic Seaport. If you have any interest in wooden boats, you're sure to see something that will draw your interest. The trip is a relatively short drive for me, but was rendered a bit longer than usual by two accidents. If you had the dubious pleasure of being on I-95 Northbound up near Mystic on Friday morning, this is probably what you saw as a result of the second accident:


Traffic was, frankly, brutal. It took me nearly an hour to go between exits 88 and 89 where I finally got off the highway. Traffic on the side roads wasn't much better, but I eventually reached the Seaport over an hour after my desired arrival time. Because of this delay I started out at the North entrance and made my way to the South end getting an overview of the show and taking a few pictures.


One of the first real stops that I made was at the docks near the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard. There are usually a neat variety of small craft at the docks and I wasn't disappointed this year. What first caught my eye was Patina. Patina is a Caledonia Yawl by Ed Segen and was literally the "poster girl" from the WoodenBoat Show poster I put up previously. One of the reasons that this boat was used for the poster is that it was designed by Iain Oughtred - the very talented marine designer who was being honored at the show's annual dinner on Saturday evening.



Iain has a fairly broad catalog of designs and many of the boats that were at the show were his work. As I always note about my own student's work, even though the design is the same, they can be completely different. Take for example another Caledonia Yawl, Xena, build by Ken Ford with a unique bird's wing mast.


I was also very interested in seeing this new runabout by Timm Schlieff of Schlieff Boatworks. Timm is a very talented young man and was recently featured in both the editorial and a full article in the most recent edition of WoodenBoat magazine. The runabout was named Vixen and was being delivered to a customer in New Hampshire just after the show.


Up on the walkway was a Herreshoff Watch Hill 15, Kitty, from Alec Brainerd of Artisan Boatworks. They always have some beautiful boats on display at the Maine Boatbuilders show and Kitty certainly showed both the attention to detail and excellent craftsmanship that Artisan always puts forth.


On top of everything else, the folks from Mystic Seaport and WoodenBoat managed to order some of the most gorgeous weather that we've had in a while!


More to come!