Wooden Boats
By David Orth
Ratty to Mole, in Wind in the Willows:
"There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."Here's me assembling my first kayak (designed by Chesapeake Light Craft), followed by a picture of the finished boat. I used the strange sounding stich-n-glue method - quite a trip - allowing for amazingly lightweight, organic shapes from thin marine plywood. Shortly after I built this kayak, I started using some of the same techniques and ideas in my furniture. Although, I followed the basic boat design and hull-shape, I made much of the topside detail to my own liking. Now 15 years later, its been over a few rocks in Illinois, gone end for end into the beach off North Carolina, and acquired a mysterious hole that appeared in the top after a winter in the barn - I suspect that a racoon fell asleep in the rafters 25 feet above the boat, lost his balance and was saved by the cushioning of the boat. Yes, stranger things have happened. I patched it up, but I reckon it looks more like Ratty's boat today - well used and well loved and one or two mysteries about it. I took it on the Nippersink the other day.
I don't build boats for sale, but I do offer instruction and assistance building your own stitch-n-glue boat. It takes a week - not including finishing. We'll order a boat kit that suits you. We can schedule it whenever we like. And you'll walk away with a boat you built yourself. Information on instruction here.
The double kayak pictured below was built during a slow winter in the shop. I had the help of 3 long-suffering apprentices or I would still be at it. The cedar strip method is amazing - and amazingly time consuming. We probably put 400 hours into this one. We bought blueprints from the brilliant kayak designer Vaclav Stejskal and again did everything from scratch - adding my own details. It took a full day just to render 10 lovely boards of western red cedar into little strips. Click on the image for more pics.
I highly recommend the building and paddling of small boats. It's good for the soul and not too hard on the pocketbook. Even with little experience, the stich-n-glue kits should not be hard to make as long as you enjoy working with your hands and can follow their detailed instructions carefully. I'd stay away from the stripbuilt plans and the hybrid strip unless you have a lot of patience and more than an average amount of skill. Best way to start is with the stich-n-glue type. Besides Chesapeake Lightcraft, you should also check out the elegant kayaks at www.pygmyboats.com. Such a boat can be built and finished on weekends over a winter - ready for launching as soon as the weather begins to turn.
It's a strange and wonderful thing - to slip a small wooden craft (you finished the week before) into a lake or river, set yourself down carefully, and take that first pull or two on the paddle. The boat and yourself slip forward like a fish - glide like a bird. You are Captain Nemo. You are Amelia Earhart. You are Major Tom.