We’re nearing the end of the Intro to Wooden Boatbuilding course of study. In our second-to-last week, we’re completing the hull of our duckboat.  This week we began to fabricate stainless steel brackets to fasten structural framing inside the boat.  We also hit an exciting point and flipped the boat so we can fair the hull. These will be the last steps of our class, but progress will continue over the summer as students volunteer in the shop to complete the trim, rigging, and paint of the boat.  We still have a week to go in class, though, and we’ll have a visit from sign painter Paul Quinn who will demonstrate traditional gold leaf lettering for the students as he officially gives the boat it’s name.

 

Emily, Sam, Zoe, and Theodora fairing the boat by planing down the hard edges at the seams and beginning the process of rounding the hull.

 

A group effort to flip the boat prior to fairing the hull.

 

Class began with some design work in students’ journals as they designed the brackets we’ll use for the interior structural components we’ll be adding.

 

Theodora comes up with some inventive designs for the brackets.

 

We decided on a bowtie shape to mimic dutchmen found in woodworking. We used a folder to create templates for everyone to work from.

 

With the designs voted on and selected, we cut the stainless steel to size from a bar of metal stock.

 

Emily grinds her bracket into the shape of a bowtie while Zoe files her bracket to clean and smooth the edges.

 

Sam uses the drill press to make the counter-sunken holes where the screws will go.

 

With our duckboat flipped, students take a look at the work we’ve done from a new perspective.

 

The next step is to smooth the seams where the planks meet using block planes.

 

Sam planes the seams as Professor Bonnie Levinthal looks on.

 

We finished class with a decent amount of fairing complete. There’s still a lot to go, but we’ll have a finished (and named) hull next week!