21st WoodenBoat Show @ Mystic Seaport_Family Boatbuilding et al.

Concours d'elegance 

 

Willow ribbed skin on frame,

skillfully wrought with exquisite detail.

Hillary Russell is the coordinator at the Berkshire Boat Building School. His willow ribbed skin on frame double paddle canoe (his design) took top honors in the professional class.

John Gardner Small Craft Workshop

Lots of activity, and lots of boats, at the reinstated workshop!

Clint Chase docking a Ducker.

A welcome surprise was this proa by Paul Soban.

Finely kitted out

Looks a bit like a Gary Dierking T2

I built it myself  

Nesting boats!

The skin on frame above, a Monfort design, fits nicely into this ply boat. Both are beautifully constructed. Now where's that brochure?!

Michael Shari brought this captivating little Firefly.

The National Firefly is an Uffa Fox design, originally built by Fairey Marine.

Family Boatbuilding

Chesapeake Light Craft offered the elegant Sassafras canoe.

B&B Yacht Designs brought the sprightly Mandy

Graham Byrnes, owner of B&B, with accomplice.

A lot of boats, and a lot of activity.

Teamwork!

A rather large toolbox

Carl Cramer distributing varnish

Planing

As of Sunday afternoon, all had finished hulls.

Sanding,

and more sanding.




And a little more...

Ed Greiner and Bud McIntire were down from the upper peninsula, Michigan, representing the Great Lakes Boat Building School. They were also our dinner companions at the tribute dinner and added to our enjoyment of the evening.

They trailered this stunning inboard launch, built entirely by students at the school. It's a Paul Gartside design, #117, carvel construction. 

These two St Ayles skiffs were built, and are being raced, as part of WoodenBoats' BARC program.The program involves high school students in building and racing this Iain Oughtred design and was inspired by the example of the 
Scottish Coastal Rowing Project.

My third year at this show and it's always a treat! The Family Boatbuilding program seems to increase exponentially every year. Next year they will likely need a larger large tent.

Seeing the incredible work being done vis a vis the Morgan restoration is inspiring. I met up with Graham McKay of Lowell's Boat Shop and he's planning to begin a whaleboat for the Morgan in October. As of the show he said he was 70% funded, but has a little more to go, help if you can.

A big round of thanks to Mystic Seaport, WoodenBoat and all the participants for another great show.

Originally posted on 70.8% by Thomas Armstrong

Flying Fifteen up for grabs on Ebay

all photos above courtesy ebay

Uffa Fox and Prince Phillip sailing Coweslip

these two courtesy BIFFA,

For sale on ebay, only a few hours left, located CA, is this beautiful if somewhat radical little speedster. Designed by Uffa Fox in1947. Check it out on ebay. Here's some history of the boat from the UK Class Association:

The Flying 15 was designed by Uffa Fox in 1947 and the first hulls built at his Cowes based boatyard. Uffa recounts in his 1959 book, "Sailing Boats" that Jimmy Damant, a Commodore of the Island SC and one of the earliest owners of the International 14, had often encouraged him to; "Design a boat like the 14-footer, but at least 18ft long, that will not capsize. Then you would have a sensible, safe boat, that was fun to sail as well, for the rough and tumble of tidal waters like the Solent."

Uffa eventually drew-up a hull twenty foot overall, fifteen foot on the waterline and drawing nine inches without the keel. The steeply raked keel adds 2ft 6inches to the draft, the rake helping to remove any weed. The original construction was for a 1/8" thick diagonal inner skin and 3/16" fore and aft, honduras mahogany outer skin over 3/8" x 1/4" ribs at 2" centres. The deck was 3/16" marine plywood. The original design weight was 285lb for the hull with a 400 lb keel. Driving this was a sail plan and mast height exactly as for the International 14 of that period.