My earliest involvement with Wooden Boat Building

Posted under Wooden Boat Building, Wooden Boat Building Involvement

My earliest involvement with Wooden Boat Building began when I discovered that the intriguing world of small rocky shore fish pools extended to the deeps. I ended up with a snorkel, mask and fins and a desire to explore my new undersea world. The desire for a glass bottom boat, which would let me explore further ofshore, led me to a paddle board with a glass panel inset exactly where ones face would be when laying on the board.

My closest friend and I had also developed an interest in surfing and together we hatched the plan of building wooden paddle boards to use in the coming summer (mine of course got the hole in the front with the quarter inch glass panel). Never much good at shop at school I was now committed to building my first wooden boat.

We were only about 13 at the time and had to earn and save the money for the planned construction. Materials and plans came first, on the walk home from school I passed the local timber merchant’s yard and was soon pestering the lumbermen about what timber to use and how to go about this totally new venture. The plans were purchased shortly; one set between us and then duly copied. They were “Hartley” I think and included full sized frame patterns which were a challenge to copy.

The timber for the frame; and the screws and glue; were purchased just before the winter school holidays. Room was made in our respective houses for our first Wooden Boat Building venture, and we were suddenly confronted with the realisation that the collection of tools that our respective families had lying around were just not adequate for the job at hand. So more expense as we  bought some new ones. I purchased a “sureform”  plane (they are now more accurately called rasps but I’m sure that back then the were sold as planes) and what i thought was an adequate supply of blades.

The work began promisingly enough and proceeded with manic determination, sawdust every where, wood dust in our cloths and hair and up our nostrils (no one wore face-masks in those days), by holidays end we both had the bare skeleton more or less complete. There before us, on the rudimentary saw horses that we had constructed, lay the bones of our first venture into wooden boat building.

During the next school term we proceeded with purchasing the marine ply for the top and bottom, choosing the paint: natural timber with a clear coating for my friend and white marine enamel for me (to hide the mistakes and imperfections in my rougher build). A long weekend and the top was glued and screwed and nailed, hundred of the most bendy copper nails you could imagine; a week later the bottom which was curved at the front was also fitted and duly attached. It was almost complete.

Lots of work with the sureform (many blades now beyond my original estimate) and the results didn’t look too bad to my biased eye (my shop teacher wouldn’t have graded it well, too much enthusiasm not enough care). A quick coat of paint, a quick sand, another coat of paint and it was finished. I was now the proud owner of a 9ft 6in timber surf/paddle board (which I could only just lift).

At about 14 years old I had completed my very first Wooden Boat Building project

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