Finally got around to getting some pay-backs on a piece of mahogany I've been holding a grudge with for quite a spell. Two winters ago (about this time of year) a particular rail decided it didn't want to be a part of my nice new drift boat. When I decided to "force" the issue it decided to push back. Actually, it was more of a recoil; darn thing split and punched his way through some plywood in the process...…

I've always been fascinated by the history of stuff and wooden boats are no exception. I'm actually a bit jealous when I read all the neat stuff written by Brad, Roger, and others; it would seem you people out west have a much more "storied" history than us folks here in PA.

Besides, differences in the types of rivers and the availability of plywood, I would guess the biggest reason for us not having much of a wooden boat history is due to pollution. By the mid 1800's we had…

Well, this is it - the grand finale of this big ol' project.

After having finished the insides, I re-flipped the boat and got back to what was left undone on the exterior of the hull. I woul have done this back when the boat was still upside down the first time, but there was some stuff on backorder and I'm impatient; so, here I am flipping the boat again.

Coated the bottom with the graphite & epoxy for about 4 coats. Then I…

In response to Gavin's comment #3 regarding my last blog post:

Yes I'm still in PA; in so far as any potential internet burglars may be concerned. Sorry we couldn't connect on the Lehigh river, all I can say is you HAVE to get fishing with me and Jimmy - the sulphur hatch is really bringing out some strange browns; they're taking # 2/0 creek chub flies. We needed some really big tippet.

Truth be…

These are the times that try the souls of boatbuilders in eastern PA. Allow me to demonstrate pictorally with one of my beloved helper monkeys...

Which of the following Gavinses seems happier?

A) Rower's seat-sanding Gavin in my grimy garage...

or

B) Lehigh river fishing Gavin during the Sulphur hatch

Needless to say,…

Took a weekend off from boatbuilding as promised. Spent one day partying it up at my 4 year old's birthday celebration and the other day chasing shad in the Delaware water gap (for a friend's birthday). Although the party was a hoot, I'll spare you the details of the former and concentrate on the later.

In eastern PA, the shad run is our version of the steelhead, chinook, or other seasonal run. Basically, it's all we got without driving 5 or 6 hours to…

The weather around here has been a bit unpredictable as of late.

For those of you who do not reside in the northeast, it has gone something like this: real warm weather (like high 80's) early in the spring (like late march/early april) and then cold...real cold. Around here, 32 degrees in early May is pretty rough - I'm glad I haven't had the time to plant my garden yet.

Needless to say, after warming up following the chill of winter, we have…

Once the chine logs had cured, I began the whole faring process which I found rather enjoyable. As far as sanding goes, it is quite pleasant and almost like hand planing a piece of lumber.It's pretty much the opposite side of the sanding spectrum from, say, sanding drywall. The longboard really helps too. While it would be a really easy thing to make a longboard, I bought one because I like the 3M hook-it idea - I've pretty much gone this route with all my implements of sanding…

With a lot of this boat-building stuff to-date, I seem to fearlessly blast ahead relying on the experience I've gained in the cabinet shop and on the job site back in the day. Oh yea, and the web site here helps a good bit too in terms of confidence...

Not to say I'm a master woodworker (or even close), just plain fearless and quite possibly stupid.

That is, I was fearless up…

So following the great hull-forming (or what I call the 3M 5200 Massacre), I'm killing some time waiting for things to cure before installing the chine logs. On a bright note, I finally understand the reason for my calling as an environmental engineer - (apparently or undoubtedly) it is Karmic in nature. A balancing act - all to make up for my terrible, terrible indescretions with the 5200 and all the associated solvents. Holy mineral spirits, my garage is a veritable superfund site. God…

So I awoke Saturday morning, bleary-eyed from a long nite in the boat building garage. Still not sure...only knew that more boat parts must be built. More boat parts...So in the beautiful PA spring morning, I started out cutting some more parts: rails, logs, battens, floor boards, whatever -

Next thing I know, its 8 pm my head is spinning and there's something that vaguely resembles a boat in my garage. Yes, gavin; I…

This past Wednesday or so, it seemed like I was going to put off forming the hull for a little. I decided to cut out the sides and glue one of them to the stem - just to be prepared...

Then I started to read the day's chattter on WBP and saw Brad Dimock's last post or two; talk about getting bit by the bug...Well, just to be even more prepared, I better do the other…

Work continues on the DE w/ transom.. I was hoping to form the hull maybe this weekend, but it doesn't look like I will quite be ready. May have to put it off for a few as next weekend is PA opening day for trout which means backpacking, camping, and flyfishing in some remote spot where the rabble won't be able to find us.

In the mean time, I am doing just about my favoite thing in the world: listening to the Phillies on my old AM tube radio while block planing the massive…

What... you mean the tools depicted in "drift boats and river dories" are just an artists conception ?!?

Alright (har har), just kidding my other dill is a Bosch - When digging around for my block planes I came across the old egg beater and couldn't resist (nearly burst a blood vessle faking the look of exertion)... I'm slow enough as it is, I couldn't imagine the time (and strength) it…

To kill some time while waiting for the wood, I decided to cut some test frames out of some ratty old pine I had laying around the shop. I seem to have the methodology down based on what I have going in the shop and what I'm best working with:

1. I'm ripping both side frame pieces out of one board using a Bosch jigsaw (and straight edge) and a really fine blade to do the mitered cut.

2. table saw for the straight cuts of the side frames and the bottom mitred rip of the bottom…

The wood is on its way and its time to clean out the garage and organize the tools.

Besides nature's way of taking every possible extraneous doo-dad you own (and some you don't) and jamming them into every single unoccupied inch of space in the garage, there is one other fundamental truth (regarding garages) that I have come to realize. It can be expressed in equation form:

New Boat In = Old Boat Out

It is indeed a sad and poiniant truth. For "A.M. Radio"…

Alright, here we go - my first wooden boat; time to get down to business. A double ender w/ transom right out of Roger's book. To date:

1) Read Roger's book (a few times)...Needless to say, essential.

2) Built a model using Auto CAD - see pic below. Let me tell you for those of you who were never to handy or sucessful with model building, I think this is a really nice alternative. As a preface, alls I could ever do with my hand-built models as a kid was to half build…