Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
Interesting dory project
Here's a boat that came to me for some work just recently. I know, it isn't a wooden drift boat but it IS an historic dory that may be of interest to some who visit this site.
This boat was used as a Surf rescue boat by the Long Beach, Ca. Life Guard Service. These boats were state of the art before jet skis. This one is now owned by a former Long Beach lifeguard and rowing enthusiast. Back In The Day, he and a partner attempted to row a similar dory (haven't got the full story yet) from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas near the tip of Baja, Mx.
This fiberglass hull was laid up by the Schock boat company near Long Beach, probably in the late 1960s. Somehow, almost 40yrs later, it is here in Lyle, Washington. Still a gorgeous boat, a 'blast from the past'
It appears to be a Swamscott dory shape. It has a double bottom for buoyancy and rather large scuppers to allow self-bailing. It's 22' long and about 5' beam at the sheer, quite narrow on the bottom, lots of flair ...There is, compared to a drift boat, very little bottom rocker, perhaps 6" bow to stern. These boats are meant to have two rowers,
He's done the gunwhales and set the oarlocks and built the thwarts but the bow and stern...that stumped him.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Lawrence E. Long on
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Don: That is a classic surf dory. If you look in John Gardner's book "The Dory Book" he has offsets for what he describes as The Beachcomber-Alpha. There are some pictures of the boats around Marblehead MA. The boat was designed/built by William Chamberlain around 1900-1910 for lobstering/fishing and later rigged for sail- apparently clubs were formed for racing and rowing competition. Your picture looks exactly like those in Gardner's book.
Oddly, I am in the process of lofting (which I have never done before) a Swampscott dory for the summer place at the entrance to Plymouth harbor, MA. Haven't built a boat in several years and am getting antsy.
Thanks for the picture
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Permalink Reply by David Jensen on
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Very cool boat. I was in the Marines in San Diego in the 70's, and never saw a surf boat like this. I would love to see more pix.
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I'll post a few pics of my work on this . The bow had no inner stem at all...just the two hull-halfs stuck together with a little fiberglass mat...The old bow eye had pulled through...No breasthook...so the gunnels don't join each other or the stem..
The wood trim is my main task, mostly cosmetic, though adding an internal stem and a breasthook should ad a lot of strength with little weight added and it won't cost Scott much.. I am also working after Scott...so I'm limited by where he cut things and by the leftover wood he has to match what he's done...Like a Jigsaw puzzle..
Lofting a lapstrake hull? One of the joys of building lapstrake is the wood assumes the shape it wants, not some shape you draw on the floor......
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Here's a few pics of the Lifeguard Surf dory project I just finished...another "labor of Love" as many of my boat projects turn out to be, as far wages go...35hrs for my $200 quote.....and a case of wine...
the owner cut the gunwales..The bow eye had pulled through. Seeing how thin the fiberglass lay-up was at the bow I installed an inner stem to keep the boat sides together and also to back up the tow eye.
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The stern was quite crooked, both in 'horn' and in sheer...crooked both ways.. I spent some time scratching my head trying to minimize this and make it look as right as I could do...
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Sorry for the strange format, trying to post this...I am not finding the site is 'easy to use today..
The double-bottom built into this boat has a couple of access ports you can see here, with some sort of structure beneath..the inner bottom is very 'solid-feeling' and yet the whole boat is quite light...Given the age of the boat, this really speaks of a careful build by the Shock boat company..
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Looking across the inner bottom at the foot brace anchor. The foot braces can be adjusted to fit the rower's legs at both rowing stations. These look to be the original teak with stainless bushings in each hole..I didn't see this boat's actual foot braces but the set up looks to have been durable and nobody changed it over the years, so it must work well.
The double bottom is landed on the first "plank", the thwarts(seats) are mounted to a longitudinal support glassed in at the second plank...I mounted the thwarts with some 2 1/2" x #12 silicone bronze real wood screws. Those are now $1.16 each at Tacoma Screw...one of my main sources for good quality fasteners...
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Gluing the breasthook. Often I find that in these operations the scrap pieces that are cut to make the miter can be used as wedges to close up the glue joints, as is the case here. I used some hardwood dowels and WEST epoxy.
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The owner painted everything with epoxy paint masking off the original non-skid, I think. I've suggested a bedliner product, as he completes his own final sanding and painting.
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Dry fitting.
The owner is doing all the final sanding and painting. Working the parts that were going to be almost impossible to reach/sand/grind after full assembly, that was interesting.. I also wanted everything coated in epoxy and I bed the parts into the hull with West epoxy after grinding away the gel coat and his epoxy paint.
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The inner stem in place. Notice at the gunwales the varnish has been ground away for epoxy joints, and I've pre-fit the breast hook with some wax paper under it, smooshing it down to form a 'landing'
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The 'almost end' ... again, using 2 1/2" x 12 silicone bronze screws and epoxy. I pre-coated all the parts and the screw holes with a couple of coats of epoxy. Since the boat is done in 'workboat' style, the screws will be exposed and also removable...I bed them using traditional Dolphinite bedding compound...the epoxy does most of the holding but before epoxy...these same type wood screws did the whole job...so probably some overkill here.. The 1/2" hole through the stem head is for a painter...(small line to lead the boat around or tie off to a dock...not for real loads...the new bow eye further down and through the inner stem is engineered to hold any real loads at the bow.
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