Tuesday, December 4, 2012

A Sailing Canoe, Sailing Dinghy, a Closed gunwale special, and a Chesnut Canoe Cruiser


A long overdue update. As usual there are a ton of pictures to show.  They seem to be piling up faster than I can get them up here for you to see.  Before we roll into the pictures I thought I would share some comments from recent customers.  
"Just wanted to drop a note telling you how pleased we are with the boat we’ve dubbed “Emmy”. We put a 2.5 hp 4-stroke Yamaha on it and it rides like new money! What’s really striking is the smooth ride and the lack of hull noise. I’ve never experienced a boat anything like it. We’ve been to Comet Pond in Hubbardston a couple of times and my son and I got into a bunch of small mouth bass on the CT river last weekend, north of Barton Cove. We’re having a blast with it and wanted to thank you two for doing a nice job on it. It suits our purposes beautifully. Thanks again and have a great summer!"

"I just wanted you to know how thrilled I am with the results of your restoration of our canoe! The pride you take in your work is quite evident. Thanks very much!"

"Wow, just looked at your blogspot.  Anyone seeing this would have no reason to go elsewhere for canoe work."
 
Projects in the shop are moving along.  There are plenty of restorations and new canoes being built but before we get into that let's have a looky at some completed stuff.  We will finish up the post with recently completed projects and the following post will be all current projects in the shop, along with some video.
 
 
Custom built Sailing Canoe with long decks.
 
This is our Clearwater set up with a sail rig.  The mahogany decks are asymmetrical. With the exception of some of the custom brass hardware 100% of the sail plan and the rig was done by us.  Hand made solid spruce spruce, etc. 
 

 
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
Old Town Sailing Dinghy 
 
Here is Dylan laying out the floor boards
 
 
The dinghy canvassed and ready to be filled
 
 
These are the new outer rails.  The hollow is to accommodate the bumper rope
 
 
The new outer stem bent on the jig
 
 
The new coaming be shaped
 
 
The coaming being installed
 
 
All the trim is done, the canvas has been filled.  Ready for varnish and paint
 
 
We had a special helper who wanted to learn about making a square piece of wood round.  Bronson laying out the spar stock.
 
 
Here is Emily making the spars.  They are all done by hand.  No machines
 
 
In this picture the spars have been varnished and Emily is installing the hardware on them.
 
 
We had another special helper, the rigger. It seems Evelyn had a thing or two to tell Dad about the rigging.
 
 
In case you forgot, here is what the dinghy looked like before we started.
 
 
Here is what it looked like when it was finished
 
 
All new custom hardware
 
 
Can you tell what ribs were replaced?
 
 
 
 
 
There it is all done and ready to ship half way across the country. 
 
 
 
Closed Gunwale canoe
This is a new custom made closed gunwale canoe that we built.  The trim is all mahogany trim and the paint is a two tone white and green.  This is the construction that was commonly used pre 1910.
 


 
 
 

  This is what the owner of the closed gunwale canoe had to say;
 
" A long over due note to thank you both for the gorgeous canoe.  The incredibly, detailed craftsmanship and long hours you put in to it.... well it is simply the most beautiful canoe I've ever seen!  Thank you, Sandy."
 
Chestnut Cruiser
 
Not last but not least, the chestnut cruiser.  Remember this one?  Nearly 20 ribs in row were replaced along with a host of other things.  Here is what it looked like when it canoe into the shop.
 





Okay,well that about wraps it up for this post. Stay tuned for our next post which will show current projects that are ongoing in the shop.

The end.