Fine Strip Planked Boat Building @WoodenBoatSchool

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If you want to build a lightweight, rugged, and beautiful small boat, combining thin strips of wood with epoxy and fiberglass will make a cartoppable, low-maintenance, and gorgeous vessel. Nick Schade has been building strip-built boats for over 30 years. He has written two of the standard texts on the subject, Building Strip-Planked Boats and The Strip-Built Sea Kayak, and his efforts have guided thousands of people through building their own boats using the popular strip-planked method.

In this six-day course, students will explore this method of construction while building two very different boat designs created by Nick. This class will be building an Adirondack Guide Boat and the microBootlegger Sport sea kayak. The School only had room for one of these classes this year, so sign up early.

Speedboats built in 1923 are not your typical inspiration for a kayak, the George Crouch designed “Baby Bootlegger” was the starting point for both the microBootlegger Sport. The speedboat was an instant classic with elegant rounded, muscular lines. The “Sport” version is a 15.5’ x 23” sea kayak with beautiful lines suitable for exploring lakes or heading out to sea.

The Guide Boat is Nick’s own design based on the H. Dwight Grant guide boat "Virginia" documented by John Gardner in 1963. Nick's interpretation incorporates the older recurved stem pattern into a boat that rows easily and can carry a good load. We will be building the boat using standard strip-planking methods that do not include ribs, so the interior will be clean and smooth.

Day One will have students fairing up the forms, shaping the inner stems, fabricating the kayak coaming and guideboat parts, and getting a start on the planking. Tuesday will have us continuing with planking, installing stems, and working on hatches and gunwales. Before you know it, we will start sanding the hull and deck and applying fiberglass on Wednesday. On Thursday, the kayak and guideboat will come off the forms. After fairing the insides of the hulls, fiberglass fabric will be laid-up on the interiors. Come Friday, students will start finishing up the guideboat while the hull and deck of the kayak are joined together. The class wraps up midday on Saturday with final fiberglass work and completion of details on both boats.

Throughout this course, Nick will take time to discuss the many variations on the strip-building process that students can use on their own boatbuilding projects. After a week of fine craftsmanship and fun, we’ll step back to admire two stunning boats that will raffled off to two lucky students.

Location: WoodenBoat School, Brooklin, Maine

Cost: $925 

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