Doing it old school

Seriously heinous, following the money, and some Maker Faire (and yes dear reader there is a trebuchet!!!) goodness...

Yesterday I was working on the deck when a boat motored up beside me and asked where we were... Which is not a question you get asked a lot these days in a world where GPS is commonplace.

So, I told him the name of the anchorage...

He then asked, "What island?"...

I told him St Croix...

"But where is Tortola?"

I pointed...

"How far is it?"...

"About 41 miles"...

"Thats a long way"...

"What course should I steer?"

"Six degrees should get you there"

"My compass doesnt work, can you point me in the right direction?"

So I pointed then went back to the job at hand and when I next looked up he was no longer in sight...

Listening to Love and the Zealous

So it goes...

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Teaching at The Wooden Boat School Tradional Modern Oar Making

After work at Shaw and Tenney, I had my debut teaching job at Wooden Boat School. One of my favorite (and most labor intensive) specialties is oar making, so I was to teach the traditional way and the modern way, using composite blades. Each students chose an oar type of their choice to fit a boat they had or wanted to have. We had everything from 7 flat blade Spruce oars (for a Nutshell Pram) to laminated plywood spoon blade sculls to a Greenland style kayak paddle.

 

We were able to get out for two solid rows where CLint coached some fixed seat rowing and we all just enjoyed learning how to use oars and be comfortable in rowboats. We were able to use the schools fleet of rowboats, including this Joel White Shearwater.

 

Students quickly learned that oar making is mostly a wood removal activity, but they also learned some of my tricks, like adding decorative laminations on the outside of the upper looms. They also learned that there is a bit of engineering and art in making oars. Because we were able to get on the water, we also so the clear link between how we shape oars in the shop and how they react on the water.

 

Finishing oars after sanding is as much work as shaping them. One of my big pet-peeves is that oars are balanced and we spent a couple hours balancing everybodys oars with a little lead in the handle. It does not make the oar heavier, effectively, because the oars weight is on the gunwale. Therefore, it is the balance that makes oars feel lightweight. Leathering the oars is a project as well as sealing and varnishing. Everybody left with the oars largely done. One student had a good challenge. He brought in a pair of hollow sculling oars and wanted to make a replacement (or back up) pair in a week. So, we made the loom solid, sized down, and laminated a pair or plywood blades much like I do in my shop for customers oars, over a laminating jig. The blades are glued on the shaped loom and the finished result looks like this, and I might add he is very happy with them. In fact they are no heavier than the original, hollow sculls!

 

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Landing School Boat Launching

A great week of learning, teaching and boat launching last week at The Landing School where I instruct in the Wooden Boatbuilding Program. These students just launched a Joel White designed Maine Coast Peapod. It performed great at the launch last Friday. We enjoyed a jaunt in the Kennebunk River during a small craft advisory. We ducked out into some of the swell, three of us aboard, to see how mannerly a Peapod is in these conditions. Even I was struck -- again -- by how well behaved a sea boat the pod can be, whether bow to or stern to the waves. We turned around and rushed in with the swell and tide as the regular Fall start students watched on and snapped photos.

With most of my work in plywood, CNC cutting and making boat kits, it is a joy to help students learn to build a boat in solid wood and one that does not depend on epoxy for holding it all together or fairing over mistakes!

Finer points of final assembly.

Check out the Programs at The Landing School on the Rocky Coast of Maine.

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Oars and Rowing at the Wooden Boat School

Clint will be teaching his Traditional and Modern Oarmaking course at the Wooden Boat School in July 2010. There are a huge number of wonderful course offerings up there this year and Clint is proud and honored to be a part of the scene.

Students will leave the course with actual, usable, and beautiful oars to put on the gunwales of there boats and go rowing. If anybody wants to make a paddle instead, the skills and processes involved are no different from oar making and wed be happy to have you in the course.

You can visit Wooden Boat Schools on-line course catalog for more information and also see my website for more information about our line of oars, stock and custom made.

Clint Chase Boatbuilder -- Oars

Wooden Boat School -- Oarmaking Course

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