A dfferent type of Art lost,,,,

[Oyster]

Craft At Sea: Boatwright worries skills will die with him

I thought I would add this to the mix even though most here probably have never given this much of a passing thought. But its so true, there are some things that the next generation of youths will never experience, walking into a dirt laden shed and smell cedar, cypress, and overall guys pondering over a nicely shaped curve of a wooden batten, placed just right to the eye. This guy gets it.  No one wants to learn, no money in it, but also no demand for such items either.

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008/oct/13/craft-at-sea-boatwright-worries-skills-will-die-wi/news/

[Greg Luckett]

Hmmm?  At least three of my four sons have built boats and all four have done wood working projects.  I doubt that we are that unusual from the past, but then I recall how dumb founded the looks (I saw this myself a few times) were on the faces of their teachers and classmates when the boys told of it at school.

[Greg Luckett]

Check out this site too.  A fellow boat builder and friend has been active in setting this school up.

http://www.greatlakesboatbuilding.org/index.php

[Frank Hagan]

I think traditional wooden boat building has gone the way of the traditional blacksmith arts; its a curiosity that people will continue at museums and that sort of thing.  Stitch and glue boat building is a lot different, and I think that the amateur boat builders will be around still.

[Oyster]

The principle of setting up a boat and truing up a boat seems to be lacking with most of the stitch and glue boats and really cannot be taught by a book. The stitch and glue method is also limited in the sizes of hulls, and will at some point need a jig arrangment to build a bigger boat. Unless a jig is trued by CNC machines, and even so, you must make sure that the things are square and such and also conform to shape or else flaws will telegraph to the surface big time. I feel that folks have experienced that big time after the fact.

But also these guys understand wood grains and picking and choosing the woods was essential in almost all cases of the framing anyway. I guess I can see where this guy is coming from and this was more or less mindless chatter on a real rainy morning.

[Greg Luckett]

Oyster, it is wet, windy, and chilly here today too.  I just came back from a drive in the woods to collect the boys from a Scout camp.  Glad I have a 4WD truck.

I agree completely with you about the limitations and types of skills needed to build stitch & glue boats.  They are almost always (maybe all) hard chined boats and limited due to the way plywood will bend in only one direction at a time, and relatively simple to build.  My favorite is lapstrake and enjoy building them, but a nicely shaped S&G hull still turns me on too.  I really like the hull shape of this Spindrift 12 being built in the shop now, which is why I am considering a CS20 as the next boat to build.

Frank, there are still orders being made at boat builders here in Michigan for lapstrake boats, and it is a steady business for a few builders.  There are kayak and canoe builders doing a steady business too.  These places almost always seem to be at or over manufacturing capacity...they are small one or two man shops, and occasionally will hire in additional temporary help for projects.

[Greg Luckett]

Oyster,

Just so you enjoy your nice weather more, here is a forcast where I live:

Late This Afternoon...Breezy. Cloudy with a 50 percent chance of rain showers and snow showers. Northwest winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph.

Tonight...Snow showers likely. Snow accumulation up to 2 inches. Breezy. Lows in the lower 30s. Northwest winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph. Chance of precipitation 70 percent.

Sunday...Mostly cloudy. Chance of snow showers in the morning... Then snow showers likely in the afternoon. Snow accumulation around 1 inch. Breezy. Highs in the upper 30s. West winds 15 to 25 mph. Chance of precipitation 60 percent.

Sunday Night...Mostly cloudy. Snow showers likely in the evening... Then chance of snow showers after midnight. Snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches. Lows in the lower 30s. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation 60 percent.

Monday...Snow showers likely. Light snow accumulations. Windy. Highs in the upper 30s. Northwest winds 15 to 25 mph. Chance of precipitation 70 percent.

Monday Night...Snow showers likely. Moderate snow accumulations. Breezy. Lows in the upper 20s. North winds 15 to 25 mph. Chance of precipitation 70 percent.

[Oyster]

Right now we are in shirt sleeves but supposed to change tonight or early tommorrow. Up state they had a very bad tornado last night, and some folks were killed from the weather pattern. Stay warm. Nice shot of the boys too. They will be grown in a blink of an eye.

I have been gluing up some components for my windshield project using fast set to get the unit glued up completely so I can just sand to stay warm in the next few days. Let me load some photos and I will burn some bandwidth for you to see my single person lapstrake project.

[Greg Luckett]

That picture is from 8 years ago.  Sam turned 14 yesterday, Ben will turn 13 next April, and Dan is now 23 and out of the Air Force.  I picked that picture to emphasize that skills are still being taught.

[Oyster]

Hyjack time! Here is some eyewash for you, a fun project of changing a Simmons layout completely.

I had  a limited amount of area on the corners of the fold out windshield section, but also needed some stiffening and support at that area. I wanted to have a place for folks to grab in lieu of the top of the windshield that was totally exposed to damage if left naked. But with the thin area, grain orientation and having a handhold area would also weaken the "grabrail" area when I cut the hole for it.

Step one, glue plywood in place, mortising it into the existing moulding around the top of the console. The two outside layups would overlap the leftover.

This is a bassboat style layout foward with a walkthrough windshield.

I am not capping the gussett with three layers and will nose the edge of it when done.

[Oyster]

That picture is from 8 years ago.  Sam turned 14 yesterday, Ben will turn 13 next April, and Dan is now 23 and out of the Air Force.  I picked that picture to emphasize that skills are still being taught.

I understand completely what you had spoken in your reply. Those guys will surely remember those times.

[Greg Luckett]

That picture is from 8 years ago.  Sam turned 14 yesterday, Ben will turn 13 next April, and Dan is now 23 and out of the Air Force.  I picked that picture to emphasize that skills are still being taught.

I understand completely what you had spoken in your reply. Those guys will surely remember those times.

Oh, good then.  I was concerned that I had confused things.

[lbrewer]

I'm saddened by the skills that are being lost even locally.  The area of southern Alabama where I live has a history steeped in wooden boats and boatbuilding to support the local commercial fishing and shrimping industry.  Only one yard in Bayou la Batre now handles repairs on wooden boats....and they don't build new ones anymore.

Nice work on the Simmons Oyster!(Simmons/Bassboat?)  Is that the old one you were doing some restoration on a while back?

[Oyster]

I'm saddened by the skills that are being lost even locally.  The area of southern Alabama where I live has a history steeped in wooden boats and boatbuilding to support the local commercial fishing and shrimping industry.  Only one yard in Bayou la Batre now handles repairs on wooden boats....and they don't build new ones anymore.

Nice work on the Simmons Oyster!(Simmons/Bassboat?)   Is that the old one you were doing some restoration on a while back?

I personally do not know where the shrimping industry and the working waterfront will be even ten years from now. The only saving grace has been the decline of new waterfront condo developements because of the overbuilding in the past two years causing some of the last patches of land to become less desirable for now.

This hull is a 22' foot belonging to a friend of a friend that wanted full use of his hull but did not know how to archieve it keeping the balance also right.

[Greg Luckett]

Where are the shrimp boats being built now, assuming they are?  The shrimping industry is still a Gulf Coast thing, right?  I have been gone from there except for brief visits for many years.

[Oyster]

Where are the shrimp boats being built now, assuming they are?  The shrimping industry is still a Gulf Coast thing, right?  I have been gone from there except for brief visits for many years.

Thats just it, the demand is almost null and void from what I am experiencing. There are numerous ones for sale at almost any price. I personally know of no one actively building shrimp boats persay right now. The issue is obtaining licenses and then dockage for them is tough. Packing houses are also slowly on the decline. Each year there seems to be a new license to be purchased and fishing quotas are changed, in most cases decreased slowly regulating the old timers right out of business. Kids are seeking other avenues too.

You know the shrimp thats purchased at the Sam's Club and WalMart type stores and even at your local big chain grocery stores all are imported farm raised and dried out stuff at prices less than what the domestic shrimp are going for and people are buying them all day long. There has been a major crackdown on the old boats too , spo checks for their maintainance too..

[lbrewer]

With the imported shrimp being the ones mass marketed......and with the price of fuel, it can cost more to go out than the catch will bring at market.  Many have just given up.

[Greg Luckett]

With the imported shrimp being the ones mass marketed......and with the price of fuel, it can cost more to go out than the catch will bring at market.   Many have just given up.

This truly, deeply, saddens me. >

[Frank Hagan]

Along the west coast, there isn't much left of the traditional boat building.  The Dory Fleet at Newport Beach is still in business, with modernization that I'm sure includes fiberglass boats.  When I was a kid, the dory fishermen would take boats out that looked like this one.  They rolled them down the beach on wooden rollers, launched them into the surf and rowed like crazy.  I was always amazed at how fast they were rowing through the small surf at this spot.  On return, the fishermen would beach the boats, and they would allow us to help them push them up the beach while one of them handled the rollers.

I was dismayed to see a picture of the modern dory fleet launching from trailers, being backed into the water where the sand has been hardened somehow (there is no way you could drive a regular car on our soft sand).  But it makes sense; they do have to earn a living, and time is a concern.

[Steve Day]

Greg,

Shrimping is still here. The guys that I buy from (nothing like eating shrimp that was swimming last night!) are using old boats in the Bay and trying to keep them up. I don't think any of them could afford a new boat today.

I think the same could be said for those that shrimp out in the Gulf of Mexico. They are barely able to make a living right now, although it has gotten a bit better with the price of fuel going down a bit.

Gina just called and said that the shrimp is ready to eat, so I guess I'll go now.

Steve