Every year at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding we build an exciting lineup of boats for either commission or for spec. This year our students have been building the:
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Hanson Forest Service Scaler Boat
Instructor: Ben Kahn
This boat was designed by the American designer H.C. Hanson in 1957 for the US Forest Service as a Scaler’s Boat. Scalers determine the amount of board feet of lumber in each log cut by a timber crew. Three of these vessels were built commercially in the mid-1950’s to this design for the Forest Service for use in the western United States.
Under the direction of Instructor Ben Kahn, students at the School will continue construction on this boat during 2014.
The boat is 28 feet long with a beam of about 8 feet. It has a draft of four feet, and displaces about 4.5 tons.
Our boat is being built as a cruising vessel. It will be planked in aromatic port orford cedar from southern Oregon, over white oak frames. The house sides will be mahogany. The boat is driven by a 54 hp Yanmar diesel engine, and will be customized to the owner’s desire’s before delivery.
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Stephens/Waring Yacht Designed “Sentinel 24”
Instructor: Sean Koomen
This is the first boat in the Sentinel-24 class of designed by Stephens/Waring Yacht Design of Belfast, Maine (SWYD) www.stephenswaring.com .
The Sentinel-24 class is designed to be a comfortable and stylish sloop with the beautiful lines of yesterday’s classics paired with modern underbody design and state-of-the art rigging.
This vessel represents Stephens Waring Yacht Design’s signature approach to distinctive, fun and high performance sailing with more than a touch of historic grace.
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Classic American Whitehalls
Instructors: Ben Kahn and Jeff Hammond
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is contracting with the School for the construction of three traditionally-built Whitehalls to be built as replicas of the boats used by John Wesley Powell and his group during their first-ever descent of the Colorado River in 1869. The BBC will film a reenactment of the voyage later in 2013.
The School is building one 16-foot Whitehall, the “Scout Boat”, and two 21-foot Whitehalls. Though Powell launched four Whitehalls onto the river in 1869, one was lost in rapids shortly after the descent began.
Whitehalls are the iconic American pulling boat.
Robert Perry 62′ Wood Composite Yacht “Sliver”
Instructor: Bruce Blatchley
This 62-foot strip-planked day sailor was designed by the renowned designer Robert Perry for a client here in the Pacific Northwest. www.perryboat.com/
Bob Perry has been very pleased with the School’s progress on the boat, and has remarked more than once that he feels we are doing a superlative job on the construction.
The boat was built on molds cut by Turn Point Design in Port Townsend.turnpointdesign.com/
The hull is western red cedar sheathed in 24-ounce fiberglass. WEST System products have been used throughout the project. www.westsystem.com/ss/
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Lapstrake Sid Skiff (for sale)
Instructor: Jeff Hammond
Master Boatbuilder Ray Speck drew the lines for this classic Puget Sound small craft while working as a boatbuilder in Sausalito CA. Ray saw that the harbormaster, Sid Foster, was using a particularly sweet little 12′ 5″ lapstrake skiff to row around Richardson Bay.
Ray took the little skiff’s lines with Sid’s permission, and over time, developed them into a range of skiffs from 13 to 18 feet long. Ray estimates he’s built just about one hundred of these beautiful boats so far in his nearly 45 year career as a boatbuilder, many of them while teaching at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding. The Sid is an excellent sailor as well as a very nice boat to row. A rare combination.
Planked in red cedar, framed with white oak and trimmed with a combination of Honduras mahogany and Sapele this is the most recent of many built at the school.
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Davis Pulling Row Boat
Instructor: Jeff Hammond
The Davis Pulling Row Boat is carvel planked. The Davis boats were built by a native family in Southeast Alaska. It is believed that they were modeled on the Pelagic Sealing Skiffs and ship’s boats. They were very popular and used in the hand trolling fishing industry of the early to mid part of the 20th century. The lines were taken from an orginial boat that is in the Center for Wooden Boat’s permanent collection in Seattle.
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Lapstrake Planked Grandy Skiff
Instructor: Jeff Hammond
Grandy Skiff, lapstrake planked in western red cedar and framed in white oak.
The cross bars (called “cross spalls”) keep the boats shape against the press of the white oak frames until the interior is constructed. — at Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding.
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Plywood Bartender Work Boat
Instructor: Bruce Blatchley
During WWII George Calkins built boats for the war effort. After the war he began focusing on smaller plywood boats. Prams, rowboats, dories, runabouts, race boats, and cabin cruisers emerged from the CalkinsCraft shop at Delake, OR (now Lincoln City).
Over a ten year period George built over 1,000 plywood boats. Besides being successfully built and used by recreational boaters all over the world, BARTENDERS have been used extensively in Australia by harbor patrols, state police, and Australia’s famous surf rescue teams. Several oil companies have utilized the BARTENDER in the offshore oil industry to get them through rough sea conditions that most other small craft would not handle.