and more scows

http://www.rockingtheboat.org/whatsnew/index2010.php#v

San Francisco, Mission Creek, hay scow unloading:

Scows in my blood

I've been a closet Scow fan since I nailed together a sailing toy in my grandfather's basement workshop when I was 12.   "Alma" in the San Francisco Maritime Museum's collection is a living example of what were essentially the Semi Trailers of the late 1800's on S.F. Bay.

I'm always looking for more examples.  Here are my latest finds:

http://www.maineboats.com/print/issue-110/letters-to-the-editor-110



on a Woodenboat posting:

On the water with the Gloucester Gull

The "Gull" out on Spring Lake, Santa Rosa CA.  A beautiful early summer day.  These boats are quite fast.  The genius in the design is that it only weighs 70-80 lbs.  To quote the great automotive designer, Colin Chapman: "To add speed, add lightness".  So true.

After all the 'burrowing' was done, I mixed up epoxy with fillers and used this "putty" 'and fiberglass fabric to both fill in and reinforce the missing plywood areas.  As you can see, a huge chunk of the stem was gone.  The area where the plywood was fastened seemed to be in good shape, so total stem replacement was not necessary.  Honestly, if this boat needed a new stem, I'd sooner have a nice "beach bonfire" with her and send her minerals back to earth, then start from scratch.  New construction is quite a bit easier than this type of repair.. but we perserver.....

Here is it all prepped.  The areas of bare wood have been treated with epoxy which really hardens things up, and waterproofs them.  I had to trim the stem back to good wood before shaping a replacement patch.

This is the "patch", ready to go in:



Monterey Cypress stem patch;
very decay resistant and lightweight



Scrape then Sand the whole interior, then primed.

Here's what we started with:

My Kids are ready and willing to help.  We discover that what lies beneath are a few problem areas with significant rot.  Adjacent to the forwardmost and rearmost thwarts (seats), rainwater probably sat and saturated the wood.  Over time, paint is no protection, and rot kicks in.  Some areas had no more wood and all that was left was the thin fiberglass skin.

We dug and vaccuumed away, but it started to get discouraging.

My helper finally straightened me out "it's not the end of the world dad!"...

Good Kid!

A quick run around the harbor.  Like all Bank Dorys, this one is quite "tender" at first (a tendency to tip easily and very quickly when center of gravity is high).

Lightweight Dory (or Pepe's old boat)

Back in 1978-80, I was a kid in the Sea Scouts, ship #128 "Flying Cloud".  Our skipper owned and lent to the unit, a variety of his personal "smallboats".  A beautiful Lap Straked "Wherry" was by far the best boat we had access to.  The Wherry "Cirrus" was unfortunately, stolen from the pier in Aquatic Park, a devastating blow by far.  It was replaced with a lapstraked "Banks Dory" (named after the "Grand Banks", Nova Scotia).  While the Dory was no where as beautiful as the Wherry, it was simple to build, and I decided at that point, it was the boat for me.

Years later, I run into Pepe again, and he has an old boat for me he has no space for anymore.  This "Lightweight" dory is a simplified version of the Banks Dory, tailored for rowing.

Here is our first trial after an overhaul in the last 4 weeks.

It's a lightweight boat, I suspect along the lines of the "Gloucester Gull", a Phil Bolger/Dynamite Payson design, but I don't have the lines handy. Anyhow, it can easily car-top on my small car and I think I can get away without having to buy a trailer.

I built a 16' Bank Dory from John Gardner's 'Dory Book' when I was 12 (well, it took me 6 years to complete, so really 18).

This was "Rosa", rigged for sail with steel plate centerboard:

This dory was built of 3/4" Phillipine Mahogany and she was very very heavy. Not a great sailboat due to the Bank Dory lines, but solid pulling boat. This boat definitely needed a trailer! I sold her off a few years ago as I just had too many toys to deal with, and very limited storage space.

The kids have always loved small boats, much more than our "big" boat "Spray". The opportunity to relate to the water is probably at the root of it.. they love to lean over the side and drag their hands along. Also, dad isn't occupied with ship traffic, engines, sails, etc.. a small pulling boat on a backwater or lake is just the ticket. I'm glad to have another smallboat.

I've decided to be much more serious about using "Blogger.Com" as a journal for my wooden-boat hobby. I have found that writing helps me organize my thoughts and problem solve much more effectively, and in the end, I have some sort of record of what I've been doing with all my time (so that's what you've been doing in the garage.....) ;)

A friend from long ago, in fact a friend who introduced me to wooden-boats presented me with a 16' lightweight dory he had owned and used for years:

Here the kids are checking it out. The lovely and supportive wife gazes upon our next endeavor.. ;)