There's a New Shipwright in Town! - Episode 158 - Acorn to Arabella: Journey of a Wooden Boat

this week alex moves forward on the mizzen mast upstairs and a new member of the crew comes to help hang arabella's planking and then steve will open a few presents off the wish list from a couple of our generous patrons [Music] so here we are mast is now on rollers which is great i can just move it by hand now the plan now is to cut off all these cookies that they built up on the bottom of the mast and this is probably going to end up being the top of the mast anyways there are what it looks like to be a couple of drifts in here so i think i'm going to take the sawzall to here and cut cookie by cookie and try to figure out what's in here and how to take this apart as best we can i'll come right up and there are good ways got all that in there last one might need a little persuasion use a slide hammer right now [Music] that was all that in there so i bet this uh planing footage is starting to get a little bit monotonous for everybody i do enjoy it though this is uh one of the tasks that i really like but speaking of this project and truing the mast a lot of uh the machinists on the channel uh pointed out that what we made were actually called cat's heads um which i had never heard of before but pretty cool um so they're used for basically steadying an uneven piece of material so obviously for machinists it would be metal um so that they can true it exactly like what we're doing on here so i guess we did build some steady rests after all so thank you for those that mentioned that and pointed that out it was uh definitely neat to hear the mast is now true all the way down to the end so that end is out we got all the pins out of the end of it as well and now it's time to start figuring out what's going on with these uh little rot spots and some of the little engraving pieces that we need to put in so there's not much in terms of rat spots there's just um there's this and this we're not really sure where they came from but there's um a little bit in here that is concerning so we're just gonna tear that out and uh put in a graving piece so probably just like a a nice little diamond right in here and then same thing over here and then at the very end we just have a couple places where there were through bolts at the top of the mast and like we said before in the last episode the mast we're going to use it upside down it just made more sense with what we've got going on here we'll put all those little defects at the bottom so that that's not going through the small diameter of the top of our mast so i got to figure out something here to cut these accurately and i think steve had a good idea so that we have a reference point is going to be to make up a platform that can sit on here so that way i can use this to use a little square to square down into the hole and make sure that i get a good bottom to that and i can basically make two little platforms underneath that will rest against the mast and hold this tight and then i will just clamp it to a couple boards underneath and that'll give me a good working platform to measure things off of and to work off of and run the router and whatever we need to do so i'm going to work on making this and then we're going to start digging those out and i will plug those and now for plugging those we have a bunch of material that we can use one of the big things is since the mask tapers at the end we can just cut off little pieces off of there and we can fit those right in here which is great because it'll be the exact same wood it'll be running in the same orientation and then for the dowels down there we might just do it in cedar it's not really something that really matters all that much it's going to be down below deck it'll be dry there'll be glue in there so it'll be good and it's not anywhere that is going to be down in the bilge it's just going to be below deck so whatever is down in the bilge is actually going to be sitting on the mast step and the tenon that goes to the mast step is going to get sealed so that that has no issues with it either as you may have heard in the background outside in the driveway steve was still motoring away on making the plywood for the bulkheads and off screen here they both had some help from a volunteer that wanted to stay off camera he's making up the rest of the copper rivets that will soon be used to finish up the planking and to attach the build stringers inside the boat [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so so so [Music] foreign so [Music] [Music] making the mask look like a hedgehog yeah right alex finished plugging the holes with the cedar dowels but before he could get to the graving pieces there was a special arrival to the boathouse carolyn is a boat builder that will be around over the next months to help steve finish the planking so the first step was just to show her around the place and get her oriented and these are your grandfather's tools yeah some of them are grandfathers great grandfathers great great great grandfathers have you guys been in western mass for a little while my family i'm fifth generation on this chunk of property wow yeah that's pretty cool so we've got the original house here that i'm in now and then my mom's house is next door and then my grandparents house is next door than that so when i was a kid and i walked out my back door my grandparents lived on my right and my great-grandparents lived on my left oh man yeah like whoa we don't have to build a single door whoa we got them all they just need like some love and a fresh coat of varnish that's a nice thing too yeah we got a screaming deal on that one of our friends tipped us off for it being on ebay for 250 bucks yeah right you should put a thousand before that 250. it's not even rusty it was a little rusty when we got it but it's beautiful yeah and you've got what how old was victoria uh she was built in 1926-27 so you've got hundred-year-old mahogany furniture yeah okay and we've got like the panels the frames that they fit into so when it comes to do the interior i mean we need to find a spot where that fits 100 and then just figure out which of the doors belong to it um but yeah we've got treasure trove and then that's all paneling cool did you give her a benefit yeah thanks i mean we're just gonna make the rudder to fit perfect oh that's awesome if you're like man i wish i had a staging plank there it is there it is right um and behind that is just a whole mountain of locust like hey do you guys want a 27-inch thickness plater so this was made in boston in the 1800s late 1800s but we don't have the electrical supply out here to run it so we got given a 1947 flathead industrial chrysler we literally have a 90 horsepower thickness planer well it likes oak then wow this this is so fun yeah and we're i mean we're lucky with being able to just go cut all the oak we want for the most part um so like being able to put on 12 inch cardboards yeah yeah i really like the the hook pin thanks so did you do the frames and then the cross bracing and then pattern for planks yep okay yeah so the bronze straps are let into the frames and then there is not like a super ton to eat in the house okay so i figured you and i could go do groceries and you could get the things that you want to be eating that sounds great and we can figure that out and that that would probably basically be today cool um and then tomorrow we can wake up have breakfast and and actually get to work sweet i might take a long look at your plans yeah hi my name is carolyn corbin i'm originally from baltimore maryland and we have a mutual friend in common my friend andrew who's on the rosalind project introduced me to steven alex so i came out to acorn to arabella for a few weeks to help them get their planking on i started with boats after college during college i actually sailed tall ships for quite a few years and while i was sailing i met up with tony finicaro who's a shipwright out of maine and i decided that i really liked the work that he did i worked with him in some of the yards on the tall ships i sailed on and then i actually apprenticed under tony for three summers and spent a lot of time learning from him and just working on different tall ships and different schooners doing everything from plank replacements to a worm shoe replacements to interior deck work deck house work um and i really enjoyed the work so i kind of made a commitment to stop sailing and just full-time focus on the carpentry and the shipwright work so i attended the pacific the northwest school of wooden boat building in port townsend in washington i spent the months of cobid there the school ran for 12 months with an interruption and there's a motorcycle and there we covered everything from drafting and lofting to full on boat building boat repair interior joinery we did everything as an overview and it really complemented well with the stuff that i had worked with with tony and the other tall ships so when i came out i felt i feel pretty confident now of having a general knowledge of what boots are and it's really nice to be able to come here to this boat and these guys have done so much reading and so much work and it's really cool just to chat with them because the little knowledge that i have from the east coast a little bit from the chesapeake bay a little bit from the pacific northwest now and then everything that they have read i feel really lucky to be here because it's just flushing out more ways to do things because the best thing about boat building is that there's always a different way to do it and it's really fun to kind of get my hands on a different project and just try new things the next day alex got back to the mast cleaning up the cedar plugs and getting started on the graving pieces in the boat steve got carolyn going on cleaning up the area that will soon end up behind the bilge stringers that meant cleaning off the dried dolphinite around the frames and taking any ledges off the inside of the planks to keep the crud from building up over time [Music] how goes the battle really well yeah yeah i mean hogged it off gonna come back with some 40 grit and just smooth them out smooth them out a little bit so they don't catch anything and trap anything yeah i'd imagine you're not taking much off huh no i mean where it's starting to take a little more shape there were a lot crowder but like that here it's almost nothing um and i'm just going one down from where the build stringers are gonna go because once they're on it's gonna be more annoying to get up there perfect so believe it or not i don't really consume much youtube but just create for it but i am told that unboxing videos are a very popular thing and uh since we put the wish list up a few things have been purchased from that and they have arrived so we'll take our take a crack here and uh doing an unboxing so major thanks to robert henderson for this one and these if i'm not mistaken should be the foot pumps awesome so these are the foot pumps for the galley so one will pump fresh water one will pump salt water uh we're not going to have pressurized water in the boat this is much simpler and easier uh so those are good when we get to planting out the galley we can figure out exactly where those need to be and how much counter space and where the plumbing is going to go and then really exciting are some akan boat plans so these are plans for the potential tender we've got three plans that we want to eventually get this is the first one let me make sure i got this right and that is from bob randle who is one of our long time patrons so thank you bob really excited about this uh so let's pop open these plans and take a peek so here's one of the foot pumps out of the box and that'll get mounted probably so it's hidden behind and then you just push your foot and make the water pump so those would be great and here we have the boat plans and when i started looking for designers i loved atkins tagline motto whatever you want to call it individualized designs for unregimented yachtsmen and i was like that's us we are super unregimented so if i'm not mistaken these should be [Applause] faye dear steve thank you for your order of plans for faye the drawings are enclosed i'm delighted you are to build an akan boat as you know all designs are well proven if built as designed when finished i would appreciate a photo from my website and if so moved photos as building let me hear any time best wishes and stay safe paddocking man that's a little simpler lofting than for uh the ingrid for arabella huh just a little bit it might have been easier to learn maybe yeah i mean it's pretty much the same thing exactly it's just a heck of a lot more complicated version of it cool so atkins says fey in case you wish to know is a fairy who lived and i like to think yet lives among the reed stems of that magic lake from which arose the sword of king arthur and when you attack the charm and the elfishness the lightness and the mystery of a fairy's name to a tiny boat well there then you are upon the track of romance even before you go afloat and sophie should be a very good name for a boat 10-foot dinghy find it an exceptionally fine little craft quite exceptionally enough to carry the charming name of faye 10 feet overall with a water line of nine foot two breath of four and draft of six inches dimensions spell a wholesome and burdensome hull i think she's a good contender so i'd like to get the plans for the other two and then we can do a rough lofting and possibly do like a cardboard mock-up even and see how they fit on the boat and how all that's going to go together because maybe if we drop the house an inch and raise the boom an inch we can get one of these boats onto the housetop which would be really really ideal place to carry it and being able to build the tender to go with the boat and build them at the same time kind of at least keep them in mind is going to be really helpful to make sure that we've got a really good place to stow the dinghy and a really good dinghy to go with arabella and the plan still stands is to make her out of the cedar mahogany that we salvage from victoria which i think would be a great fitting contribute to the last little bits of goodwood from victoria so thank you very much to everyone who has donated to the wishlist so far we've got a few more things ordered and they're on their way and uh thank you so much for the support we could not be doing this without you everyone for watching and come back next week to see how those graving pieces turn out and also next week the first of the bilge stringers are going in so we'll see you next friday so who are you and why are you here yeah so i'm carolyn my name is carolyn corbin just as the yeah well youtube you're an airfield at least you're not near an airfield it's not commercial it's like huge military plants great great shall we start again

Channel: Acorn To Arabella

Views: 148,191

Keywords: Acorn to Arabella, wooden boat, boatbuilding, sailing, water, sail boat, carpentry, woodworking, inspirational, DIY, ship, sailboat, cruising, tools, granby, Atkin, building, wood, carvel, sustainability, bronze, travel, new england, massachusetts, workshop, boatshop, how to, traditional, shipwright, help, northwest school of boatbuilding, port townsend, mizzen, mast, graving pieces, rot, fix, plugs, dowels, fir, douglas fir, cedar

Id: QihibiESYZQ

Length: 23min 43sec (1423 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 16 2021