Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Nick Schade runs Guillemot Kayaks, one of the best-known providers of plans and kits for strip-built kayaks. He has written feature articles for Sea Kayaker and other magazines.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Building Strip-Planked Boats

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Contents

Chapter One

Let's get this clear from the start: it is a waste of time to build your own wooden boat. These days there are far quicker ways to get yourself on the water than going down to a basement shop, fooling around with a bunch of weird tools, making a big mess, and spending time being careful to do it right. You can go out to the local boating store and buy a boat ready to go that will be perfectly serviceable, getting you where you want to go with a lot less fuss and bother.

Instead of wasting your time building a boat you could be at work earning more money, so you can afford the really high-quality glitter on your fiberglass boat, or maybe a hydraulic elevator to lift a plastic barge onto the roof of your car, or something else useful.

There are few reasons to build a wooden boat that make practical sense on a cost-benefit chart, but for some reason lots of people still want to do it. It may be that they just enjoy the process of converting a raw board into a mode of transportation. I think there is more to it than just an excuse to buff the rust off their tool collection. There is some ineffable quality to wood boats that makes them attractive. The quality goes beyond the strict physical appearance because even rather ordinary-looking boats are attractive when built of wood. Wood grain lends an eye-catching complexity to a surface that simply can't be achieved with synthetic materials.

Building a boat is a big project. It takes time, some physical effort, and a lot of concentration and thought. If all you are looking for is a nice boat, there are plenty of other options out there. If you want an inexpensive craft to go fishing in, there are cheaper options available than building one yourself. If all you really want is a pretty wooden vessel, you may be better off getting someone else to build it for you. Don't take on the task if the idea of the project itself does not appeal to you. On the other hand, building a boat is a break from a world of instant gratification and impending deadlines. You will probably end up bleeding or with a painful splinter at some point during the project. It is very possible that the job will cause you to get angry and swear. But it is also a chance to invest time in making something of value with your own hands.

There is something special about boats. Lots of projects can satisfy the bug to build things, but there are few projects accessible to the average do-it- yourself craftsperson that you can travel in. Unlike a bookshelf, a boat isn't just another inanimate object; it is a partner in exploring new territory. Creating this partner with your own hands, deliberately fitting each piece in place, bleeding on it, dripping sweat as you proceed, and agonizing over each detail fills the vessel with value. It is the challenge and time that you put into it that makes the project worth doing.

The Strip-Building Method

Over the thousands of years that humans have been building small vessels for venturing out on the water, people have created hundreds of different methods for constructing those craft. Traditional boatbuilding typically involves creating a frame and a waterproof shell. The frame usually provides the structural strength of the boat while the outer surface is primarily a means of keeping water out so the boat will float. The frame will often consist of some form of backbone, such as a keel, plus ribs supporting the shell. The backbone provides the basis for strength along the length of the boat. The ribs define the shape of the boat and back up the outer shell. The shell may be in the form of planking, or in the case of traditional kayaks it may just be a layer of sealskin.

A more recent technique fastens multiple small wood strips edge to edge and then encapsulates this shell under layers of fabric and glue. This is the strip- building or strip-planking method. With strip-built construction, the outer shell provides both the structure and the watertight integrity of the boat. This monocoque (French for "single shell") structure includes the strength of the ribs and backbone into the waterproof skin of the boat in one integrated, lightweight, and strong piece. In traditionally built small boats, such as a canoe or Adirondack guide boat, the outer surface was ¼-inch-thick (6 mm) cedar supported by a structure of ribs every 4 or 5 inches (10 to 12 cm) held in place with small tacks or screws. In a strip-built boat the strip thickness may still be ¼ inch or less, but the ribs have been replaced with a woven fabric such as fiberglass, Kevlar, or carbon fiber adhered to the wood with epoxy resin.

You may notice that the title of this book refers to strip-planked boats, yet I often use the term strip-built. In traditional boatbuilding methods, planks are fairly heavy boards that you fasten to a structure of internal frames, but in the method described in this book, there are no internal frames; the "planks" are very thin strips of wood that, in themselves, represent much of the boat's structure. That's why I use the term strip-built most often, but it means the same thing as strip-planked.

Strip-building is simple in concept: bend a bunch of narrow, flexible strips around a set of forms, and cover them with a waterproof reinforcement. And—unlike many seemingly simple concepts—it is actually relatively simple to do. The strip-built method is well suited for making small boats with minimal tools. It doesn't require extensive training or skill, and it is tolerant of mistakes. While first-time builders may have trouble building a boat that looks exactly how they want, it is very likely that they will build a boat that performs the way they want. It is the nature of the strip-built method that big mistakes are hard to make, and little ones don't hurt.

Because the wood is encapsulated in fiberglass and epoxy, it is quite certain that the finished boat will not leak, even if elsewhere your craftsmanship is not perfect. The epoxy seals all but the largest holes. The fiberglass also reinforces weak joints, making them much stronger. With the wood under a protective coat of epoxy and fiberglass it will not rot. Because the fiberglass and epoxy are perfectly transparent, the full beauty of the wood shines through.

Some builders of larger boats use a technique, also called strip-planking, in which strips of wood that are the same thickness as traditional boat planks, but narrower from top to bottom, are secured together with glue and maybe some nails, but they don't necessarily sheathe the wood in fabric and resin. This technique works well for larger boats that need thicker planking, but for small, lightweight boats, the fiberglass or other reinforcing fabric saturated with epoxy or other resin is a critical part of the building process. Since this book is tailored toward small, cartoppable boats, it assumes all the wood will be encapsulated in resin and fabric.

This "composite" structure comprising wood, glass, and plastic overcomes a lot of problems with wood boat construction while giving many advantages over standard modern fiberglass construction. The epoxy seals the wood from exposure to moisture, virtually eliminating the possibility of rot. The elimination of fasteners like nails and screws does away with...