Tag: Boat Building

Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival – 2019

/ Matt Talley / 2 Comments

Another fine year for the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival.  It is one of the weekends that I look forward to all summer.  My plan was to go early this year, like leaving the house at 6:00 AM and fueling up on coffee and energy bars for the 2+ hour trip from Seattle early.  The best laid plans of mice and men…

After a REALLY late start and failing to meet up with a boat builder friend at the show, my wife and I still managed to have a great day at the Festival. I think she went with me to keep me from buying a boat that “ Just needs just a little bit of work…”  Unbeknownst to her, I went to but a boat that needed a LOT of work: I am building a boat this year and had 90% decided on the Pygmy Wineglass Wherry.  I showed up planning to row the boat to make that number 100% and on taking one of their stitch&glue kits home with me.  It was ON! 

The Pygmy shop was really short staffed that afternoon and the person I spoke with initially didn’t really have the answers to show pricing, additional fiberglass, material for a sculling notch, etc…  I was told to speak with someone else, but they were not available.  Fine.  I wondered down to the water for a test row and the boat was booked out with folks in line for hours. Ok.  I am patient, I can wait.

I toured a few boats on the water and there was some stunners!  Conspicuously absent though, was my favorite Puget Sound pocket-yacht, OPUS, an Ian Oughtred Wee Seal II design.  I hope to see her later this month at the Lake Union Wooden Boat Fest.

After touring a few boats, we walked down to the Connecticut Light Craft booth and I happened into Jon Harris, the owner/designer for CLC.  Even while tearing down the mast and sails for a customer to row a boat (talked to the guy later and he bought a kit) Mr. Harris took his time to discuss his design and answer my questions.  His Northeaster Dory is everything I want the Wineglass Wherry to have after modifications (dagger board, sails, and notch) but is a little longer and is more money.  After rowing it and watching how fast the sail and mast came down, I started looking hard at the Northeaster.  My wife likes the Dory more, as does the boat builder friend we failed to meet up with earlier in the day, but I am not 100% sold (it is the additional cash and the kit delivery fee in all honesty), so I bought the Dory scale model and will build and paint if this winter to help me decide.  In the end, I did buy a boat, just a 1/8” wooden scale model.

This year was Laurel’s first time seeing the CLC teardrop camper.  She was all giddy and crawled around the thing like it was a big fluffy warm dag: all smiles.  She has a new plan: She wants to split the cost of a kit and help me build it this spring. Really, she said those words.  She is super into it! I guess we are now building a camper, but she stopped short of buying the kit right there.  It was touch and go and I could see her Alaska Miles Credit Card vibrating in her pocket.  The plan it to wait and save the cash up and build this spring for summer adventures.

In addition to buying a boat, my other hope/plan was to pick up another Clamptite from AKcooltools.  They did not have a booth there last year, but I saw them on the vendor list this year.  I looked for them some, but figured they hadn’t made it.  My wife noticed their booth in a back corner, hidden away and asked me, “That booth says clamps, it is strange that we haven’t been there today.”  (YOU CAN’T OWN TOO MANY CLAMPS!)  Well, we/I ran right over, plopped my money down and now have a new stainless Clamptite to replace the one I dropped into Lake Union.

Like I said, These folks didn’t have a great vendor spot and I don’t think it was a great show for them, which isn’t really fair in relation to their level of customer cervicce, general attitude, and awesome products.  Look them up, see if it is something you can’t live without. I am not affiliated in any way with the sellers, festival, tool, etc. and get nothing from this. I just really like what they are doing and don’t think they were getting the foot traffic they deserve.  I made a YouTube video on using the tools as well.

At the VERY end of the day Saturday, I caught the two ladies manning the Pygmy test paddle area just before they put the boats up for the night and they were awesome about letting me take the Wineglass Wherry and my sweet wife out for a spin. The boat was really stable and tracked well. The wind pushed her a bit when not rowing, but that is to be expected from a 90 pound rowboat. I still really like this boat I love the lines and the transom.  Like I said above, was almost sure I was going to build one with an added sculling notch, but I really want a daggerboard and a small sail. Both it and the dory are great boats. I have a decision to make…

Film Friday – Canoe Paddle Build Part I

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Earlier this year, while we were finishing the attic, I took a weekend and built a cherry and ash laminated canoe paddle at the Camp Beach Center For Wooden Boats shop – as my own wood shop was in full use for the attic/storage. It was a little bit of a rush build and after paddling with it once, I decided to rebuild and reform it into a better performing paddle. This video will take you through all the steps of the initial build and the refit. The next video in in this series will show the finish steps and some on-water testing.

A Weekend On and Around Puget Sound

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

I spent this past weekend ignoring my grass, projects in the house, and garage organization/completion and took to the road.

Saturday afternoon found me at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival.  There were no puppies allowed at the show, so Stamps-With-Foot stayed at home for a grueling round of puppy sitting/reading in the sunshine duty.  Despite a serious and prolonged case of Wooden Boat Lust, I succeeded in not buying a wooden sailboat at the show.   It was the ONE thing that my wife made me promise before leaving the house, which means that since I was able to fight off the boat-buying minor demon on my shoulder, am staying married.

While packing/planning the night before going to the festival, I decided it was a fine venue to work on a short YouTube film ( which will be uploaded by Friday), so I took a couple of GoPros, camera mounts, my drone, four extra SD cards, and a bunch of batteries.  The weather kind of sucked, but between pockets of rain/mist I shot the whole festival and some of the boats out on the water from the sky as well as the dock-side happenings.

There were so many cool boats and interesting folks in for the weekend!  My favorite trailer-sailor, OPUS, was there and the museum boat PIRATE from the Seattle CWB made it.   I really enjoyed talking to Tim Lemon, the owner of a Devlin Sloop named MR. MALLARD. His sculling prowess on a sailboat is impressive.  Designer and builder Graham Byrnes, of the cat ketch CARLITA was probably my favorite builder that I talked to.  I would definitely buy a boat from him if not for the above mentioned promise to my wife…  Pygmy Boats has a stitch&glue wineglass wherry rowboat that I would love to spend part of the winter building and I MAY be putting some funds back to do just that.  Howard Rice and his Scamp SOUTHERN CROSS had a fantastic story story to tell about adventures in Terra del Fuego.  Really enjoyed the Festival and love Port Townsend!  Stamps-With-Foot is definitely coming next year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Side note:  If Lee Bjorklund & Larry Goerss ever decide to sell OPUS, my wife has given me permission to buy her.  She is the only wooden sailboat that I am “allowed” to purchase.  Just saying is case Lee and Larry and hankering to move on…

Sunday afternoon was spent on Vashion Island and both my bride and the furry monsters puppies came with.  We really like the island and the coffee produced by Vashion Island Roasters.  After a short ferry ride, we went over, drove a round a little, took in the sites, had lunch near the marina, and bought 10lbs of Guatemalan medium-roast coffee.  We sampled the goods while there, played a little chess, and split a cinnamon roll before heading back to the ferry and back home for dinner.

 

 

 

Boat Lust

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

So, you may or may not know this about me, but even though I currently own a couple of small boats, I have MAD Boat Lust.  I am a member of the Center for Wooden Boats, I get Wooden Boat Magazine & Small Craft Adviser Magazine every month, go to the Lake Union, Seattle, Portland, and Port Townsend boat shows every year…  I follow four sets of Blue Water sailors on YouTube, am trying to con my wife into taking a sailing vacation (I am getting a hard NO! on that one currently), and almost bought a used 22′ lead keel sailboat last summer for “my son.”  I tried to sell it as his “learner Boat” and play up the father/son bonding time angle with it and my wife saw right through it.  To date, however, I have not come home to tell my with that “We” just purchased an Amel 55 blue water sailboat, a 47′ diesel powered Cabin Cruiser, a Chris-Craft in need of some “light repair”, or a Hans Christian 33 kept in Bristol Fashion that “I” am planning to live on since said purchase would leave me homeless, devoid of my puppies, and divorced.

If my son, The Ruminator, lived in Seattle I wouldn’t mind a swing keel Columbia 22 or a Catalina 22 to gunk hole around the Sound in with him.  A Catalina 270 LE would make my heart go pitter-patter as well, but I am a realist (-ish) and very aware of my current budget and available storage space.   A sailboat that I would only use a few times a year and have to pay moorage on, would make me very unpopular at home.  But, if someone has a 19′ WW Potter taking up space in their life that needs a new home, I would be game…

While what I WANT is a sweet little sailboat, what I NEED is a small outboard that that sits on a trailer in or beside the garage, that I can pop over to Blake or Vashion Island on, run up the Duwamish River a little piece, do a little salmon fishing on with my son or friends, haul a crab pot or three in season, find a secluded weekend beach for summer camping, etc…   It needs to have a cuddy cabin to get out of the shifty weather here in Puget Sound, some storage space to keep gear dry, needs to be light enough to be pulled behind the jeep when fully loaded, and fast enough to handle the tidal flow in the PNW.

Buying a finished boat, even used, like a Ranger Tug 21, a C-Dory 19, or a Boston Whaler 21′ Cuddy are WAY out of my price range, I have been perusing Craigslist for a 16′ -21′ hardtops, but the ones I have found are either gold plated & upholstered in unicorn foreskin or needs to be sunk.  So, in due course, I have been thinking about building the boat of need mentioned above.  I know, I know… I have a shit ton of projects already with the shop and house, but I won’t start the boat until Stamps-With-Foot agrees that the house is good and all the little projects at home are squared away.  Happy wife, happy life.

To digress a bit, my current home-built boat want is a Devlin Boats Dunlin 22 Cruiser with all the bells and whistles, but that too would be spendy, require me to quit my J-O-B to obsess over the details properly, I would have to rent out boathouse space for the duration of the build, have the time to build it, and would probably cause my sweet bride to up my life insurance just before “accidentally” pushing me into a wood chipper.

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Back in reality, I am looking hard at building a couple of boats, including a Devlin Noddy 18.  It is something realistic to build over the fall and winter, in the space I have available in the F-Bomb Garage, and within my current budget.  Powered by a 4 stroke 50HP Honda or Yamaha, with homey little extras like: a sardine wood stove in the cabin, a crab pot winch arm on the stern, and lots of LED lights.  noddy16plan-devlin-boats_2017Devlin Boat Works in just south of us in Olympia and in addition to being a design house, they are a boat works and build all manner of craft there at any given time.  I sent a couple of e-mails and made some calls about the possibility of going down this summer if they have a Noddy or similar hull under construction.  We will see if it can be arranged.

I will have to wait just lust a little while longer to satiate my boat lust…

Update: May 2017

Nope.  Devlin is off the list.  I can’t find anyone on the boat forums that has built the Noddy AND I have not had a single phone call or e-mail replied to.  I don’t need to do business with someone who I have to beg to take my money.

2017 New Year’s Resolutions:

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Stuff I will do in 2017:

Eat my veggies
Lose weight – back to 175!
Go to the gym regularly
Box more
Write more: Blog, letters, notes, fiction, non-fiction
Take a lunch at least 4 days a week at work
Show up to yoga at least once a week
Take a pottery class
Take a Blacksmithing class at the Pratt
Read 1 book every 2 weeks – minimum
Play my uke, banjo, and guitar with others
build a skin-on-frame canoe
Run and bike
Start a guitar building class
Pay off all credit cards
Go Sailing
Give lots of $$ to Heifer and MFS
Make movies and post: Adventure, craftsmanship, and family.
Lessen my Social Media presence (Blog doesn’t count)
See my kids and granddaughter more
Be involved in popitics more: financally and time wise
Work on my Genealogy database a little
Finish the house remodel
Finish the garage/shop/GROP build
Make Stuff!!
Ride my skateboard because I am not too old or too fat
Road trip in WA more
Have two hives of healthy, happy bees
Kayak lots!
See my friends more
Take my wife on vacation
Plant a spring garden
Fix up the front and back yards
Climb more inside and outside
Have an awesome Griswald-like Christmas light display!