Sunshine and schooner frames

A person would have to be a fool to think that spring is really sprung and that Nova Scotia's wintry weather is done for another year.

Still, a week's worth of sunshine does the heart good after months of grey and wet, and it sure makes it more pleasant to be working outside in The Dory Shop Boatyard.

Boat lumber delivery

Dave was glad to have a shipment of excellent new boat lumber arrive today.

It's primarily Osage Orange, an extremely durable southern hardwood that creates such crazy, almost neon sawdust. You can see that the pieces are curved, a characteristic that makes them especially useful, even labour-saving, for frame construction.

There were also a few pieces of Black Walnut and Oak.

You know all that hooey about double-sawn frames two posts again? Well, the reality is if you can find timber to fit the curve then you darn well use it, as shown in this shot of a forward frame made from solid pieces of Osage Orange.

Presenting the half model

Here is the half-hull model for our twin schooners, masterfully designed and carved by Dave Westergard.

From the outset we decided to design and model these vessels the traditional way by using a half-hull instead of blue prints. In this way you can really see the shape of things to come.

In this model we were seeking several particular features. As these schooners are intended to be capable of deep-sea ocean voyaging, as well as summer time coastal cruising and racing, we are demanding seaworthiness and speed, stiffness so she sails more standing up than on her ear, pretty sheer, bow and stern, and a goodly amount of room below.

In many respects this a classic Tancook Schooner but with additional beam and other nuances incorporated. We think the model is gorgeous. And of course we are building them to be very strong.

Double-sawn

The frames of these twin schooners are being built the traditional, time-tested way and so are double sawn and made of hackmatack (you may know it as larch).

A double-sawn frame is made from several pieces of wood, known as futtocks or foot hooks, that are placed end to end to create the curve of the hull running from the keel to the sheer. A second frame that is identically shaped but has joints in difference places, is fastened to the first, forming a frame that is nearly as strong as one cut from a solid piece of wood.

And the reality is you can't get wood thick enough to provide the full curve of the frame for vessels of this size. Using several futtocks, cut from live edge hackmatack like the pieces you see below, makes it possible to build the curve of a frame one section at a time.

Frame by frame

We promised these schooners would be twins, built up together, frame by frame, plank by plank, creating a new class of vessels that can genuinely compete. And so the logical next step after installing the first frames on one schooner was to install the same on schooner two, as shown below.

First frames!

A truly significant and happy milestone for this project. But let's let the pictures do the talking this time.