Beveling the Stem

Tom beveled the stem and it turned out beautifully. It has been marked with stringer, sheer clamp, and station locations. This is a substantial piece of mahogany and it will add so much in terms of strength and beauty to the boat.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

The Bulkhead Frames and the Transom

Trimming the okoume to size on the bulkhead.

The router's flush cut bit does a fine job of trimming the okoume to match the frame.

You can never have enough clamps!

The Oukoume came in from Edensaw Lumber so Tom was able to attach it to the bulkhead frames and trim it to size on the router. Then, using African mahogany, he started building the transom using lap joints. Next, the transom will be shaped and completed.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

The Frames

The frames are the forms that the boat will be built around. They support the stringers which are longitudinal strips of wood that the planks will be attached to. Tom completed the temporary frames and will complete the bulkhead frames when the plywood comes in on Tuesday.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

Continuing with the Stem

Tom completed the routering and then laid out the bevel lines on the stem. It's very important when building the stem to make certain that the rolling bevel meets up exactly with each individual plank. The next step in the process is doing the actual bevel.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

Building the Stem

The stem is made up of six 3/4" pieces of Phillipine mahogany. There are three lower stem pieces and three upper stem pieces. Tom started work on it by first laying out the six pieces using the template and then rough cutting them on the bandsaw. The upper and lower pieces were then epoxied together making three pieces. The template was then attached to the center piece and used to trim the stem on the router to shape. The three pieces were then epoxied together. Next, the center piece will be used as the template by the router to trim the outer pieces to match.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

Making the Templates

Tom was excited to get out to the shop and start building. He started by making the templates for the stem and the transom out of 1/4" plywood. These templates will, in turn, be used to build the actual mahogany pieces.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

The Wood

Okoume plywood, often called mahogany plywood, is an African hardwood. It is light brown in color, sometimes lustrous, with variable interlocked grain. Okoume panels exhibit high strength to weight ratios, ideal for boat building. Face veneers are 2.3 mm thick, A/B grade, and rotary cut. Cores and crossbands are solid jointed and panel glued with waterproof/boil proof glue. Marine grade okoume meets or exceeds British Standard 1088. Okoume panels are extensively used by race class boat builders, rowing shell builders, and in various applications where its light weight, high tensile strength, good bonding properties and ease of finishing are of value. On this Penobscot, we'll do the hull planking, bulkheads, and transom in okoume.

All of the interior wood will be either Phillipine or African mahogany. The Phillipine mahogany is a beautiful honey brown when finished and will match the okoume planking nicely. It will be used as structural lumber to build the hull, the longitudinal stringers, the stem, the bulkheads, and the keel.

African mahogany is a deep, rich, burgundy-brown which will compliment the more subtle interior tones and be a stunning contrast to the white exterior. It will be used for the seats, gunwales, breast hook, and quarter knees.

The deadwood will be of white oak which is an excellent boat building wood. It is very tough and takes fastenings well. Due to its closed cell structure, which inhibits the intrusion of water, it is ideal for the one piece of wood on the boat that will remain submerged during normal use.

The combination of okoume, Phillipine mahogany, and African mahogany on this scale will be beautiful.

Our local lumber supplier quoted a four week delivery time for the okoume, so we contacted a well known boat lumber supplier in the Northwest--Edensaw Lumber in Port Townsend, Washington (www.edensaw.com). They did have some on hand and it should arrive within three to four days. In the meantime, we purchased the mahogany and the white oak as well as some pine for the frames and the building jig from High Desert Hardwood in Eagle, Idaho.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

Studying the Plans

We received the plans from Arch Davis Design and they look good--very complete and professional. They included full size mylar templates for the frames and spreaders which should save us considerable time. Before ever heading into the shop, Tom will spend many hours studying these plans because the more prep time he puts in, the less time he will have to spend redoing anything.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

A Little History

In his book, Building Catherine a 14 foot pulling boat in the whitehall tradition, Richard Kolin states the following:

"The origins of the Whitehall boat are misty at best. W.P. Stephens, the noted small-craft historian, thought the type originated at Whitehall Street in New York City in the 1820s. Other reports say the boat originated in Whitehall, England. Wherever it originated, by the time the clipper ships reached prominence, the Whitehall boat was frequently mentioned in literature describing waterfront activities. It continued as a dominant feature of waterfront commerce until the small, inexpensive gasoline engine emerged in the early 20th century. In the late 19th century, in Boston, Capt. Charlton Smith counted 75 working Whitehalls at "The Hub"" and another 19 in the "Cow Pen." During the same period, Tom Crowley, a San Francisco Whitehall boatman, reported 80 to 100 working Whitehalls in San Francisco.

The Whitehall boat performed the function of a water taxi. It ferried captains, businessmen, newspaper reporters, government functionaries, and assorted waterfront characters to and from ships arriving at the major harbors of the United States. Ed McCarthy, who was a San Francisco Whitehall boatman at the end of the Whitehall period, claimed: "When word came in from the lookouts that a ship was on the way in, the boatmen would all pile into their boats and race out to her. In each boat would usually be a chronometer man, a butcher, a grocer, a ship stores man. The first boatload would get all of her business while she was in port.

The working Whitehall boats were generally 17 to 20 feet in length, 4 feet 6 to 8 inches in beam, about 20 inches deep, and weighed over 250 pounds. The type spread rapidly and is best known in relation to New York, Boston, and later San Francisco, although it was used extensively in most harbors. In time, the Whitehall became the dominant influence on the design and construction of small yacht tenders and rowing boats through most of the 19th and early 20th centuries."

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

Choosing the Plans

After researching many different options, one plan in particular stood out to Tom, Sawtooth’s builder. The Penobscot 14 designed by Arch Davis (www.by-the-sea.com/archdavisdesign) seemed to meet all of the customer’s criteria, which among other things, was a traditional New England style rowing boat of lapstrake construction.

This boat is reminiscent of the working wherries and Whitehall boats that were extensively employed by New England fishermen and harbor runners beginning in the 1800’s. The glued (epoxy) plywood lapstrake construction method preserves the relationship between form and function. The boat will be as pretty as ever, but lighter, totally watertight, and easier to maintain than a traditionally constructed boat.

Tom spoke with the designer by phone and found him to be very amicable. Arch patiently answered all of his questions and assured Tom that the boat rows beautifully and can easily handle three passengers. The dimensions are:

Length 14’ 0”
Beam: 4’ 6 ½”
Weight: 155 – 175 pounds

John, our customer, liked the boat and gave us the go ahead.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

Building the Penobscot 14

We decided to launch this blog in conjunction with an order we received from a customer for a classic wooden rowboat in an effort to keep him abreast of the progress and also as a means of documenting the build process.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.