The name of my boat

Penobscot 14 designed by Arch Davis
The Penobscot 14 is designed by Arch Davis. See the link to his website below. Arch has designed a number of great boats.

I chose the Penobscot 14 after researching many different small homebuilt sailboats out there.

The unique use of permanent stringers that the strakes attach to was one of the main reasons that I chose the Penobscot 14. This system just seemed to make sense for a first time boat builder like myself. I liked the idea of the stringers for added strength and as a guide to establish the shapes for each of the strakes. This system also worked great for me as I worked through the modification of widening the hull by 6 inches.

Overall, I really liked this building system. I highly recommend it.















7. Oars

I built my 8 foot oars using a 3 piece lamination of Sitka Spruce.  I got my Sitka Spruce rough sawn from L.L. Johnson Lumber in Charolotte Mi.  When I planed down the rough sawn boards to 3/4" thick, I discovered that the grain of the large piece that I had was odly figgured.  Some research indicated that what I had was "Bear Claw" Sitka Spruce.  This board had a very tight grain and was somewhat stiffer that the other boards that I was going to use in the lamination.  I chose to use the Bear Claw as the center lamination.  This gave me a very interesting looking blade with this unique figure characteristic.  Bear Claw Sitka Spruce is used as sound boards in acoustic guitars. It is known for bright crisp tones of good balance, clarity, resonation. More on Bear Claw Sitka Spruce can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonewood





This is the 3 piece lamination layout for my Sitka Spruce oars.&.bsp; At this point the 3 pieces have been epoxy glued together, band sawed to rough shape, and the looms planed to 8 sides. 


The blade prior to any shaping.  You can see the outside lamination progressing halfway down the blade.


Here are the tools that I used to shape the looms and blades.  The convex Sure Form was handy for shaping the transition of the outer lamination onto the blade.






This is the transition point from 8 sides to round.  I left the top portion of the looms 8 sided for better balance.


The blades are planed to shape in this view.  Note the nice transition area where the outer lamination fades into the blade.

Here are the varnished and leathered oars sitting on a custom bag that I made.


The oars are in the bag in this view.  Since I will sail my Penobscot 14 most of the time, I wanted to have a nice bag to carry and protect the oars while not in use.


Close up if the leathers.  I purchased these from the Wooden Boat Chandlery.


Close up of the blades. 
 Note the unique grain pattern of the "Bear Claw" Sitka Spruce.  This wood is slightly heavier than regular Sitka spruce.  It is also harder and more springy. 


1 comment:

  1. Claire DeRosaMarch 6, 2011 at 4:22 AM

    This boat is beautiful! I am amazed you even made the oars. Enjoy and remember to relax with your sailboat.

    ReplyDelete

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