Getting Through a "Boring" Job

Photo by Dan Tobyne. Harold boring holes for the bronze rods

Harold and Zach had a time of it boring holes into thick piles of oak. Photo by Dan Tobyne



Zach, 15, - future master shipwright?  photo by Dan Tobyne




Wedges. Photo by Dan Tobyne



Great fall colors. Photo by Dan Tobyne

Harold and the gang have been making good progress over the past week - and the beautiful fall weather has been cooperating, too. Harold has been calling the work "boring" because he and Zach have been boring holes through thick oak and fastening huge bronze rods to the stem and stern posts. Bernie Power provided some excellent staging for the stem but a lot of it involves a balancing act and Chuck has been doing a great job making moulds. Steve has been here and is always a great help. Today, Harold is getting ready to get the next bulkhead frame out the door. Bernie has done a fantastic job building the bulkhead - milled, beaded and sanded all the boards, putting tounges and grooves on it. He is a great asset and we will be writing more on him soon.

Finishing Up on the Loft Floor

Computers can now perform many of the tasks that were once the domain of the draftsmen and designers on the lofting floor but in Harold's opinion there is no better way to get the shape of the boat in your head than by crawling around inside the vessel on the loft floor. Like so many things Harold does, he finds a place for traditional methods. But, it is tough on the knees and after two weeks on the floor today is the last day in the lofting process. Harold is drawing the stations; the last step - and as Howard Chapelle wrote "having made certain that each section agrees in heights and half-breadths with its corresponding section or station on the profile and half-breadth plans," Harold has locked in the stations. As everything corresponds on the floor, Harold is nearly ready to complete one of the most important steps in the construction of the schooner. After the lofting is done, the process of making the patterns and moulds will begin.

Boatbuilding with Burnham

This blog was launched on Sept. 1 which always symbolizes new beginnings So as we wind down the charter business for summer and begin working on boat building projects for fall., it seemed like a perfect chance to reach out to more people and connect with new and old friends. There is a lot in the air for me as we are hoping to build a brand new schooner in the spring of 2010 which I plan to detail on this blog in full. For now, we are lining up projects and wrapping up others. In May, Harold completed a year long contract assignment on the schooner Ernestina. That is a story we would like to talk about more fully and Harold is scheduled to speak this month in Salem at St. Joseph's Hall.