Another Busy Saturday and the Progress is Going Great

A plank just on, Harold is looking at it for a moment

A great job done today (Saturday!)

Daisy is trying to catch some afternoon warmth but it was cold today!

Harold talks with our visitors - who may return next week to work!

Today has been a busy Saturday but a bit too cold for visitors. The shipwrights got a total of four planks on today and the boat is really coming together. By the end of next week, planking will likely be nearing completion. We hope to have that whiskey plank party soon after so stay tuned for the annoucement!

Thanks for Stopping By...

George T of Essex dropped by the other day and offered some beautiful photos he had taken minutes earlier. Thank you George for stopping by!

One of the Unsung Heroes of the Boatyard

Wooden beetles made by Henry Szostek

These custom-made wooden beetles were made from locust wood.

Henry Szostek has made trunneling much easier with his handmade wooden beetles



 As the planking continues, Harold has had to take a moment to work on some cant frames for the stern and hawse timbers for the bow so he is in a thinking mode. Time is marching along and Harold hopes to have the planking done soon. We have had some help on that end by Henry Szostek of Beverly Farms, who is a man of many talents. As the shipwrights began banging trunnels into the planks, we seemed to be low on some good, heavy wooden beetles - defined as a large heavy  mallet for driving anything with force; or 'a maul.' Henry began arriving with his custom-made wooden and metal beetles enabling the work to go much more smoothly. When Harold first built the schooner Lannon in 1997, the late Dana Story came by and was horrified to see shipwrights driving tunnels with steel hammers. He mentioned that you should only hit wood with wood and steel with steel. Thanks to Henry, we think Dana would be very pleased. The beetles which differ in size and weight allow even Harold's 14-year old daughter Perry to  hit the trunnel square on from the staging.
Thank you Henry!

Above itis the end of the line for the 1920s Friendship Slloop "Irene". Goodnight Irene, we will see you in our dreams! Thanks Bernie Power for all the help and as Harold says we can rebuild her...




This is not a shot of three Gondola sterns on the Venice waterway but the image of three Pinky (or pinched) sterns on the Essex River basin.




Great Article in the Cape Ann Beacon and Mug Up! Tomorrow

The Cape Ann Beacon has a great story today about the boatyard and also, tomorrow (Saturday) is a Mug Up event sponsored by the Essex Shipbuilding Museum. Come on by and talk with us!


Keeping history alive: Harold Burnham builds a schooner

Burnham Boatyard can be found on an island marsh overlooking the Essex river basin. It has been the site of shipbuilding in Essex for four centuries and home to the Burnham family since that time. Harold Burnham, 43, has built five vessels there since 1992; currently, he is building the 50-foot double sawn frame schooner Ardelle, named after his grandmother and his daughter Perry Ardelle. Read on.

Days Are Getting Longer ...

Chuck Burnham is caulking the tough parts - down underneath the vessel

Zach Teal is helping to clamp on a new plank

Still on high ground

Steve Willard carrying a newly steamed plank

Steve caulking

Trunnels cut - see what else you can do with them!

The vessel is at the eleventh strake now. It won't be long!

Great work going on this week in the good weather and we are now at the eleventh strake. We have Matthew and Alex Parkes home for spring break who are second semester sophmores from Keene State and University of New Hampshire respectively helping us today and they have been a huge help.  The crew is working long hours as the days get longer...there is that momentum to work until dark. It has been a great few weeks with the work really getting done - and it won't be long til the last plank goes up. We also had a visit from high school studen Grace Weatherall of Ipswich who wrote a great story about the Boatyard of Burnham Court for an English class. We can't wait to read it and thank you Grace for your interest and support.

Build Locally, Sail to the Virgin Islands

Thank you, Michael Rutstein, owner of the schooner Fame of Salem built here at Burnham Boatbuilding for wearing the Pinky Ardelle shirt during his recent sailing trip to the Virgin Islands with his family. It looks like a great time...thanks for thinking of us!

 

Talk Has Started on the Whiskey Plank Party

Harold drilling holes in a plank before trunneling.

Chuckie caulking - a long way to go!

Harold is holding a custom made mallet courtesy of Henry S. Thank you Henry!

The sail is laid out

More caulking.

Getting farther along with the planking today, we thought we would post a few more great photos provided by Dan Tobyne. Today, the 10th strake is completed and Harold and the crew are starting to talk about the "whiskey plank" party...it may fall around the end of March and comes just after the last plank is put on the boat. So, stay tuned for the party date..hopefully within the next two weeks!

Planking is Going Around the Turn of the Bilge

Chuck Burnham caulking the Ardelle



Bruce and Steve fastening planks



Fastening a plank



Plank Coming out of the steam box



Plank coming out of the steambox

Trunnels are in

Plank going on

Planking has been going on a pace and Harold and the gang are rounding the turn of the bilge with two inch planks from Jim Aaron and  the pace really picking up. It is great to have the snow gone but the early March weather is still raw and cold at times so the shipwrights are really doing an amazing job after a long season working outside. When the days do get nice, we have had a lot of visitors coming by and were able to celebrate Bernie Powers' birthday on March 7 and had some cake in between hanging planks.  Dan Tobyne stopped by to take the above pictures and then drove up to Maine where he took these amazing pictures of a sled dog race. What a great eye Dan has!

A Trek to Jim Aaron's Sawmill

Last Time any light gets through here we hope!

Where is Dan Standing when he takes this?

Clamping the steamed planks to the frames is crucial

Nice shape to these frames as they are planked below.

The planking is now being done on staging as it works up.

Today (Wednesday) is the long awaited day where Harold has driven out to western Massachusetts to Jim Aaron's sawmill. Harold is traveling with Davis Griffith of Marblehead using the Blue Ox (OK, it is a flat bed blue truck that has a crane) and they will hopefully, successfully, be traveling back with more beautiful wood for the planking. Harold paused planking yesterday...knowing he would have the wood he needs today. The wood he needs has been buried under massive snowdrifts for most of the winter..and each week of late Harold has called Jim hoping that some of the snowdrifts have subsided...well spring must be coming as the drifts are down and Harold and Davis seized the opportunity to travel there today...before the next snowstorm. We are looking forward to their return bearing oak planks!