New projects
After 2 weeks of surveying and project management, I’m ready to be back in the shop making sawdust. Too many nights up until 2 am working out numbers and getting estimates together. I’m happy with the final results though, and I think I have a couple of spreadsheets worked out that will be at least somewhat helpful when it comes time to estimate an actual project.
We’ve been given our assignments for the 2nd year’s projects, and I think it’s going to be a good year. I’ll be on a team of 7 folks doing 2 boats. The first is a 1922 6-meter called Madcap.
Here’s a site with a full description and more photos of her. We’ll be returning her to her original deck configuration, which means removing her deckhouse and putting in 2 cockpits. The grinders sit in the forward cockpit and the boat steerer sits in the aft cockpit. We’ll also be refastening her hull (removing and replacing all the hull screws) and replacing the garboard and first broad (the 2 planks closest to the keel). She’s a beautiful boat, and it should be a real pleasure to work on her.
The 2nd project is to take the lines off of a Whitehall rowing boat from Mystic’s collection and built a copy of her from the ground up. The Whitehall is a 15′ rowboat, designed to get representatives from various chandlers out to boats coming into harbor quickly. There was fierce competition between merchants to get their reps out to arriving boats first, and the Whitehalls were the rowboats designed specifically for this task. They probably take their name from Whitehall St. in New York, the home to many ships merchants. For a much fuller, and better written history of these pretty little workboats, you can start here.
The weather here has been just perfect, and the international boat show was in town… so, it would have just been wrong if we didn’t take some time off Friday to go wander out on the docks and see what the boating community was getting all misty eyed about.
There was quite a variety out there… a flower for every bee. High tech race boats for the adrenalin junkies…
Lobster boats redesigned to be pleasure boats…
and full on fancy boats for lounging and entertaining.
Um… there’s an awful lot of plastic out there with wood trim.
Tomorrow we head down to Mystic’s warehouse to take the lines off of the Whitehall. To prep we got our lofting floors set up (we’ll do 2 loftings and use the best one for the boat), painted,
and the grid drawn on them.
We’ve unscrewed these from the floor, built a couple of measuring jigs, and will pack the whole show up tomorrow. Film at 11.
September 18th, 2007 at 6:00 am
So, can you build an H 12 1/2 for less than 60 grand?
Fabulous projects!
Madcap looks like a lot of great experience waiting to happen. Yet, I’ll be watching for more about that Mystic Whitehall (wanna build one of those someday. 1:1, not a model). Give us a bit more of that particular Whitehall’s history. It would be interesting to know if she’s different than the ones mentioned in John Gardner’s book, “Building Classic Small Craft,” chapt 21 and 22.
Now, if we could get you a better camera…
Keep havin’ fun!
September 18th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Hi Bob,
According to my estimates, I can build a 12 1/2 for $45,562. That assumes, of course, that I have enough parts of the original to do it as a restoration, since the H 12 1/2 design is owned by Cape Cod Shipbuilding, of Wareham, Mass, and they don’t hand the plans out. I was the low guy in the class, however, and most folks thought it would cost closer to $56k to build one. Artisan boatworks is selling their interpretation of this boat for about $46k.
I’m not sure if this is the boat mentioned in John’s book, I’ll have to take a look when I get home. Given that John was the small boats guy here at Mystic, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this was mentioned in his book.
Boy, I hear you about getting a better camera! This little Canon Powershot has been great, but he’s getting near the end of his useful life I think. I just can’t bear to buy a new one until the old one is completely crapped out, or until I feel more solvent.