A Shipwright in Training

The Whitehall we’re working with was described by the curator as “a piece of the true cross.” That’s the level of respect that the folks here have for this boat, and the more we look at it, the more respect we have for its builders.

And let me say right out that I’m woefully unprepared to write much about this boat right now. Here’s what I can tell you.

It’s one of the very few, if not only, fully original New York built Whitehalls left in the world today. I’ve spaced out the name of the builder, but he had 3 workshops in NYC in the 1860’s - 1880’s. The curator believes this one was built around 1870-1880. The builder was a city alder around the time that this particular boat was built, but he disappeared from public records sometime in the 1880s. No death notice, marriage notice in the papers, nothing… poof.

The boat was built as a pleasure craft rather than a working boat, which probably has a lot to do with why she’s in such incredible condition. Unfortunately my camera battery was dying as we were looking her over today, so I only have a few photos. We’ll be back tomorrow and the battery is fully charged, so… more details to follow.

She’s 15′ 3″ long, and was built to the highest standards. Here’s just a few of the little details that start to jump out the longer you look at her. Looking forward:

The frames taper from 5/8″ at the top down to 1″ at the bottom. Tapering gives the frames a a more delicate look while retaining their strength down at the bottom of the boat where there’s the most strain. You can barely see it here, but the seat is notched around each frame. Notice how the center sole board is notched so that it can extend way forward. You don’t need to have the sole continue this far, and notching it is more trouble to build, but they did it. They also tapered the edges of the sole and margins (the boards to either side of the sole) to make them lie snugly against the frames and also expose a thinner edge, making the boards appear more delicate… another detail that could easily be left out. You can also see the beading around the edge of the seat, well there’s beading all over this boat. You can just barely see it in the seat riser board (the board that goes fore and aft along the frames that the seat sits on).

Looking at the rear seat (also called the Sheet):

You can see the beading along the outside edge of the sheet, and again, the way that the sheet is notched into the frames. That notch is exactly the width of the bead, so you get the sense that the boat is all a single construction. The parts just blend beautifully into each other.

Here, we’ve flipped the boat and have started to take her lines.

This took a lot longer than expected, as we were really careful about getting her as level (both fore and aft and athwartships) as possible, and as aligned with our grid as possible.

You can see what looks like a waterline along the bottom, but it’s just dirt and crud from being in the water. That is essentially her waterline, since it marks the area that was submerged, but these boats weren’t built with a cut and painted waterline.

You can also see in the photo how the sheer strake is a lap strake, while the rest of the boat is carvel planked.

The sheer also has this nice little bead above its lower edge

and below that bead the sheer is slightly tapered inwards. Again, this gives the plank a more delicate look. Not only that, but as the sheer approaches the curved transom, the outside of the sheer plank is gradually curved to match the curve of the transom.

It’s like that everywhere… just as strong as can be, but it looks as delicate as a violin.

It’s going to take us a long time to build this boat, and it’s going to tax our abilities to the fullest. I’m in awe of this boat, and I can’t wait to try to replicate her!

I’ll put up more photos of the boat tomorrow, and who knows, I might even have the builder’s name by then!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 6:23 pm and is filed under Classes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.