Every June, On The Weekend Of Father's Day,

there is a show in St. Michaels, Maryland, that to me, is special in a way unlike any other that I know of. Let me say that I've been to a lot of shows over the years. It's formal name is "The 26th Annual Antique & Classic Boat Festival/The Arts at Navy Point".

Feel free to print this poster and show it off

It is one of the grandest expositions of fine old mahogany and chrome boats in the country: it is, in fact, the largest show of the type in the Mid-Atlantic region. It's location, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, is a setting that is perfect for the show's many aspects. Being on the Miles River, which connects directly to the Chesapeake Bay, stately motoryachts come from many parts of the East Coast. Many boats simply cross the Bay from the Western Shore or come up or down the Bay from various Eastern Shore locations. Boats arrive on trailers from all over the US and often from Canada, as well. There are runabouts, utilities, race boats, cruisers, launches and virtually everything that you can imagine in between. Because these boats are in competition for best restoration to original condition, they are all in "Bristol" shape and when you see 120 to 130 of them together, it's quite a sight.

There are several Antique & Classic Boat Festivals throughout the US and Canada and I think that they are all worth checking out. We attend a number of such shows each year and they all have their strengths. What I like about St. Michaels is that there is a type of synergy that has developed over the show's 26 year history. In particular, and for reasons that I'm not sure that I understand, it has had a good relationship with the arts. Having been among the first vendors that were part of the show, many years ago, I remember that the first group had a number of artists in it. Some of them still do this show, almost 20 years later.



Talk about use of "Style"

While I don't understand how it began, this connection between the boats and the arts has grown in a very natural way and the two worlds compliment each other amazingly well. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the boats, most of which were designed to be stylish in their times, and which are in such pristine condition are art in and of themselves. Making old and worn boats young again is an art form in no uncertain terms. Understanding how to do research, learning about history, and applying techniques of woodworking, metalworking, finishing, graphics, etc. are all types of multi-media art and artisanry.

I often hear people say how beautiful the St. Michaels show is. That it is balanced and makes people feel good. There are a lot of reasons for that. There is a lot to do and a lot to see and the people are friendly. Again, the Museum's grounds are beautiful in mid-June when the weather is "just right". I
think it looks better with lots of beautiful boats all over the place. ...and if you haven't been to St. Michaels, it really is a great place to be.

Everyone has a reason for liking boats, or not; art or not, and what I see in this may seem like a figment of my imagination to you. I have no problem with that. I will say that you should come to this show and think about what I'm saying here and see what you think for yourself. Even if you think I'm crazy, there are a lot of other things to see and do at the show. Whatever you like, I'm willing to bet that you will love something about this show.

The 26th Annual Antique & Classic Boat Festival / The Arts at Navy Point

For a list of this year's artists and vendors go to http://intothings.com/boatshow/vendors.html

For more show information, or to register a boat go to http://www.chesapeakebayacbs.org/

For information about the town of St. Michaels go to http://www.stmichaelsmd.org/

For Accomodations during the show go to http://tourtalbot.org/accommodations.asp

Jewell is progressing at French & Webb for their Maine based client who will use her on lakes and ocean. I'll be heading up to video the turnover in a week or so. The kit we cut is going together beautifully.

Here is Chris after the garboard is attached.

And the planking is done. Those patches are the scarfs that are being faired with putty. The box keel is visible, filled with lead in the forward portion.

Speaking of scarfs, they are cut on the CNC machine and come with the kits. I recently visited MultiCAM Northeast and we played. Here is a video of the morning I spent there. We cut an NC scarf.

The Jewell Project: Virtual Reality becomes Physical Reality

These days I spend more time building boats in the computer than in real life. So, it is highly satisfying when I see a boat becoming the real thing.

A Mainer from Norway, Maine has commissioned his own Jewell. It is being built from my kit by French & Webb in Belfast, Maine for a summer launch.

After years of planning and design, we have gone from this virtual set up:

To this set up "in the flesh":

All bulkheads are CNC cut plywood. Their shapes come directly from the model you see in the screenshot. When designs are made in 3D CAD, the objects are actually lofted in full-size. In other words, the model is not a "scale-model" but rather a full-size model in 1:1. Once modeled, each bulkhead is simply flattened onto a virtual 2D surface and the outlines are duplicated and nested on 4x8 virtual sheets of plywood. The CNC cutter than programs the machine to follow theses lines and voila! a bulkhead is directly cut.No lofting by hand, no tracing lines onto wood, cutting with a jigsaw (but not too close to the line!), and high accuracy and repeat ability. The downside, I suppose, is that some feel satisfaction cutting their own parts. But even pro builders know their is more satisfaction in getting a boat launched in good time and greater accuracy. This Jewell will be a 3-month build. Lofting and cutting your own parts would result in another month of work.

Keep track of the Jewell project here, on my facebook page, or on my website.

We are excited to announce the cutting of the first Jewell kit of many in the US and Canada. This kit is going not to an amateur but to French & Webb boatbuilders in Belfast, Maine to be custom built for a customer in Norway, Maine. Stay tuned for construction photos!

From Classic Boats to Exquisite Birds...

Katz restored Cobra

 

Bird enjoying the Lake Dora Show

Show season is seriously underway. Two days to Tavares, Florida, three days of show and two days home. When we get home, it turns out, we really weren't gone for very long. But, the whirlwind of travel, of seeing faces that we know well, but only from this distant show, of seeing faces that we know from almost everywhere that we travel to, of meeting new faces and of spending time with friends and family who are in this distant place, make it seem like we've been away for ages. 

 

Flying Saucer FiberClassic

It's been about eighteen years since we started this annual journey to Lake Dora where the Sunnyland Chapter of The Antique & Classic Boat Society hold one of the great shows among antique and classic boat shows. It's a given that we will be there next year; “first space to the right of the entrance”.

First booth to the right of the entrance

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is 20 Miles Long!

The drive is as intense as the show, considering that we spend more time in the car than we do in our booth. Route 95, although perhaps a bit faster, doesn't interest us as much as taking those roads that have mom & pop motels, local eateries, farms, houses, and reveal local cultures and industries.

Incredible O.J. Citra, Florida

You can't really see anything from Route 95 and with a good map, and especially with GPS, it's hard to get lost anymore. For the most part, these are also 60 mph roads and I don't think that they cost us anything in terms of time.




The Real Callabash, N.C.

Just as we see familiar faces at the show, there are familiar landmarks along the roads; architecturally interesting old houses and buildings, towns that still hold their character, and because we are on the cusp of Spring, places where the season is much further along or farther behind.

Tara, once upon a time???

As I've said before, this is where we find the great Barbecue and Seafood restaurants that we like so much.

Santee, S.C. at sunset

Swan Pair by Ed Kuhn

This year, we may as well not have gotten out of the car. We arrived home late on Tuesday night. Friday morning (tomorrow) we leave for Chincoteague, Virginia. It's the Easter show down there, with a totally different set of familiar faces. We've known them for a lot of years, as well. The ratio of drive time to show time is a bit different. Two hours of driving (each way) and two days of show: Friday and Saturday.

 

 

The Chincoteague Easter Show is not about boats; it's about birds (although there are a few of us that make model boats too). Some of the best carvers in the country come to this show. There are also other types of artists who are truly outstanding in what they do. We're looking forward to spending time with Mary Lou Troutman, Ed Kuhn, Bill Veasey, Shannon Dimmig, Don and Donna Drew, Grover Cantwell, Russ Fish, Bill Hickson, Rocky Detwiler, Donnie Thornton,Bill Cowen, Denise Bennett, Joan Devaney, Nancy Richards West and many, many more great people. I definitely recommend this show and you have to know that it's pretty special for us to look forward to it after the intense trip to Florida. Here is the show website: http://www.chincoteaguedecoyshow.com/ 

 

At the 2012 Easter Show

Actually, the Chincoteague Easter show is about the arts and like an ACBS show is centered around boats, so is this show centered around birds. It's really worth the trip from wherever you are. It will be good to have a couple of weeks without travel before our next show: The Bay Bridge Boat Show. That will be another story... At least this year, we don't have to drive to New York on Easter Sunday to put a large half-hull on the wall like we did last year.

See you at the Show!

 

Let the Show(s) Begin!!!

Our 2013 show season is about to start in a big way. We are off to Tavares, Florida for the Annual Lake Dora Antique & Classic Boat Show. It's one of the biggest in the country. It runs March 22nd-24^th, 2013. For more information go to http://acbs-sunnyland.org. All of the images in this story come from the Lake Dora Show. Click on any of them to get a better view.

This show features antique & classic boats (see the article listed to the right for more about what they are), sea-planes, Amphicars, Jersey Skiffs and other raceboats, as well as a variety of vendors. People come from from all over the US and Canada to be there. The boats are always special. Among the vendors are The Rope Locker, Bigshipsalvage.com, Bar Craft Boat Bars, and many, many others too numerous to describe here. It's worth seeing for yourself.

 

 This is the first in a series of three antique & classic boat shows that we have done yearly for nearly 20 years each. Those are Lake Dora, Florida in March, St. Michaels, Maryland in June (the largest antique & classic boat festival in the Mid-Atlantic and a personal favorite) and Clayton, New York in August (home of the Antique & Classic Boat Society).

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Of course, we also do new boat shows and we will be at the Bay Bridge Boat Show in Stevensville, Maryland April 20^th– 21^st. It's Big! Antique & Classic Boats will be there, as well, sponsored by the Chesapeake Bay Chapter of The Antique & Classic Boat Society.

Check out their website at http://www.chesapeakebayacbs.org

 Since most of our models involve carving wood, we get invited to many Carving/Decoy/Art shows. In fact, as soon as we leave Lake Dora, we'll be headed to the Easter Decoy Festival in Chincoteague, Virginia on Friday and Saturday, March 29^thand 30^th. We will also be at the Havre De Grace Decoy and Wildlife Art Festival in Havre De Grace, Maryland May 3^rd– 5^th. In November, we'll be at the world famous Waterfowl Festival in Easton, Maryland.

 


We've written some stories in the past about some of these shows with lots of photos on this blog, so you might want to take a look back. For our current show
schedule go to http://intothings.com/shows00.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's probable that we will be adding other shows and book signings throughout the year, so put the address in your favorites and check it for new additions.

A Fabulous 15-foot Rowboat

One of the most unique aspects of the St. Lawrence River Skiff (SLRS) is its hull shape which we believe derives from the bark canoes, at least partly. Both hull forms feature a very fine entry and exit to the waterlines. However, on nearly all the St. Lawrence River Skiffs, their after sections are finer than the forward sections.

The bow of an 18-footer, Annie.

Many rowboats show the opposite, with the aft sections being fuller. The reasoning behind this SLRS hull form regards how the boat trims when under power (oar power, of course). Once the boat is up to speed, the aft part of the hull settles into the water creating a skeg-type effect. A skeg improves tracking of the hull through the water. But by making the hull itself behave as a skeg, we eliminate the extra wetted surface area (WSA in designer speak) that a skeg creates. Any rower knows one tenet of making a rowboat fast: reduce the wetted surface area! This is one reason the SLRS glides along effortlessly with a single stroke of an oar, creating a feeling of flying.

Here is a shot showing the Fry 15 being stripped up. We built the Fry Skiff in 2013 at WoodenBoat using strip-composite construction. A builder by the name of Fry built these circa 1910 in Clayton, NY. The first shot (left) is the bow. The second (right) is the stern view.

You can see (right) how the strips are fairing into the stern with slight concave curvature even before we've stripped to the designed waterline. The strips are not showing this hollow curvature quite yet in the bow (left). This 15-foot model, shows a pronounced hollow even for a SLRS, partly because the boat is pretty short for a Skiff. (In fact, it is the shortest I'd recommend for fast rowing. I chose the Fry 15-footer because it is going to be the cartopper in my catalog.)




So this is the 'fineness' or 'hollow' in the stern that I am asserting is a classic feature of the SLRS hull form, making the it such a slippery, fast rowboat.

Two other SLRS's that I am working with, the Bobby at 20 1/2' (which was strip-built in 2012) and Clotilde at 18', are true double-enders, meaning they are symmetrical. So one end is not finer than the other, but their waterlines still show a strong hollow fore and aft. Clotilde is unique because its hull is fairly full in the ends compared to the other SLRS, which has me interested because it may be a faster boat and better in a seaway. So I plan to also model this hull and develop mold kits for Clotilde as well. Bobby mold kits are available.

For the first time, the Fry Skiff is newly updated and ready to cut as a mold kit. She strips up perfectly and produces a hull that is fairer than any hand-lofted set of lines could hope to produce, I dare say. The molds receive a roundovered edge so the soft cedar is not dented. A dado is routed into the molds to make a place for squeeze clamps to hold strips in place. The stems are laminated on fore-aft molds. An alignment batten slots all the molds together in place to ensure squareness and proper spacing. The kit is $750 which includes plans package and the molds.