I love to build traditional plank-on-frame wooden boats to a large scale.
Whitehall boat: Scratch. Lapstrake ash planking over steamed ash frames. Tropical hardwood thwarts and transom. Ash sculls.
Whitehall boat II: Scratch. Lapstrake fir planking over steamed white oak frames. Honduras mahogany transom. Cherry sheer strake. Ash sculls. No riser, rails, or thwarts yet.
Swampscott alpha class dory: Scratch. Lapstrake fir planking over steamed oak frames. Ketch rigged with cotton spritsails.
Completed 1994. Took one year to build (scratch). Gaff rigged English-style cruising cutter built to the lines of "Indra" in C. P. Kunhardt's Small Sailing Yachts. Lapstrake Douglas fir planking over steamed white oak frames. Honduras mahogany cabin and covering board. Basswood deck. Douglas fir spars. Topmast and bowsprit both house, cutter style, which makes the boat easy to transport. Also, the topsail makes for easy reefing in the strong San Francisco breeze. Unbleached muslin sails also made by me. Finished bright. RC control.
It's very interesting to sail a boat with this old-fashioned rigging. Getting the huge jackyard topsail to set well was a challenge. The tweaking line down to the main boom is necessary to keep the leech tight, but if it's too tight then the mainsail leech gets loose. Also, the performance of this kind of boat is very sensistive to longitudinal ballasting. If the stern is not ballasted well down, the model will dive like a submarine off the wind with a press of sail. Another interesting thing is that like any real wooden boat the deck seams dry out and leak until they swell shut, so there's always water sloshing around in the bilge. You can't get more realistic than dry rot in scale.
Classic Racing Sloop: "Nori II"
Completed 2000. Took three years to build (scratch). Built to the lines of Bjoerne Aas' International One Design plan, with lengthened stern. Lapstrake California redwood planking over steamed white oak frames. Cabin and covering board are Honduras mahogany. Sprung basswood deck. Hollow sitka spuce spars with working sail slides. Cotton duck sails also made by me (harder than the woodwork). Finished bright. RC control. Lead keel cast over a barbecue pit.
Nori II was designed only about twenty-thirty years after Nori I and the difference is quite remarkable. Nori II requires constant attention on the helm whereas the older design requires almost none.
I have joined an excellent wooden ship modelling group that meets in the Maritime museum at Fisherman's wharf (one of my favorite places).
Also, I am a member of the San Francisco Model Yacht Club on Spreckels' lake in Golden Gate Park. See my boats displayed in a wooden boat show in the clubhouse.
