McKenzie Dory Boatbuilding class

Note: This class, and the entire season at WoodenBoat School, has been cancelled due to Covid-19. Hope to see you next year!

I am excited to offer the McKenzie boat class again at WoodenBoat School in Maine this July. It's perfect for someone who really wants to build one but doesn't know how or where to start, or is intimidated by the array of skill sets necessary to do the job.

We will build the Hindman 16' Double-ender with transom.

We will start by lofting the boat from a table of offsets, correcting, customizing or idealizing as we go. We'll build all the frames, transom and a rolling-bevel stem. Scarf all the plywood. Assemble the boat, steam bend and scarf the gunwales, and outfit the boat as a fishing boat. We'll also discuss modifications to turn it into a whitewater dory. On day six we will launch the finished boat and the lucky winner of the raffle will get to take it away for the cost of materials.

With the skills you learn you'll be able to build most any variation on the classic driftboat at home. And life on the WoodenBoat School campus is flat-out heavenly, situated on Eggemoggin Reach, just a mile or two from where Major Powell spent his final days. In off hours you can row or sail the heritage Woodenboat fleet. Too much fun.

Here's a link:

Building the McKenzie River Dory

I hope to see some of you there.

Fun in the boat shop:

Made in the shade:

Out to launch:

A class-built boat on the Kennebec with its lucky winner:

From small boats back to a big one

The wild jumps in scale here have been a bit mind boggling. Here's our tiny 1/6 scale Briggs dory sitting atop the 1/2-length Doryak last week. Today we have a Briggs-plus-25% coming together on the floor. More on that in a minute.

The detailing on these wee boats is every bit as time consuming as on the big boats.

Sanding side panels for the Nevills boat.

Gunwales on the dory.

Decking the Nevills boat.

A day off from the models to fix the shattered Skagit. Just a flesh wound.

The Julius Stone Galloway boat coming together in the foreground.

More detailing

The Galloway boat is carvel planked with pine planks on an oak frame.

Patterning the bulkheads.

On with the letters.

Galloway boat nearing completion. How about those canvas deck covers?

The Barbies taking the new boats out for a spin.

Girls just wanna have fun.
\

And now for the really difficult one--the 21' Powell boat--a carvel built Whitehall boat, oak on oak.

We got the Powell boat about half done before we had a more urgent timeline rear its head. We have a huge dory to build in the next three weeks. DKish is documenting the process from the cockpit of Spooky.

Pat is grinding the floor and side panels.

 We scarfed the sides up up on our first evening and had most of the ribs built with the bulkheads in.

Day two we made the rolling bow post, the transom, and laid up the huge floor. We also decided to do as much of the deck framing as we could right on the bulkheads prior to the build. In theory it will save a lot of time later.

Little epoxy hoodoos on the bottom side of the floor panels.

In the pandemonium of Day Three I forgot to take pictures. We assembled the hull, put on the bottom, fiberglassed the entire exterior, and got on the flow coat. Then broke for a concert up in the house. Here's my only photo from the assembly: lunch.

Wood and Wire put on one hell of a show. Such a treat to be able to host events like this.

Day four was mostly clean-up, but we did get the outer chines on, then steamed on the gunwales.

Once they were on we rolled her up. She's a big one!

Tomorrow we will cast all the bronze hardware for the boat. I spent a while trying to come up with a better way to slice the huge ingots. Didn't find one. These are cut off in my chop saw. Heavens what a sound.