New member. Boatmaking and modelbuilding solo for 20 years. Unaware of this site till now!

[atomj123]

Hello. I just found this site while doing some boat research. I am at a dead-end and need to find some leads.

I grew up in Philadelphia, PA and moved to Ohio (on the Ohio river) for high school, I have lived on the banks of the Mississippi river, Kanawha river, and Lake Erie/Grand River.

I am a biochemistry professor, woodworker and carver, 3D printer fanatic and lover/builder of boats.

When I was in graduate school 20 years ago, I was anxious, so I built a small sailboat in my garage. It was a fun project. I didn't (and still don't) know much about sailing. I knew I wanted to build boats.

I then moved to a place that I didn't have as much space, so I wanted to get into model boats. I went to hobby shops, trying to find a reasonable Sternwheeler model (Artesania Latina has the King of the Mississippi that looks great), but they were all expensive. In the back of one shop, under some other models was a kit for a 1:65 Santa Maria (La Gallega) model kit. It was collecting dust and said, "As-is $50. Parts missing" Well, not to be too personal, I couldn't even afford that. So I asked the owner what pieces were missing. He looked through it and couldn't tell me, so he sold it to me for $20. Turns out all of the precut/laser cut pieces were gone. This included the bulkhead pieces (its a plank on bulkhead model) and only had materials for sub-planking, planking, masts, rigging, etc. This meant that I got the chance to use my woodworking skills to build the parts of the boat that would be the most important to the shape and form of the whole thing! It took me many years, but I finished and then rigged the Santa Maria. I was so proud of the 6 years of work. (I have a few of the pictures attached). I don't know much about sailing/rigging, so I just used the directions from the kit.

After that, I wanted to add her sister ships, La Nina and La Pinta. I wanted to make them from scratch (it is cheaper, so far). I had to wait until I could find the materials. I got a package in the mail that was wrapped in multiple sheets of 5-layer plywood! This was my moment. Ply that thin is very expensive if purchased from a hobby store. There was enough there for false decks. Also, I had enough to glue it in layers to make: (plank-on-bulkhead) ribs, false keel, even some of the first layer of planking (the rest I had leftover from La Gallega). I then actually purchased grain-matched wood veneers from Woodcraft (the corporate HQ is in our town, which was convenient for deals) which had them on clearance (my wife would have otherwise not allowed that purchase). I was able to plank the hull and decks of both boats! I need some guidance on how to cut planks more uniformly. Currently, I have to start making pieces of the boat that are thicker and require thicker stock to make. I am stuck, do I glue a bunch of veneer wood together (which I am currently, agonizingly, doing), or use a saw and gently cut aged, local wood that I have from the backyard (it has dried for some years) and plane/sand it down to the thickness I need?

I have attached pictures of those boats, I don't have any with them with final hull planking, but they look pretty good (for my novice eye) with walnut on the hull and cherry on the deck. I will post those in projects, when I find more pictures.

I have since started doing research into boats built in my area (Marietta, Ohio). Our town was a boat-building community starting in the early 1800's till ~1900(with a few hiccups). I really wanted to make a scratch-built Sternwheeler, but I found out Boat builders here made seagoing-wooden boats! I decided I wanted to make one of those next. I started researching the 1800 -St. Clair (a 110 ton Brig) built in Marietta Ohio (the first seaboat built on the Ohio river). I asked at the Martime museum (Campus Martius/Ohio River Museum). They gave me a little info. And I have been researching at Marietta College. They have an extensive boat-building collection. I am trying to generate a schematic for the vessel, but there are only accounts of the boat's: materials, beam, tonnage, etc. It was build by J.Devol from Connecticut (moved his family to Marietta in the 1790's). I will post in the research section to see if anyone knows about the styling of his ship hulls, pre-1800.

I am big into woodcarving and I hope to carve hulls in the future. I am still a boatbuilding novice and am here to learn about all of it. I wish I had learned of this community 10 years ago, but I am glad to be here and hope I can learn more and improve my models.

Thanks for the time reading my opening post.

Atomj

[SiriusVoyager]

Very nice carrack you have there. Welcome to MSW!

[Thukydides]

Welcome to MSW

[Knocklouder]

Good luck on your journey!! All the help in the world is  here on MSW, 

Bob M.                                   

Edited July 31 by Knocklouder
Typos

[ccoyle]

Welcome aboard!

[Ronald-V]

Welcome

 

[druxey]

Welcome aboard - or should one say, welcome home?

[Keith Black]

 Welcome to MSW. Glad to have you aboard. 

[markjay]

[Wawona59]

Welcome to MSW!  That is a very nice Carrick that you built.  It has the touch of a woodworker.  I enjoy woodworking too; especially with hand tools.  Right now I'm a lurker on MSW as I'm working on all of my unfinished models that I plan to give away to interested kids this November at our model show at the Seattle Museum of Flight.

 

Glad to have you aboard!

[mtaylor]

[Baker]

Nice models 

And

[Nirvana]

Warm