Building our Canoe Yawl

I first saw the plans of the canoe yawl 'Ethel' in an article in the 'Classic Boat' magazine. A series on the construction of this 13'yawl by the Falmouth Wooden Boat School was to run in the next few issues and follow the construction using stripped plank cedar.

I searched for building plans with out success. I knew I did not have the skills or experience to work from the Geo. Holmes drawings. There were Otters and Nord Vindens but no sign of plans for the novice builder. Eventually I came across the design commissioned by Tom Dunderdale that went from 13'lod to 15' lod. Like Tom I wanted the 13' hull. In time I realised that the Paul Fishers 15' version, 'Lillie' was the nearest I was going to get to an 'Ethel' like canoe yawl.

I ordered study plans which confirmed the design would do and there may be some load carrying advantage in the increased size. I had to balance this off against my desire for single handing ease.

I ordered the full plan set with the jib and mizzen with high peaked gaff sail drawings.

The more I studied these drawings and sketched how details would work and be built the more I realised I had potentially bit of more than I could chew. Before I butchered valuable wood and possibly built a twisted hull I thought I might need to talk to some one about assistance.

I had heard of Pete Turner and his shed that turned out small boats, paddle boats, cat boats, model aircraft and restored vintage & veteran cars. I had seen Pete's work on a friends old  classic run-about. He was a bloke who could turn his hand to wood or metal work, mechanical work, sewing upholstery and canvas paint work electrical plumbing and hydarlics. I subsequently found his skills included lofting, sail, modification and engineering.

Buy the time I was talking to Pete it had become apparent I did not need help with this build, I needed a builder whom I could help. Pete agreed to the proposition of building the hull with my helping as much as I could then I would take the Hull home to do the deck and the rig.

In June  of 2010 Pete commenced on the first day I got down there the a full set of frames on a strong back was set up with hog and stem and stern as in the above photo of my wife Jane and Pete chatting over the work. Over the next months I managed to get to Petes worksop as often as my other committments would allow. It being winter I was able to usually get 3 to 4 days mid week.

The most significant benefit of having Petes experience available was demonstrated in the decision to not follow the usual stitchand glue method. Pete constructed the shadow moulds for the strip planked version and set them up on a light, square steel tube frame or strong back. He pointed out that with so many planks, keeping them aligned through the wiring stage would be difficult unless we could wire them to a frame to maintain the alignment even when we nudged them. We also decided that making templates of all the planks would allow us to check how well the plans deliniated the needed shape. As it turned out we had to jiggle the shapes of a number of planks. This was not a big issue but had I gone it alone those two items would have scuttled the project as i would have asummed I was not doing it right.

The laminated stem and sternpost and the hog were set up and the gunnells clamped to the moulds. To get the gunnels aroung the tight curve of the canoe stern the first steam bending on the project was required. The rosewood for the gunnel was applied in two thin strips laminated together once the bending was complete and the wood dried out.