Shrouds and Eight-Sided Oars

Check out our new Maine's First Ship brochure that will be with the shallop, videos, MFS t-shirts, hats and board members that are at the 2011 Maine Boatbuilders Show.

Today we continued worming the shrouds that will be used on the shallop. We are also parceling, and serving the shrouds to make them tougher and water proof, so they don’t rot.
The shrouds come down port and starboard to support the mast. Making these shrouds has been really repetitive. however they are very important to the shallop to keep the mast steady. There needs to be two shrouds to keep the mast steady one on port and one on starboard, which are called stays.
Student Shipwright,
Jared Gilliam

Today in boat building we finished cutting out our oars and started making them eight-sided by marking lines on every side of the oar. I feel that this project is helping us learn to work together more and learn at the same time. I have had some experience with woodworking from the Maine Maritime Museum and I hope that it will help me work better. Hopefully, next week we can try to start the planning and get as much done as possible.
Student Shipwright,
Justin MacNeil

More Worming, Parceling, Serving and Oars

Grommet Group:
We met as a big group today and we all listened to Patti. She told us about how its important to check and respond to the emails she sends us usually 1 day after the class and about doing our homework. Will reminded us of the safety we need to take in class, and getting our own tools out before class and putting them away after class. My group continued our rope work on worming, serving and parceling. We do this to make the rope waterproof that way we don't have to replace a rotted rope in a few years. For worming, we fill in all the open areas between the layers of the rope. After that we put double sided sticky black tape over the worming and rope. Then we take another strong middle sized rope and use that to wrap really tightly over the tape to make it even stronger then it is. I first thought that I was going to be miserable in this class and bored but once I got into it I was really excited I chose to do rope work over wood working because I wasn't confident with my measuring and cutting out. Rope work seemed like it would be easy but it's really not. It's fun and sometimes confusing learning how to make all the different knots and learning the names. I really like the class and would recommend it for people if they like to learn olden day boat building. If you are interested in boats you should take this class it's really fun you can work on building the oars or on making the grommets.
Student Shipwright
Shelby Martel

Oar Group:
Today the wood working group was laying out another set of oars. This involves a lot of measuring, marking, checking and of course erasing. We lay out two oars on each plank and then glue two planks together. Once this is done they must be cut as close to the line as possible. It doesn’t have to be exact because we can always use a plane to shave them down right to the line.
This has been a great course so far. It has been a lot of fun and I have learned a lot about the Popham Colony. History in itself, is good to know but it becomes more interesting when it has happened in your area.
Student Shipwright
Wesley Mellor

Have a fabulous week off!!

Many Projects in a Shortened Class

Today we reviewed safety. One tip is to never have anything hanging from your neck when using power tools. We were told to always use safety glasses to keep dust out of your eyes. We learned about worming, serving, and parceling, which all has to do ropes for rigging. Things are starting to get better day by day. We are starting to get more comfortable with every thing.
Student Shipwright
Dusan Martinovic

We did a safety review today. We put two oars and glued then together and we put clamps on them so they would stay together.
Student Shipwright,
Koty Elwell

Today was a shortened class, which I personally hate because it goes way too fast. As I looked around today, the students were all busy on many projects from beginning a movie "How to Make a Grommet", grommet making and worming, to oar making. The students and staff are feeling more comfortable with the work to be done and getting it accomplished.

Responsibility is such a huge piece when working on a team project such as this. Everyone needs to take responsibility for getting their part of the project completed and all parts need to be very high quality.

Congrats to Jon and Dusan for getting their knot homework completed.
Patti Irish
Media Specialist

Splicing and Gluing

Gluing Oars:
Today our class continued laying out the oars for the shallop. We had to draw the oar with all of the right measurements on the plank of wood we are planning to use for the oars. After we laid out the oars we started gluing them together. We needed to sand them down first so the the glue would hold better to the wood. After we sanded down the boards we put the glue down, then spread out the glue all over the board from corner to corner. After that, we finished up with clamping the two boards together so that the profile of the oar was on the top because later we cut it out with the band saw.
This class has been a lot of fun. I like coming to school knowing that I have this to do first thing in the morning. It is a really nice way to get going in the morning. I love getting to do all the hands on work. It keeps me interested in what I am doing and keeps me wanting to do more of this every time I come to class.
Dylan Crowell,
Student Shipwright

Grommets and Splicing:
Today we almost finished our grommets. We started splicing the rope together to make a circle. We cut off the long end so it was the same length as the shorter one, about six inches. We split the rope strand into 3 pieces and numbered each one. One side were 1's and the other were 2's. Then we spliced these pieces back into the grommet. Our home work assignment is that all of our extra rope from the rigging crew is going to be turned in to a rope key chain made of different knots.
Jon Brooks,
Student Shipwright

Finish Laying out Oar Boards and Grommet Handles

Rigging Group:
Today we worked on grommets. All of us, as a group went over how to make a grommet. I started to take some video to begin a movie called, "How to Make a 17th Century Grommet". We went step by step on how to make them. It made a lot more sense today than it did last week. Even today, the second day, the grommets look a lot better.
Kelsey,
Student Shipbuilder

Oar Group:
How to Cut Out an Oar
First, you have to measure out where the six inches is on each end of the board, so that you can make two oars out of one piece of wood. Then you have to start making the general look of the oar such as where it tapers down and back up and where the handle is.
Seamus
Student Shipbuilder

Making grommets and oars

Today in shipbuilding we did some work on laying out the oars and ropework. The class split into two groups and started working on these two tasks. In the oar group we started drawing on some center lines and figuring out how we are going to fit the oars on the boards. We ran into some problems with trying to fit the oars on the wood because we are trying to fit two oars onto one board but it seems to be a little difficult to do so. In the other group you had people learning how to work with ropes. They learned how to make 17th century grommets with rope.
Regards,
Kate
Student Shipbuilder

Oars, Frames and Flyers

Today there were several continuations on what was happening yesterday. A couple of people were working on oars, including myself. A couple of people were putting flyers in businesses to advertise our shallop, and most of the others were working on the frames, part of the structure of the boat. We also had a special guest come over to talk with us and interview us. Jim Moulton who works with the Maine Laptop Technology Initiative (MLTI) came.

In the oar making, we were either chiseling away on the oar in places where the plane can't reach or planing to make the surface of the oar smoother, since it is rather rough after going through the bandsaw. The two people putting up flyers were going around the area and asking store owners if they could put up the advertisements. They started out with twenty and finished with three, and two of those are going up somewhere, probably on Monday. We found out towards the end of the day that we needed to make 5 to 8 more half-models for the top donors of money.
Maine's First Ship Student
Wesley Blum

Oars, Video and Rabbets

Today, I sanded oars until the middle of them were round. I also, cut out frames made of white oak to put on the boat mold. Matt made a video of students working and made a Garageband song on one of the MLTI laptops to go with his video made on iMovie. (See below) Nick made wall racks to hold our folding chairs. Kelsey and Max worked to notch a rabbet on a stem using chisels. Aaron and Brandon worked on notching rabbets on the keel.
Maine’s First Ship Student
Cody Seekins

Visitors, Brochures, Oars, Keel and Ribs

There were only nine kids here today including me. There were a few people working on the technology side of things, like a brochure that will be past out around town. Some of them walked around town to see where we could hang posters.

The people that actually worked in the shop worked on oars, the keel, or making patterns for ribs of the boat. I could not believe how many times I had to stop working and be the tour person, there were a lot of people that came in. One of the people that came in interviewed me on what we were doing and he is a videographer from Oklahoma.
Maine’s First Ship Student
Kelsey Brick

Oars, Keels and Promotion

Today, work continued on the keel, oars and floor timbers of the shallop. Much sanding and fitting was done today, and oars started to take more shape. The keel pieces are near completion. Another project was started today. A few students thought of ways to make the program known throughout the community. Main Street Bath provided us with maps of the city. Several students are devising ways to make the program easily findable in Bath. We are creating flyers, posters and billboards to help people find the building where the project is taking place.
Maine's First Ship Student
Peter Kosakowski

Notches and Oars

Today I worked on making oars most of the time. The first thing I had to do was cut the oar out from the template on the band saw. After that I had to plane down the sides of the oars. Also I got to take video of every one else working on making notches in the boat mold and that is all we had time to do today.
-Cody Seekins

Body Molds, Oars, Video and White Oak

Today we worked on the jig. We started to chip away the boat molds and repositioned the mold. We're almost finished. Also, we worked on the oars. We have four done but we need six more. Plus, I took video today of every one working on the jig and I can't wait to come tomorrow to build, hopefully, some parts that are going on the boat.
-Cody Seekins

What an incredibly productive video day for Kelsey, Mike and Amy. Amy uploaded two new videos and Kelsey and Mike each made their first ones, They did a fabulous job on these. Congrats filmmakers.

We also had a visit from Fred and Sue Beaman from Georgetown, who cut a white oak on their property for the shipbuilders to use in the shallop. Their tree will be put to great use. Here they are next to the pile of boards from the tree.
Ship builders chose woods based on availability and characteristics, matching species to the needs of the vessel. Keel, beams, and frames, or ribs of the ship are best made with white oak. White oak is hard, strong, relatively inflexible, and rot resistant. More common red oak isn’t as good for shipbuilding because it is not as rot resistant as white oak. --Penobscot Marine Museum
P.I.

Finishing the Body Mold

Today, we finished putting up the body molds, which shape the skeleton of the boat. We had a support beam put on it at the wrong water line (the lines parallel to the water) so we had to make another. It was glued too high, and the beam was glued into place. We had to make the replacement beam so a strip of wood could be put through the middle, adding structural stability. Another body mold was taken down yesterday to make changes, so we had to put it up again. The remaining three body molds were put into place today.

We also began construction on the oars for the boat. It involves gluing two pieces of wood together with poly-urethane glue, which is watertight, and clamping the pieces of wood together. Traditional wood glue is only water resistant. These blocks of wood will be cut into the shape of an oar. Because we have to use most of the clamps to hold the long strips together, we can only do one oar at a time.

The wood for the keel arrived today!

Shallop Ship Building Student,
Peter Kosakowski