Category: News

• Coaming
• Centreboard trunk
• Floorboards
• Seats
• Spars
• Hardware

After gluing up the rest of the deck, we trimmed the edge and installed the coaming, which we had previously laminated. The coaming got cleaned up and faired, further defining the shape of the cockpit. We also installed the rub rails on the outside of the hull.

Once we had the outline of the cockpit refined, we finished up work on the centreboard trunk, and got it and the thwart installed.

One of those happy surprises came up when someone noticed that the oars would fit in those nice holes in the deck knees that were intended for tying or clipping things to – the handle of the oar fit nicely, giving us the perfect place to store the oars while sailing!

The floorboards were made in two parts, fitting on each side of the centreboard trunk, and are removable. It’ll be a tight fit getting them out past the seats, but there should be enough wiggle room. The rudderhead and tiller were created, and were the first things that got new varnish – thanks Arnt!!

Some hardware has been gathered, including some blocks, cleats, and gooseneck, or fabricated, such as the stem-head, chainplates, and the pintles and gudgeons.

The seats have been a big and satisfying bit of work – they’re all roughed out now, ready for smoothing and assembly. They are looking awesome in the boat!

We’ve had some great sailing this spring, and getting more members out enjoying the boats – so good to see! We hope to get our boats more busy than they’ve been lately. Over on Vancouver Island, Ingrid took possession of a No-Man’s-Land, and relaunched her after some work. Looks like a gorgeous boat, and should bring her a lot of adventure!!

Hope to see you at the shop!

Once again, two months have flown by, and a lot of progress has been made on our Iain Oughtred designed Gannet build.

Last Saturday we glued on the last of the deck, really giving a feel for the shape of the boat!!

In our last post, we had installed most of the foredeck beams. Here, we mocked up the curve of the cockpit, and some suggested deck beams to support the edge of deck.

Next, we cut down the transom and capped it with a strip of hardwood – it was nice to get rid of that oversized chunk of plywood!

The forward bulkhead got an access hatch cut, which will allow us to store things in the dry compartment, and will give us access for inspection and repair – we had to test that someone could get in! That access will also be needed in order to apply epoxy sealer to the underside of the decking, something we neglected to do before gluing it on. Not the best workspace.

The aft deck / stern sheets got a cosmetic series of grooves cut in with a router, to mimic individual boards, break up the broad surface, and if we want to get practical, it will also provide a bit of grip when stepping on it. Half of the foredeck also got glued in at this time.

The deck carlin and the coaming got laminated next, creating the curved forward edge of the cockpit. This called for a lot of hands and clamps to get it in place and secured. The coaming was removed after the epoxy cured, to make way for the plywood deck.

The rest of the foredeck and the side decks were shaped and glued in next, a major milestone, making it feel like we’re almost done! (spoiler – we’re not quite there yet)

Meanwhile, we’ve been chipping away at the centreboard trunk, gluing the sides together, attaching the reinforcing rails, and applying a capping to finish off the top edge. It’s just about ready to go into the boat.

Out in our tent workshop, Enke got new oarlock pads, and got put back in the water. The tent got a floor, thanks to the donation of plywood from neighbours of Arnt & Valerie – and Arnt provided a portable workbench with a nice heavy top. This will make the tent much more useful, as we won’t have to worry as much about dropping tools through the rather large gaps between the boards, and we’ve got a bench that’s heavy enough to stand up to planing and sawing.

We’ve had a couple of other very generous donations lately – a box containing two sets of oarlocks, sockets and collars was shipped out from Ontario by Pete Code, owner of TenderCraft Boat Shop, a family friend of one of our members. One pair of oarlocks is going on Enke, and the other one will become part of our new boat. Thanks Pete – we really appreciate it!
A few weeks ago, we had a visit from Faith at Milwaukee Tools Canada, bearing a bag of gifts! She provided us with battery operated router, multi-tool, and driver, along with 3 batteries and a charger, a tape measure, safety glasses, and t-shirts. The router was promptly put to work rounding over some corners – thanks Faith!!

On Saturday we raised a glass to Iain Oughtred, the designer of our boat, as he had passed away a couple of days before. Our condolences to his family and friends.

He was a prolific and well-respected designer of small boats, and popularised glued plywood lapstrake construction, which is the method we’re using for this boat. This photo shows him visiting our club when they were still meeting at Dave Bradford’s Alder Bay Boats on Granville Island in the club’s early days.

• Interior fit-out
  • Bulkheads
  • Floors
  • Inwales
  • Seat knees
  • Deck beams
  • Centreboard trunk
  • Thwart cleats
• North Star of Herschel Island YouTube series
• Light Up the Harbour

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We’ve made a lot of progress on the Gannet project in the last two months. Sorry for the lack of reports – the lead-up to Christmas is always a hectic time in one way or another! Get a cup of coffee or tea, and settle in for a longer report!!  For more frequent updates, follow our Instagram or Facebook.

Before starting on the interior fit-out, we used a laser “level” to check our seat riser lines. Of course, in our floating boat shed we can’t really rely anything with the word Level in it, but this just gave us a consistent line around the inside of the hull. This let us set the height of the seats and the aft bulkhead, as well as the height of the centreboard trunk. (It was fiddly work, and the photos don’t quite show the final position of the laser)

The first parts to go in were the bulkheads, with nice big fillets of epoxy and sawdust holding them in place. We pre-cut the hole for the waterproof hatch in the aft bulkhead, but are waiting a bit for the forward hatch, to figure out how it fits with some of the other features of the interior.

Next up was the Floors, the structural members spanning the bottom of the hull, adding a lot of stiffness to the boat. The floorboards will rest on top of the floors. The floor that’s halfway along the centreboard trunk was glued in in one piece, and then cut to make room for the trunk.

The inwales were glued in along the sheer, helping to hold the shape of the hull. The outwale/rub strake will come later, after the deck is installed. 

The yellow cedar seat knees came next, further reinforcing the hull and providing support for the future side seats.

The foredeck structure was built up of fir and yellow cedar, forming the support for the curve of the deck. The beams were shaped and fitted, along with the breasthook at the stem.

The king plank along the centreline was fitted into mortises in the breast-hook and bulkhead deck beam. After some further fitting to adjust the curves to what the plywood deck can do, we glued in the deck structure.

The centreboard trunk is progressing. The yellow cedar spacers have been glued to one side of the 1/4″ plywood, and white oak cheeks glued to the outside to reinforce where the pivot bolt will go. The inner face has been epoxy sealed, with a layer of fibreglass for strength and wear-resistance.

And finally, we also shaped and glued in the thwart cleats. The interior is really taking shape, and it’s getting easier to imagine sailing the boat!

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North Star of Hershel Island – the YouTube series

The team involved in rebuilding of North Star has started a YouTube series giving us a look at the project. They’re planning for weekly videos, released each Friday. Start with the trailer and episode 1, and be sure to subscribe and Like!

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Light up the Harbour

The Museum put on a family event a couple of weeks ago with children’s choir, hot chocolate, and celebrating the lights in the harbour. We lit up our shop and boat, and welcomed a LOT of visitors to our little bit of paradise! Enke took over the duties of carrying the Grinch display, since we sold the Fancy Pram earlier this year.

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It’s been a great year at the club, with a whole bunch of new members, and the camaraderie of long-time friends! We wish you all a safe and happy New Year!

We had the very sad news a couple of weeks ago that one of our long-time members, Gerry Fuchs had passed away. Gerry was one of the last few members keeping the club going through a slow time, before the current group got involved. Gerry stayed on as a board member for a number of years, helping to rebuild the energy, and we thank him for keeping it going.

Gerry paid regular visits to the shop, even as the ramp at low tide started to become more of a challenge. We always enjoyed his time there, gleaning bits of history of the club and past activities. We will miss him a lot, and we send our condolences to his wife Sharen and their daughters.

We’ve been hard at work (play) on the Gannet project, getting the interior plank fillets done and sanded, and moving on to floors and bulkheads patterned, cut, and fitted, nearly ready to glue in. The centerboard trunk pattern is well on its way too. The thing that slows us down is thinking it all through!!

We still need to determine the height of the floors, so that the floorboards (sole) will sit on them nicely, and will leave enough legroom when we’re sitting in the boat. The centerboard trunk pattern needs to be trimmed down to the desired height.

It’s exciting to start to see the interior layout, and imagining ourselves sailing the boat!

Enke is getting some attention, with a fresh coat of paint. That work had started before our Heritage Harbour Classic, and was interrupted when we needed to get her back in the water for the race. It’s been picked up again, and she’s starting to look bright and fresh again.

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In September, our lovely Heritage Harbour was home to a pile-driver and barge for a few days, as they replaced most of the pilings, a very welcome and much-needed improvement!! We got a timelapse of the process:

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In other BIG news at the harbour, North Star of Herschel Island is undergoing a refit at Shelter Island boatyard! She was towed there last week and promptly hauled out to start the work. One of our members Morgan is part of the crew working on her, and Bernard was there to document the arrival and haul-out – look for his videos (and lots more boat-building photos) in our OLAS Photos album.

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A much smaller refit was our boat shed roof – we’ve been getting some leaks as the weather turns to rain, and so last week Dylan and Morgan got up there to investigate. They found that a couple of spots had rusted through, and so they patched it up and slathered it with roofing tar. We hope that will tide us over until we can find some funding for replacement material.

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This computer model is helping a lot to work out the details in the boat – come down and see the work for yourself!

We have a boat in the shop! The exterior sanding and sealing were completed, and the hull has been turned upright, ready for interior work. We’ve got a good start on the interior sanding, and will soon get started on floors, centerboard trunk, and bulkheads. It’s wonderful to get a look at the shape of the hull!

We had marked the locations of the molds before we flipped the boat, and we also marked the waterline before taking the hull off the molds. We’ve put some molds back in to hold the shape, and will also use them to mark the locations of interior elements such as thwarts and decks.

The work we did on the Vogler a while back was put to use right away, as it was rented for a photo shoot for a florist. They had a model in a wedding dress in the boat – their final result hasn’t been posted, but Ben snapped a shot after they’d decked out the boat in flowers.

We had a visitor at the harbour a few weeks ago – the Hōkūleʻa, a Hawaiian voyaging canoe which is making its way around the Pacific. It was great meeting the crew, hearing their stories, and getting a close-up look at this fascinating craft!

There have been a few boats in the harbour changing stewardship lately, but the biggest news by far is that North Star of Herschel Island has been sold, to one of our own OLAS members, no less!! We are delighted to hear this news, and that she will be staying in our harbour!!

A few of our members are doing the festival tour, last weekend at Victoria Classic Boat Festival, and this coming weekend at Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. They’ve collected some wonderful awards to go along with their stories – we look forward to hearing all about their experience in the coming weeks!!

Coming up in just over a week is the Heritage Harbour Classic, with boats from our harbour engaging in some friendly competition. The race will happen the afternoon of Sunday September 17th – please let us know if you’d like to take part – we expect to have all of our OLAS fleet involved, in the sailing race and the rowing race.

Hope to see you at the dock!

Our Gannet hull is getting patched up, filleted, and faired. It’s taking a few rounds of applying fillets and patching holes, sanding them smooth, and then coming back to refill some shrunken bits. It’s coming along nicely though, and getting fairer and smoother each time! We’re nearly ready for a couple of sealer coats on the exterior.

The mast has been rounded and smoothed, and looking good! We need to figure out the arrangement at the head of the mast for the halyards and shrouds before we start applying varnish.

We’ve given the Vogler a good cleaning, new bottom paint, and a couple of coats of varnish.

We’re getting lots of people out sailing in our boats, with some really nice conditions – so great to have access to these beautiful boats, and introducing people to them!

A special event is happening this Saturday afternoon, July 15th – the Heritage Harbour piano is going to get a bit of an upgrade in the usual quality of player!! Tom Arntzen and a couple of other professional players will be putting on a special concert at 2:30pm, by donation, in support of improvements to our harbour and breakwater. Read all about it here:

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10159274157106604&set=a.10150245060666604

They say many hands make light work. We’ve had a LOT of hands taking part in our Gannet build in the last few months, and it’s been a delight! We’ve had a lot of interested visitors who have taken part in the build to some degree, and some have stayed to join the club.

We had roughed out the black locust stem a while ago, and now that we finished the planking, we did the final fitting and shaping before gluing it in place. The top of the stem will be cut to shape after we flip the hull. Several inspectors carefully observed the cutting of the bevel. Thankfully they approved the work, and carried on with the shaping.

The cutting of the centerboard slot was a bit of a milestone – we built a nice (presumably) watertight hull, then cut a hole in it. We hope the multiple measurements were accurate enough, and when we build the centerboard trunk, the water will stay out, and the boat will float! The hole in the hull got cut using a platform/template for the circular saw, and it worked out very well – it was nice and stable.

The keel was cut and shaped in one full-length piece, using gorgeous old fir from a reclaimed church pew (as was the keelson). We cut the slot slightly undersized, and will trim it to proper size later, once we’ve got the centerboard trunk installed. Gluing it to the hull included screws and sticks jammed between the ceiling and keel (there’s a name for them, but it escapes me…).

After the glue dried, the keel was trimmed and faired at the stem and transom. The centerboard slot gave a nice light to the interior of the hull, helping Pam do some cleanup inside!

The mast has been glued up and shaped up to the octagonal shape – the last shaping to 16 and 32 sides, and then sanding is still to come. We’ve got some beautiful sitka spruce, and planing that is a dream! The boom is also glued up, and is awaiting its turn on the planing bench.

Our tent got some cleaning done, and preparation for some reinforcing – the strong winds are taking their toll on the material.

Pam spent some time under the boat marking the station locations for reference once we flip the boat, and while she was under there, she did some cleanup, getting rid of a lot of the dust and offcuts that had accumulated.

And, sustaining us through all this productive labour of love, there’s a steady stream of treats, including these beautiful cupcakes on Canada Day (with a Canada Goose in the background).

One of our wonderful visitors was Julia, who had come to the dock inspired to do some plein-air painting and sketching, and caught Walter at the piano. She also did a beautiful painting of North Star of Herschel Island – the painting is now hanging in North Star’s salon.

Congratulations to Vojtech (at right) and his team on finishing the Race to Alaska! They finished an impressive 5th place, and are now recovering, and working on a new name for next year. We look forward to hearing all about it when Vojtech returns to the shop!

Our Gannet hull is nearly ready to flip over, and start work on the interior – just some sealing and filleting to do on the exterior. Hope you can come take a look in person!