Month: June 2015

At last the time comes when my boat “fledges” its nest and heads for its permanent home in the Adirondacks.  There is concern over the move since we will be travelling a long way over interstate highways and country roads.  My main worry is the weather.  It is the time of the solstice when weather patterns can cause severe weather, even tornadoes.  So we watch the forecast carefully and decide go on Saturday, June 20th since it is predicted to have good weather along the entire 400 mile route.

My friend Ed and his future son-in-law Drew offer to help me load the boat on our Suburban.  They are both tall men so that will make things easier.  It turns out that Drew grew up in Raquette Lake which is only about 14 miles from Long Lake.  He went to the elementary school there which, at the time, had an enrollment to 22 students.  It has been closed for some years now as the number of school age children in the town has dwindled to a handful.  Drew knows Adirondack boats and waterways well, having raced in the three day ninety miler paddling a canoe from Old Forge to Saranac Lake.

We decide to take the boat out the sliding glass door in my shop, hike it up a small hill to the Suburban, and load it on top.

I thought I could get away with using the roof racks to support the boat on top of the car.  But the sheer line is too great for that to work.  Drew suggests gunnel blocks to  mount the boat and stand it off from the roof.  We decide that Cabellas is the best place to get them so off I go to purchase two sets.  I have already bought some super tie-downs to strap the boat to the roof rack.  They are made by a company called Ericson and they are way better than any others I have seen.  Rather than simultaneously pulling two spring-loaded levers apart to loosen the straps you merely push a button.  Below are a gunnel block and a tie down.

As night falls the boat is securely fastened down using three tie downs and ropes on the front and rear.  We are ready to roll!

We awake the next morning at 4:30 am to the pitter-patter of rain. I guess this is the 20% chance of rain that was predicted.  As we head around Philadelphia the rain becomes a downpour.  Our luck holds and once we are about 50 miles north of Philly the rain ceases and a very pleasant day takes its place.

A milestone is reached when we enter the Adirondack Park.

We finally reach our lakeside camp.  The Long Lake water level is very high for this time of year.  Our “marsh” is now a part of the main lake.  Below the boat takes in its new surroundings having successfully traveled from Delaware to Long Lake

The next adventure is the boat’s maiden voyage.

 

 

This will be my 14th year as a docent in the Adirondack Museum’s boat shop.  During that time, I have been asked a great many questions about guideboats, their construction, and how they came about.  By far the most popular question is “How long does it take to build one?”

The Museum’s sanctioned answer is 500-600 hours.  Hmm!  I thought after I built my first boat that it sure took me a lot longer than that.  But, being my first boat I thought “Well, I’m just a beginner so the pros can do it much faster”.  Then came my second boat and the doubts grew about it only taking 500 hours to build one.  After all, just applying four or five coats of spar varnish to the hull and sanding between coats takes well over 100 hours.  Then it takes me about 20 hours to make a guideboat paddle.  I suspect making two oars would easily take twice that.  So about 200 hours has been spent without even considering making the hull.

So what does the figure of 500 hours represent?  Is it for constructing the hull only?  Is it the the total hours to make a boat regardless of how many men (or women) worked on it?

I didn’t keep track of the hours spent building my latest boat but I suspect it took at least 1500 hours to build.  After all the boat is built predominately by hand.  For example, each plank is custom fitted to the previous one.  To hang planks properly you need to suspend any urge to meet a deadline.  As you step into the planking “zone” you become so involved in getting it right that the hours slip quickly by.

So how long does it really take to build a guideboat?  I came across a reference the other day that seems to give an authoritative answer.  On page 49 of the guideboat bible The Adirondack Guide-boat, by Kenneth and Helen Durant, I found these words.  The Durant’s were describing the guideboat production of the Grant boat building shop in Boonville, NY.  The Grants, Dwight and his son Lewis, are perhaps the most famous of Adirondack boat builders.  Here is what they had to say:

“With Dwight Grant and six carpenters at work in 1891, output reached a peak of 25 boats.  Dwight Grant and Lester Fox built the boats, the five other carpenters made ribs, oars, paddles, yokes and decks, and did the sanding, varnishing and painting.  Gus Syphert, a snowshoe maker, caned the sets and back rests.”

Later on in the next paragraph:

“Dwight Grant estimated it took 21 days of 10 hours each to make a 16 foot boat with three caned seats, one cane back rest, one pair of oars, a paddle, and a yoke.  The best carpenter in Boonville in the 1880’s was paid $2.00 a day.”

So it took 210 hours to build a guideboat using highly skilled labor in the 1880’s.  If those total hours are multiplied by the number of men working on a boat, seven, then it requires about 1500 man-hours to build a guideboat.

Phew! So I am not the awfully slow builder that I had come to believe.  I think that 1500 to 2000 hours is about what it takes me to build one of these boats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funny thing!  I have never seen another guideboat with a floor board.  There are guideboats with so called false gratings like that below.  According to Helen Durant,who co-authored with her husband Kenneth the all encompassing book, The Adirondack Guide-boat, these gratings protected the hull from the sharp heels of ladies shoes.

Ladies shoes? How did a work boat used for guiding “sports” from the City become so popular that provsion had to be made for women’s sharp heels?  During the later part of the 1800’s the Adirondacks became a mecca for those escaping the heat and pollution of the large cities, especially NYC.  Crowds brought by the railroad were transported to lake front hotels by steam boats.  One of the amenities of the hotels was to provide a guide and his boat for a day’s outing.  So the lowly work boat was gentrified and became a yacht meant for having fun.  Some guiding still went on but a majority of the boats built in the late 1800’s were sold to wealthy Great Camp owners or hotels.

To me, a floor board for a guideboat seemed to make sense.  When you step into a guideboat you encounter the feet of several ribs.  This is somewhat awkward since you are often in bare feet.  But I also fretted about the ribs.  Wouldn’t sandy feet or sandals quickly wear away the rib’s protective varnish?  So I decided that making a simple floor board for my boats made sense.  The extra weight of the floor board didn’t matter to me because I wasn’t going to be carrying the boat for long distances.

The floor board basically follows the profile of the bottom board.  This floor board is made of 1/4 inch thick tiger maple.  It contrasts nicely with the darker Spanish cedar hull.  I made two inch high stand-offs of Spanish cedar to keep it clear of the rib feet.  The floor board is fastened to the rib feet at three places along its length.

So, at last, the boat is finished!  I still need to fasten the oar sockets, or straps, but more on that later.

Coming up next “On to the North Country”.

The bow seat’s reason for being is provide the guide (or rower) a place to sit while rowing from the forward rowing position.  The guide would usually row from this position since his “sport” would be lounging in luxury perched in the stern seat.  The boat’s midships would be awash in camping and cooking gear, hunting and fishing paraphernalia, perhaps an extra oar and certainly a candle lantern and paddle for  “jacking” deer at night. Some provisions would be taken along although the guide would be expected to lead his party to the best hunting and fishing grounds.  The party would be self-sufficient while in the wilderness for at least a week, maybe two.

The bow seat is shown in the photo below.

Guideboat seats are constructed much like cabinets.  The stiles (connecting members) have the tenons that fit into the mortises on the rails (members that run from one side of the hull to the other).  On the bow and stern seats the stiles meet the rails at an angle.  This means that the tenons must be cut so that they enter the mortise at a right angle to the rail.  This can give one gray hairs or render them in a fetal position trying to get all four joints  to fit together tightly.  The slightest mismatch at one joint ripples through the entire structure.  After removing some here and checking the fit and removing some there and checking, the fit is finally “good enough”.  It helps to have good clamps to pull everything together while gluing.

The guideboat’s rear seat has a little seat back.  On many guideboats the stiles on the rear seat are extended rearward by several inches.  This is so that the stiles on the bottom of the seat back can slide between the extended seat stiles.  This is a nice solution to holding the seat back in place.

On the Queen Anne, the boat I have reproduced here, I found no provision for holding the rear seat back in place.  So I made a bracket to hold the seat back but it was not entirely satisfactory.  This time I put two extensions on the rear seat and fashioned them to hold the seat back.  This seems to work fine.

As I mentioned above, some of the boats built by Caleb Chase had an extra half rib with an “ear” to help support the rear seat.  I made a pair of these ribs using the mold for the number 12 rib.

Before the half ribs are fastened to the hull, the rear seat cleats need to be secured.  I found the best way to do this was to attach Pony clamps to the ribs close to where the final cleat position will be.  The cleats go on top of the clamps and the seat on the cleats.  Using a level you then level the seat by moving the clamps up and down.  Once you are satisfied that all is well you drill holes for fastening the cleats and secure them.

The rear seat back on the Queen Anne is rather charming.  It has a rounded rail at the top.  Below are the parts of the seat back before gluing it together.

The final step in attaching the rear seat is to locate the half ribs.  They are positioned half way between the last two ribs, Nos. 11 and 12.  Once I am happy with where they are I run a strip of masking tape down the midships side.  This is the only way to make a mark on the hull once it is varnished.  Then I drill holes for the fasteners from the inside out.  It is much easier than trying to locate everything from outside the hull.

The half ribs are given four coats of varnish and fastened to the hull.

Finally all seats are secured.

Next time, the floor board.