The Lost Coast Chapter of the
Traditional Small Craft Association
 

Building Daisy
Built by Jim Swallow, Fall 2000

Daisy is the name Wooden Boat Magazine gave a nice thirteen foot dory skiff that they featured as a project many years ago, where the plans, offsets, and reasonable instructions appeared in two sequential issues (see Wooden Boat, "Building Daisy", 126:82 and 127:72). Building technique is that of lapstrakes over inverted station moulds, and the project was done in this builder's back yard over about two and a half months. The first step is to construct a sturdy frame upon which the station moulds are attached.


After carefully setting up the station moulds and attaching the "strongback", the transom is mounted and attached to the bottom chines. The chines are 11/16" X 2" fir and bend around the station moulds, and crossing over the stem that has been pre-cut and mounted.


The bottom, which in this case was 1/2" marine fir plywood, is cut out and glued to the chines. This builder eschewed fasteners and used West System epoxy held in place by a myriad of clamps. One could also place some strategic deck screws and remove them after the epoxy dries, but then the holes will need to be plugged and smoothed later.


This builder used the compas and spiling board method of determining the shape of the lapstrakes, but there are several methods that work well and are published in John Gardener's books, as well as others. Here, the garboards have been attached.


The second strake goes on. You can never use too many clamps. Note that this builder measures a new strake once and cuts two identical pieces, so that the strakes on both sides are identical. This leads naturally to a symmetrical hull.


The third strake goes on. The builder can use the time the glue dries on the most recent strake to clean up earlier glue jobs. The boat needs plenty of cleaning and scraping - at least this builder's boats do.


The last strake is the sheer strake. Note that the curves decrease as you work up to the sheerstrake. The builder is at the point that a recognizable boat is coming into existence.


By the time all the glue joints have dried and cured, the builder has cleaned up the outside enough to be ready to turn the boat over. Care has been taken all along not to glue the boat to the forms. A moment of intense satisfaction invariably occurrs at this point.


After cleaning up the inside, gunnels are applied. This is the point where the hull stiffens up considerably. The interior is fitted out: ribs are measured, cut, and glued in; inwales, knees, rails, breasthook are all cut and installed; the transom is shaped. There is a lot of woodworking that takes place at this stage.


This builder got carried away and sculpted a kingfisher into the stem. You should always follow the plans, but that does not mean you cannot apply little personal touches.


After more cleaning and sanding, the boat is painted. Here is another place where the builder's personal touches make a difference. Seats are then installed, along with the oarlock sockets, and the boat is fitted out to put into the water.


This builder originally planned to get a small trolling motor and motor up the estuary to picnic. Being in a hurry to get the boat into the water, he launched with a pair of oars, rowed up the river, was transformed, and never got the motor. He has been rowing ever since. He hasn't stopped building traditional wooden boats, either.

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