wooden boat: Boat takes shape in Dry Valley attic
Boat takes shape in woodworker's attic
By Eric Mayes
The Daily Item
June 05, 2006
DRY VALLEY — Dan Newton knows first hand the trials of Noah. Mr. Newton too is building a boat, though his mission isn't to save mankind but just to have a little fun.
A tall, jovial man, topped with a jumble of dark hair, the Dry Valley craftsman talks easily but, uncharacteristically, he was unable to say just why he chose to build a boat.
"Anybody can buy a boat," he said. "It's kind of like, why hike to the top of a mountain when you could have a helicopter drop you off at the top?"
His love of sailing started first with a love of boats. He was seduced by the beauty and mystique of the sail boats he saw and the romance of travel.
"They're so beautiful," he said. "It's just a beautiful form. Boats are associated with a sense of adventure. They all just have the ability to take you somewhere for nothing. You can go almost anywhere."
But wooden boats in particular appealed to the artist in him.
An accomplished cabinet maker, Mr. Newton is building the boat in the attic of his shop.
"I really have a love of wooden boats as an extension of what I do," he said.
Pieces of the 12-foot catspaw dinghy are scattered casually throughout the building. The Douglas fir spars, described by Mr. Newton as "runaway Christmas trees," are propped just outside the door. On one work bench are the tiller and rudder hand-crafted from white oak. A knee, a support used in the stern of the boat, was tucked under a table.
Building comes naturally to Mr. Newton. He built the shop himself using traditional mortis and tenon methods.
"I'm just doomed to be anachronistic," he laughed.
Its broad, plank floors are covered with a fine coating of sawdust, the air slightly sweet with the scent of freshly milled wood. Classical music fills the silences and a sign hung over one window reads: "Labor until ye bring your spirit to be satisfied."
Mr. Newton seems satisfied.
Though hurried is probably not an adjective that applies to him, Mr. Newton seems always to be moving from one project to the next. He owns his own cabinet making business, Dry Valley Joinery. In one corner a case for a grandfather clock is under construction. Design books on Shaker furniture rest on drawing table. A couple of sailboat models decorate the few shelves.
The downstairs is a place of work, of business. Upstairs, its more leisurely. A rug molders on the floor near an easy chair and a lamp. It is there work takes place on the skeleton of the boat, lying upside down in the center of the loft.
He's been working on it for three years but admitted the project should have taken about six months.
"I really haven't touched it for two of those years," he laughed.
He's spent about $3,000 in materials but buying a wooden boat of the same design would cost about $10,000.
The design he's chosen is one by Nathanael Herreshoff, an 18th century sailboat designer legendary in sailing circles for his fast and beautiful yachts, built for a string of robber barons turned sailors. His boats were raced under the name of owners like: Jay Gould, William Randolph Hearst, John Pierpont Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt III, Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, William Kissam Vanderbilt II, Harry Payne Whitney.
Mr. Newton's vessel will be more modest, it was likely designed for use as a tender, a smaller boat that ferried people to a larger one anchored in deeper water.
While the craft itself is small the job of building it has not been.
"I love it but only do it when I feel I love it," chuckled Mr. Newton.
He's taken his boat from a paper design to reality.
Before construction could start, a full-scale drawing had to be made. Mr. Newton ordered his plans from a company based in Brooklin, Maine, called
Wooden Boats. From those he generated the larger drawings which would serve as a template for each piece. The plans he purchased were accompanied by a table of measurements used to create the pieces.
"That was really hard, taking the numbers off the table and making the pieces," he said.
But, at a more basic level, Mr. Newton had to learn the rather obscure language of boat builders. In their lingo a seat became a thwart, its support a thwart riser.
"The hardest part for me was the language," he said. "You have to learn the language first."
Once that was mastered, Mr. Newton started work on the mold around which the hull would be formed. He worked in sections, creating a series of U-shaped ribs to which horizontal stringers were attached. It was here the difference between cabinetry and boat building started to become obvious.
"There are no right angles on a boat," he said.
To start, a plumb line, marked with the boat's water line, was hung from a cable centered over the spot where the hull would rise from the floor. The water line is the only horizontal plane consistent throughout the boat and it was from this that final measurements were derived. As each rib was put into place the water line was marked on it and then lined up with the preceding and following ribs. The ribs where then connected with a series of stringers, thin strips that run the length of the hull.
It was here that Mr. Newton's work paused.
Ultimately, the hull will be made up of three layers of the eastern white cedar covered in a polyester cloth which in turn is covered with a fairing used to provide a smooth surface. The first layer of planks will be laid at an angle to the stringers. The second, at an opposing angle to the first layer and the final perpendicular to the second. Then, the structure will be covered with the fabric which is use to discourage small leaks. The material should then be coated with a fairing to seal it.
Eastern white cedar was chosen for its lightness, strength and flexibility coupled with the fact that it swells when it's wet.
"It seals up the joints by itself," Mr. Newton said.
When the hull is formed the ribs will be removed. The mast will be 15 feet and made of Douglas fir, the rudder white oak strengthened with bronze rods hammered through small holes in its center.
Then it will come the true test of any boat — its launch. This craft will be christened the Carol E. after Mr. Newton's daughter.
"You put them in the water you just have to see how they do," he said. "When you build them you don't really know what they're like."
Where he finally uses the boat will depend on its performance.
The Newtons keep a 27-foot cruiser in Baltimore. He may take the dinghy there to use as tender or he may keep it here for use on local lakes or the river. With a top speed of about 3 knots the boat will certainly never be a racer. That's fine with Mr. Newton. He considers himself what sailors call a cruiser. He enjoys the wind in his face, the water and spending time with his wife Rebecca, 6-year old daughter Carol and son Danny, 2.
"It's so amazingly peaceful and beautiful," he said. "It just slows down the pace of your life."
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