Before embarking on the Stirven build I had tackled a number of other smaller boaty projects.
First was a restoration on my Lazy E this is a 16ft timber racing dinghy, this is the boat I’ve been sailing for the last few years. I fixed some rotten ply and upgraded various bits and gave the whole thing a paint. Everyone loves this boat as its been in the fleet since the early 70s. Unfortunately it’s not to competitive against the fancy new fiberglass versions of this class.
Toothache on a tasty reach
Then I did a 3 month intro to boat building course at TAFE in Williamstown. Although this was interesting after the 3 months were up they had no space available at the time to actually build a boat! The maximum size boat you could build as part of this course was 14ft. Considering I already had a 16ft boat this was never really very appealing
So I decided to build a sea Kayak in my shed instead. The kayak was long and skinny and so was my build space. Not to mention I also quiet like kayaking and the look of the strip built kayaks. I thought this would give me lots of building experience and also not be overly expensive. I also really wanted to try strip planking. Here is my completed Guillemot design by Nick Schade
The Finished Kayak
Stripping the hull
Kayak bulk heads
After the Kayak project I was still unsure of the type and size boat I wanted to build and where I would actually do it, once I new what I was going to do.
So in the meantime I decided to build a hollow wooden surfboard after seeing an article on Grain Surfboards in Wooden Boat magazine.
This all fit with my interest in surfing and looked like a do-able project in my workshop. So I designed and built a 11ft 6inch Stand Up Paddle Board. The construction technique is very similar to kayak strip building so I was quiet comfortable with the build process. I documented the build and posted on the Tree To Sea Hollow Wooden Surfboard Forum
DA Beast build can be followed from this link. Here is the finished board and a couple of build pics
The finished Board
Decking the board
Inside the board
I learnt lots from these various building projects all of which is now coming in very handy on my Stirven build.
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