Wooden Boat Show

Next weekend sees the 28th annual Wooden Boat Show, at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. This is a great event in a wonderful venue, with a wide variety of wooden boats to view, or even go for a ride. We will have our Argie 15 on the village green, as well as a display of our designs at our booth in the main tent.

Our Argie 15 on show at the 2017 edition of the Wooden Boat Show

Mystic Seaport is a living museum, showing life as it was in a New England seafaring community hundreds of years ago. It includes displays of many aspects of life in that community, from milling wood for the shipbuilding operations to the drug store and doctor's office. Rides on a variety of traditional craft are also available to visitors.

This is a gorgeous part of the world and we always enjoy our annual visit there. Come to the show and drop by our booth and Argie 15 to talk boats. The show runs from Friday 28th June through to Sunday 30th and we will be there for the duration.

Argie 15 & DS15 at Wooden Boat Show

This past weekend was time for our annual road trip to Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, 500+ miles each way. We had our usual Paper Jet, slightly spruced up with a new coat of deck paint and non-skid. Normally we would take one boat on one trailer, an easy tow. This time we also needed to get the new Argie 15 to the show for Kevin Agee to exhibit in the I Built it Myself division of the show. So they had to both go on one trailer. The two boats made a neat package, more aerodynamic than the Argie 15 by itself.

Argie 15 and Paper Jet, the way we travelled to Mystic.

12 Hours aft of us on the road was Hunter Gall with his Didi Sport 15 (DS15) All three boats and our booth in the main tent were set up and ready for visitors Friday morning.

From left, Hunter Gall's DS15, Kevin Agee's Argie 15 and my Paper Jet.

This 26th edition of the Wooden Boat Show proved to be an exceptional one for us. The weather was good and the show was well attended, with a tremendous amount of interest in the two brand new boats. The high quality builds were rewarded with first place for Hunter and runner-up for Kevin in the "Owner-Built Sail" division of the competition. I extend my congratulations to both of them, their hard work and attention to detail really paid off.

Hunter's DS15 is a very interesting boat and really drew the crowds to talk about all of his details and innovations. It might be best described as stated by the head of the judging panel, who said that Hunter is like "the mad scientist of boating". I provided a clean and simple design, which Hunter used as a blank canvas onto which he applied almost every go-fast innovation that he could imagine. Of course it is his boat and the final result must make him happy and fire his passion for it.

Hunter's DS15, with red, white and blue colours achieved by staining the wood before applying the epoxy coatings.

The wet deck with open transom seemed to worry some visitors, mostly women. Surrounded by mostly traditional boats, they can't imagine boats sailing faster than the waves around them.

Hunter had intrigued the judges with his explanations of the theory of tacking daggerboards, his removable heart-shaped daggerboard foil and other add-ons, as well as the unique ways that he had executed some of the more mundane dinghy features. The judges encouraged visitors to chat with Hunter about all this and he had a ball with it. The boat has many 3D-printed items on it, including a carbon spinnaker chute that he had modeled in a 3D CAD program for printing.

Kevin's Argie 15 provided a big contrast, standing right next to the DS15. It is a big 3:1 dinghy that is outfitted for easy and efficient sailing with a minimum of fuss, able to get onto the water quickly and also to carry a family of adults and children in safety and comfort. Kevin built this boat to a standard that caused many to ask why a fiberglass boat was being seen on a show for wooden boats. The bright-finished woodwork of the boat is all two-tone in poplar and cedar, which set off the nicely painted hull and deck surfaces.

The pretty sheer and clean lines of the hull attracted many admirers to the Argie 15.

Spacious interior with minimal complication, as well as space for a bunch of people.

The Argie 15 may have originally been conceived as a 3:1 dinghy for basic family fun but it morphed later by adding seating all-round. This added 40-50lb to the weight but improved comfort big-time, also boosting safety by adding buoyancy if capsized or flooded. These are all features that attracted the lovers of simple boats.

The Paper Jet, Argie 15 and DS15 provided a nice contrast to each other, three very different boats from the same designer. Between the three boats and our display booth, Dehlia and I were kept very busy for most of the three-day show. I would like to thank both Kevin Agee and Hunter Gall for their efforts in building and showing their boats, also for their obvious pride in their own workmanship.

To see more of these and our other designs, go to our main website or our mobile website.

Wooden Boat Show at Mystic Seaport

The Wooden Boat Show happens the last weekend of June, at Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut. This has been the venue for the past decade, all of which we have participated in the show. This started with us exhibiting the prototype Paper Jet at the 2007 show, where she won the Innovation Award on the Concourse D'elegance. She was a lonely modern trapeze skiff in a sea of traditional boats.

This year the show will be 30th June through to 2nd July. We will have the Paper Jet there again but she will be accompanied by two of our other designs, both exhibited by their builders in the "I Built it Myself" part of the show.

The Argie 15 that Kevin Agee has been building the past few months will be there. I built the striped spars using birdsmouth details, from alternating strakes of poplar and cedar. I also completed the daggerboard and keel using the striped blanks that were laminated from the same two species by Kevin. We launched her on Sunday and I will be sailing her on the North Carolina Sounds at Cape Hatteras for the next few days. For the moment she has some rig pieces filched from the Paper Jet due to lack of time to make new but she will have all her own parts for the show.

"Argie" gets wet for the first time. Me at the stern, builder Kevin Agee at the bow.

The first sail, in very light breeze.

The Argie 15 is our most popular design but we haven't seen one on the Wooden Boat Show before. If you are in New England and have built an Argie 15, here is an opportunity to show your boat along with our new one.

The other new boat is the prototype of the Didi Sport 15 (DS15) design, which was commissioned by Hunter Gall. Hunter has built her over a long period and has produced a very interesting boat in a red, white and blue colour theme. Hunter is Australian but now Naturalized American. The red/white/blue is a patriotic choice of colours and his hull has a small US flag laminated into the epoxy under the stern.

Red deck, blue hull and white trim

The DS15 has a very modern hull with a bit of retro-styling in the deck details.

The colours aren't sprayed paint, as most would expect, which would give opaque finishes. Instead, Hunter dyed the plywood surfaces to allow the grain to show through, then coated with clear epoxy finished with clearcote to add depth and UV protection. This is a radius chine plywood boat, so the rounded part of the hull is laminated from two layers of plywood strips. The strips of the outer layer were edge-matched so that the grain runs through, with very tight joints that are almost invisible The result is a very interesting boat. Come to the show to see her, inspiration from an amateur builder who has never built a boat before.

To see more of these and our other designs, visit our main website or our mobile website.

More about Didi 40cr "Alizee"

My previous post was about the Wooden Boat Show, more specifically about the Didi 40cr "Alizee". I now have more info about her journey from the foothills of the Rockies to the East Coast.

"Alizee" loaded onto her custom three-axle trailer, ready to hit the highway.

The tow vehicle for this odyssey is a pretty serious pickup, the Dodge RAM 2500, with 5.7 litre Hemi V8 and towing capacity of 18,000lbs.

All hitched up and ready to go.

Total distance travelled was more than 1900 miles and took them through 10 states in 5 days on the road. They were delayed at the New York state line because they weren't permitted on the  NY highways on a weekend.

"Alizee" on the road.

Final destination was Noank Shipyard at the mouth of the Mystic River, Connecticut There she was to be launched, rigged, commissioned and sea trials done.

Hanging in the slings of the travel-lift, ready for launch.

Her first feel of the Atlantic Ocean.
The removable bowsprit is an owner-addition to set asymmetrical spinnakers.

"Alizee" safely afloat and waiting for her rig.

Commissioning took longer than expected due to delays with receiving her sail wardrobe. I had hoped to sail on her the day before the Wooden Boat Show but that was not to be, the Mystic Seaport dockmaster needed her in her berth too early to allow us to sail that day.

"Alizee" going through the road drawbridge to exit Mystic.
Further down Mystic River is another drawbridge, for the railway line.

"Alizee" has an interesting blog, titled  "Apres Boulot: our life after work". It covers her construction, road trip and the Wooden Boat Show. It will continue, to cover her cruising adventures.

To see other cruising blogs and websites for boats of our designs, go to our boat links web page.

Wooden Boat Show wrap-up

The 20th Annual Wooden Boat Show was a great success. Attendance was at a record high and the visitors seemed to be serious about boats, not just tourists passing through Mystic Seaport. We had visitors at our booth and Paper Jet most of the time, sometimes lined up waiting to talk.

To those guys who told me that I get them into trouble, I sympathise with you for your predicament. It seems that they spend too much time in my website, which gets them into trouble with their wives. At least it is not porn or drugs taking their time and hard-earned money.

Special visitors to our display were Bill Conner with son Spencer and father Bill Snr. They are building a Didi 40cr in Boulder, Colorado and are turning the hull this week. Another special visitor was Eric Thesen, originally from Knysna South Africa and now living in New Zealand. He worked on a Vickers 45 in Knysna and is now working in New England on a large rebuild project. Thanks guys, for coming by.

Bill Connor's hull ready for turning

The Paper Jet attracted even more attention this year than before. We expect to sell a few more of them before the 21st Annual Wooden Boat Show. We hope to be there with the Paper Jet and another new plywood dinghy, which is currently being built in North Carolina.

Regards,

Dudley
Visit our website for info on our designs.

Wooden Boat Show 2011

We are heading into summer and our annual boat show road trip is approaching. The destination is the very beautiful Mystic Seaport, Connecticutt. The show is the 20th Annual Wooden Boat Show.

We will have the prototype of the Paper Jet sailing skiff on display, as well as information on our many other designs, for building from all materials. We will be at Booth 13A in Tent A, with our boat set up just outside the entrance alongside our booth. In 2007 we received the Outstanding Innovation Award at this show for the Paper Jet.

Paper Jet numbers are growing worldwide. This week we have shipped plans to a builder in Thailand, who has sail #55. A Paper Jet Forum has been started recently for exchange of ideas and tips for building, rigging, sailing and tuning the Paper Jet.

Please drop by the booth or boat to see what we have, ask questions or just chat about what new designs we have coming soon.