Whaleboat Roundup .1

Rocking the Boat

She's a beauty!

Geoff McKonly keeps the project going during a break

Such grace

Ready to launch

Splashed!


Photos courtesy Rocking the Boat

Gannon and Benjamon

 

The lofting

Plastic bags were used in place of steam box so that the plank could be "whomped" in place.

Closer look at the frames. The top of the frame is fit into a chamfer on the underside of the inwales.

Framing installed

We laid down a coat of oil-based primer throughout the hull before installing any of the ceiling.
(The ceiling is the planks you see here being installed atop the frames-ed)

Whaleboat is primed and ready to paint!

Nat and the whaleboat

Above photos courtesy Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway

With  the July 21st deadline for the launch of the CW Morgan, the various builders of her whaleboats are in full swing to finish. I'll be catching us up on the progress of the boats over the next few weeks. As you can see above, at least one has already splashed, the Rocking the Boat build. My heartiest congratulations to the young volunteers and their instructors for reaching this milestone. Also, the work at Gannon and Benjamin is nearing completion.

The two boats being built at Independence Seaport will go in the water June 8, and I plan to be there for their splash, so stay tuned. (You can also follow the progress with almost daily reports by Charles Bernstein on the WoW blog)

It has been decided that each build will complete their spars and rigging independently, with the exception of RTB, whose rig will be done at Workshop on the Water. I know that Graham McKay of Lowell's Boat Shop was in Philadephia at the Worksop recently building the spars for their boat.

It's my understanding that the completed boats will travel to Mystic to be aboard the CW for her splash and then return to their respective homes for awhile, but ship on the Morgan for her cruise to the New Bedford Whaling Museum in 2014.

As mentioned earlier, I'll be doing a (virtual) tour of the various yards to catch up on their progress. Come along.

Copyright Thomas Armstrong