Seaworthy

Greg works out the bevel in preparation for the next plank.
PHOTO: CHRIS IRELAND

County crew discovers seductive passion of crafting a wooden boat

There are no straight lines. Nothing is square. Yet the dimensions must be true and precise. Otherwise months of work sinks like a stone. Disappearing underwater in a few seconds. Boat building holds a maddening grip upon those it attracts and seduces. It becomes an obsession, a passion and a curse.

This story is being repeated this winter in an undisclosed location as 12 men—all but one County residents—have embraced the challenge to build a St Ayles skiff.

Fashioned after the small boats used for fishing and transportation around the “tough water” between the Scottish isles that stretch in a line from the Orkneys to the Shetlands, the St. Ayles skiff has become a phenomenon among rowing and wooden boat enthusiasts—with regattas, races and events popping up across Scotland, the U.K. to Australia the U.S. and now to Canada.

It began just a few years ago when the traditional coastal fishing boat was resurrected as part of a demonstration project for the Scottish Fisheries Museum. The distinctive craft, accommodating four rowers and a cox (tiller controller), caused an immediate sensation among rowing enthusiasts.

One of these was IT specialist Alex Jordan. He found a designer, Ian Oughtred, an expert on historic boats, to design such a boat for him. The boat attracted a lot of attention at shows and exhibition. Jordan wanted others to build similar boats to compete with and showcase the tradition and craftsmanship. He formed the Scottish Coastal Rowing Association in 2010.

Jordan realized soon enough that the skills and knowledge to build such a boat was growing scarcer with each passing year. He decided that for this boat to proliferate the best way was to design and build a kit.

Since then more than 100 boats have been built—mostly in Scotland and England but a growing number outside the U.K. as well. It caught on with remarkable speed. Soon community groups up and down the Scottish coast and amid the isles were building their own St. Ayles skiff. In just a couple of years, a series of races and regattas has emerged showcasing the beauty, speed and craftsmanship of the St Ayles skiff.

The Ayle of Quinte Crew: (left to right) Don Farrington, Chris Ireland, Tony Dean, Sandy Pratt, Doug McPherson, Duncan Payne, Bob McKittrick, Greg and Jim Vince. Absent from photo: Gary Osbourne, Barry Tucker and John Friker.

CANADA’S FIRST
So it was that the County’s Chris Ireland landed upon a winter’s project for himself and his buddies. They found a distributor of the kits in Maine. In December they traveled to the U.S. to pick up their kit. The boat had arrived in two flat packed crates.

Chris describes opening the crates for the first time like that of a child opening their first balsa wood plane kits—only the dimensions were a great deal larger and the task infinitly more detailed. Inside the crates were hundreds of pre-cut pieces no two alike—each carved from 14 sheets of plywood.

The St. Ayles skiff uses a lapstrake design, meaning each of the wood strips (plywood in this case) that form the hull overlapps the next. It is a design that evolved and endured due to their stability and strength particularly in the often rugged waters around the Scottish Isles.

It is also a fast boat and races between north Scotland communities helped fuel rivalries that endure to this day.

While the boat arrives in a kit, a degree of woodworking skill and experience is still necessary to make a seaworthy craft from the hundreds of pieces unpacked from the crate. Indeed a new dictionary would be helpful to define the language of wooden boat building–terms such as clinker, sawn-sistered, thwarts, breast hooked, garboard, strongback, scarph joint and such.

Nor is the craft for those with short attentions spans. The County group had a month’s worth of preparation work before they could even begin piecing the boat together. It is almost all hand work—hand planes, sandpaper and dozens of clamps. Each overlapped portion of plank must be beveled to the same angle as the plank that follows it.

High quality marine plywood is used because its layers of fibre strands running counter directional to each other make a stronger plank than solid wood. The boat when completed will be 22.5 feet long by 5.5 feet wide on the beam. It will weigh about 350 pounds.

Not included in the kit are the oars, tiller, keel and assorted other bits. These are crafted from oak strips laminated together and then shaped, first by jig saw and then finished by hand.

Most of the guys have worked with wood before— but few have done anything quite like this. There is palpable pride in the room as the hull begins to take shape.

They hope to launch their skiff and showcase their work as part of a variety of lakeside events in the County this summer including the Dragon Boat races in Wellington in August. The highlight, however, will come in late June as the group travels to Connecticut with their skiff to the WoodenBoat Show at historic Mystic Seaport. There, wooden boat enthusiasts from across the U.S. and indeed around the world gather the share their passion for wooden boats of all sizes and description.

While much of the scale and shape of the boat is prescribed by the kit and the emerging St. Ayles skiff tradition—there remain many opportunities for builders of these boats to express their own creativity and obsession to detail.

The County group has not yet decided upon a colour scheme—but they are putting extra effort and details into finishing the craft.

The biggest challenge?

“Nothing is straight,” explains Ireland. “Everthing is curved and the curves aren’t consistent.”

The County group works at a relaxed but diligent pace. So many of the collection of friends had wanted to participate in the project they decided to split into teams—one gathers on Mondays—the other on Wednesdays.

“It has been a real fun project,” says Don Farrington, a retired banker. “Some of us had some boat building experience—but for me this has been a great way to learn and develop new skills.”

They have become evangelists for the St. Ayles skiff. They would love to see other community groups come together to build their own St. Ayles boat. To that end they have created an organization called the Ayle of Quinte Skiff Club, complete with a website to track their progress at ayleofquinte.wordpress.com.

Look for Canada’s first St. Ayles Skiff around the County this summer.