Chapter XIII

BOATS

Of all the things that a boy is interested in there is nothing more fascinating than boats, whether they are to row, paddle, or sail in, and, as many of the simple kinds are quite within the ability of a boy to make, he can take a great deal of pleasure in their construction.

For the sea-shore and salt waterways the boats should be heavily constructed, and as this is usually beyond the average boy’s ability, the sea-going dorys, surf-boats, and heavy sail-boats will be omitted, and those described and illustrated will be for use in fresh water, or on small enclosed salt waterways where the wind and tide are moderate.

In making a boat it is not only necessary to have it float, but to construct it in such a manner that the joints will keep closed and the boards will not rip off if run on a snag or against a rocky shore.

These are essential points in the proper construction of boats, and they might as well be learned by the amateur boat-builder when he is young, instead of constructing something for fun and having to learn the right way all over again when he is older and more serious work begins.

In this chapter a few of the simpler forms of boats are shown, and the warning must be given at the start that the young shipwright should use the greatest care in constructing a boat, not only for the natural pride they will take in making a good one, but for the still more important reason that the safety of all on board is dependent upon his skill and conscientious work.

Punt and Scow

A punt with a flat bottom is about the easiest and safest boat for a boy to make and own, for it is straight in construction and difficult to upset if not overloaded. As both ends are the same it can be rowed or poled forward or backward, and the overhanging ends allow plenty of seating room.

The punt shown in Fig. 4 is fifteen feet long, nineteen inches deep, and four feet wide. The ends cut under twenty inches, and at one end a skag and rudder can be arranged as shown in Fig. 2.

The sides are made of two boards, one of six and the other of a twelve-inch width, and the added thickness of the bottom boards make the total depth of the sides nineteen inches. The wider boards are the lower ones, and they are fastened together near both ends and at the middle with battens as shown in Fig. 4. The middle battens are six inches wide, and into the upper ends of them the row-lock pins are driven. The bottom planking should not be more than four or five inches wide, and it is securely nailed to the edges of the sides and to an inner keel-strip running the entire length of the bottom as shown in Fig. 3.

The wood should be very dry so that it will not shrink afterwards and open the seams. Along the edges, and before the planking is laid or nailed on, smear white-lead, and lay one or two thicknesses of lamp-wicking on the lead, so that when the ends of the planking are driven down it makes a water-tight joint. Where the planks butt up against the other planking, the joints are to be generously smeared with white-lead and laid with a string of the lamp-wicking. Begin at one end and work towards the other, having first attached the end planks. Fig. 3 A.

The method of attaching the skag is also shown in Fig. 3, and if the punt shows a tendency to swing around in the water and not mind the oars or rudder, a keel three inches wide may be attached on the bottom of the punt to run from the forward end of the straight bottom back to the end of the skag.

The bottom planking is to be attached at both sides and to the inner keel-strip with galvanized nails. Do not use ordinary nails as they will rust in a short time, and the only ones that are of use are the regular galvanized boat nails that can be had at most hardware stores, and always at a ship-chandler’s or from a boat-builder.

A rudder can be made and hung at one end of the boat as shown in Fig. 2.

A scow (Fig. 1) will be found the easiest of all boats to construct, but at the same time the hardest to row, since both the ends are blunt and vertical. A scow is for use in shallow water and is poled generally instead of being rowed. It is built in a similar manner to the punt, but the ends are not cut under. A good size to make the scow for general use will be fourteen feet long, eighteen inches deep, and four feet wide. It may be provided with two or three seats, and when complete both the punt and scow should receive two or three good coats of paint.

A Sharpy

It is not a difficult matter to make a sharpy like the one shown in Fig. 5, but care must be taken in its construction to insure good unions and tight joints.

Cedar, white-wood, pine, or cypress are the best woods of which to build small boats, and wide boards can be had at almost any lumber-yard. White cedar is somewhat more difficult to get than the other woods, but if possible it should be used.

To make this sharpy the proper size for a boy’s use, obtain two boards fifteen or sixteen inches wide, fourteen feet long, and seven-eighths of an inch thick, planed on both sides and as free from knots as possible. If the boards cannot be had fifteen inches wide, then batten two boards together with strips just as plain board doors are made. Before they are fastened, however, smear the joint edges with white-lead and embed a string of lamp-wicking through the middle. Use plenty of white-lead, and after the boards are pressed together and fastened the surplus lead can be scraped from both sides of the joint and saved for other joints.

From a piece of hard-wood cut a stem eighteen inches long and four inches wide, with bevelled planes, as shown in Fig. 6. A section or end view of this post will appear like Fig. 6 A. Against the cut-in sides of this post the bow ends of the side boards are to be attached with screws or galvanized boat nails.

The long side boards are to be cut at bow and stern as shown at Fig. 7 A and B. The bow recedes three inches and the stern is cut under thirty-four inches. Attach the bow ends of the boards to the stem-piece or post so that the top of the sides will be seven-eighths of an inch below the flat top of the post. If properly done you will then have a V-shaped affair resembling a snow-plough, which must be bent and formed in the shape of a boat.

From a board seven-eighths of an inch thick cut a spreader ten inches wide, forty-eight inches long at one side, and forty-two inches at the other, as shown in Fig. 8. Arrange this between the boards about midway from bow to stern, so that the bottom of the spreader is flush with the bottom of the sides; then draw in the rear ends of the boards and tie them temporarily with a piece of rope.

Drive a nail into the edge of each board near the end, to prevent the rope slipping off, for if it should do so the boards would fly apart and might break away from the stem-piece.

In order to draw in the ends to the proper position, insert a short stick between the ropes and twist it around until the rope is wound up; then if the end is not in far enough, slip another rope around the ends of the boards, and after releasing the first rope insert the stick and continue the twisting until the ends of the side boards are twenty-one inches apart. Before this bending process is begun, it would be well to pour a kettleful of boiling water over each side board to limber them, for dry boards are stiff and will not bend easily without checking or cracking. If it is possible to steam the boards they will yield still better to the bending process.

The stern-plank is cut in the same shape as the spreader, but it is curved or crowned at the top, where it is twenty-three inches long, while at the bottom it measures twenty inches. It is six inches wide at the ends and nine inches at the middle, and is attached to the ends of the sides with boat nails while the tension-rope is still in place.

An inner keel is then cut six inches wide and pointed at the bow end, where it is attached to the lower edges of the sides at the bow and flush with them. The planking or bottom boards should fit snugly to it and to the edges of the sides.

A lap six inches long and seven-eighths of an inch deep is cut in the bottom of the spreader at the middle. In this the inner keel will fit, and after the first two or three bottom boards are nailed on at the bow end the frame of the sharpy will appear as shown in Fig. 9. The spreader and stern-plank will give the sides a flare which will have a tendency also to curve the bottom of the boat slightly from bow to stern. The bottom planks are four inches wide, of clear wood, and must not have tongue and grooved edges, but should be plain so that the white-lead and lamp-wicking will make a tight joint when the planks are driven up snug to each other.

Drive all nails carefully so as not to split the planking or sides, and as a precaution a small bit or gimlet should be used to make the start for the nail-hole.

A seat ten inches wide is fastened at the middle of the boat, over the spreader, and seats may also be arranged at the bow and stern, where they rest on cleats that are screwed fast to the sides.

A short keel or skag is fastened to the under side of the sharpy and extends from about under the middle seat aft to the stern-post. A V-shaped piece is let in where the stern is cut under as shown in Fig. 10. This keel prevents the sharpy from turning about quickly and serves to steady her when rowing, as well as making a deeper stern-post to which a rudder may be hung as shown in Fig. 2. Six inches to the rear of the middle seat plates of wood six inches wide are attached to the sides of the sharpy, as shown in the illustration (Fig. 5), and on the tops of these oar-locks or pins are inserted after the usual fashion.

At the outside of the sides and an inch below the top edge a gunwale-strip is made fast, and with a ring in the bow for a painter and a pair of oars the sharpy is ready for use.

Of course it should be thoroughly painted. Three or four successive coats of paint should be applied to a boat the first time it is painted, and before using, it should be launched, half filled with water, and allowed to stand for a few days so that the joints will swell and close properly. A mast six or eight feet high and a leg-of-mutton sail will enable a boy to sail before the wind in a quiet breeze, but rough-weather sailing should not be attempted in this style of open boat.

A Dory

A dory (Fig. 11), is somewhat similar to a sharpy but has higher sides and a narrower bottom, therefore it draws more water than a wide, flat-bottomed sharpy.

A boy can make a dory from twelve to sixteen feet long, but a fourteen-foot dory will be quite large enough to hold from four to six boys comfortably and safely. The sides should be twenty-four inches high and the bottom twenty-four inches across amidships.

The bottom is made from four six-inch planks battened across as shown in Fig. 12. The joints are leaded before the boards are brought together, and the fastenings are of galvanized nails clinched at the inside. The battens, of course, are on the inside, but the nail-heads are on the outside or bottom of the boat.

A stem and stern-piece (Fig. 13 A and B) are cut from hard-wood, and to these the wooden sides are made fast at both ends. The bow and stern of a dory have more of a rake than those of a sharpy as may be seen in Fig. 11. The top of the bow extends out beyond the bottom at least from fifteen to twenty inches, while the stern overhangs the keel about twelve inches. The sides flare out nine inches at both sides amidships, so that the total width of beam is forty-two inches for a dory fourteen feet long.

Planks sixteen feet long are necessary with which to make this dory, for when they are sprung out at the sides they take up on the length. They can be six inches wide, and are made fast to ribs along the inside of the boat and attached with galvanized boat nails.

In Fig. 14 an amidships section of the dory is shown and the position of the seat is located. Along the top of the sides, to cap them and the upper ends of the ribs, rails two inches wide and three-quarters of an inch thick are made fast with boat nails. These rails should be of hard-wood, and they should be sprung into place and securely fastened.

A dory of this description makes an ideal fishing-boat where the water is rough, since it can be rowed either forward or backward.

A Sailing Sharpy

A rowing sharpy can be converted into a sail-boat by partially decking it over, making a mast-step, and providing it with a lee-board if a centre-board cannot be arranged in the middle of the hull. Fig. 18.

The half-deck will keep out the water that might splash over the sides or come over the bow and stern, and the row-boat features need not be altered nor the seats removed, as the rib and brace work for the deck can easily be fitted and fastened over the seats, and so give additional strength to the deck.

Just behind the front seat and at the forward edge of the back seat cross-ribs are made fast to the sides of the sharpy. Between these, and eight inches from the sides of the boat, additional braces are sprung into place and securely attached at the ends, and provided with short cross-braces as shown in Fig. 15. The deck planking is nailed to these ribs and the seats under them give a substantial support to both the ribs and deck. The opening or cockpit will be six feet long and varying in width, as the side decks are eight inches wide and follow the line of the boat’s sides. Amidships it should measure about twenty-eight inches.

The braces and ribs are made of three-quarter-inch spruce boards five or six inches wide, and to bend them in the segment of a circle (as they will have to be for the side-ribs) pour hot water over two of them and place the ends on boxes with heavy stones at the middle to bend them down to the required curve. Allow them to remain in this position for several hours to dry in the sun; they may then be cut and fitted to the boat. The decking is done with narrow strips of pine, cypress, or cedar one inch and a half wide and three-quarters of an inch in thickness. They are bent to conform to the side lines of the boat, and if they are fitted nicely and leaded the deck should be water-tight after it receives varnish or paint.

If straight boards are employed in place of the narrow planking the deck can be covered with canvas and first given a coat of oil, then several successive thin coats of paint. The canvas should be tacked down over the outer edge of the boat and to the inner edge of the cockpit. A gunwale-strip an inch square is to be nailed along the top edge on both sides of the boat, and one inch below the top of the deck nail a guard rail along each side.

To finish the cockpit arrange a combing in place to project four inches above the deck, and make the boards fast to the inner side of the ribs with screws as shown in the illustration of the hull of sailing sharpy. Fig. 15.

Ten inches back from the bow-post bore a hole two inches and a half in diameter so that a mast will fit securely in place. The hole should extend through the deck and front seat, and a step-block with a hole in it to receive the foot of the mast must be nailed fast to the bottom of the boat. The hole in this block is oblong, and the foot of the mast should be cut on two sides so as to fit in the block as shown in Fig. 16.

Spruce or clear pine sticks are to be dressed and planed for the mast and boom, the mast measuring fourteen feet high by two inches and a half at the base, and the boom thirteen feet long by two inches in diameter, both tapering near the end.

The rudder is eighteen inches long, including the post, and ten inches high. It is fastened to a post of hard-wood three inches wide and seven-eighths of an inch thick. At the top of this an iron strap is fastened to hold the tiller as shown in Fig. 17 A. The rudder is hung to the stern of the boat with pins and sockets, as shown in Fig. 17 B, so that if it becomes necessary the rudder may be unshipped by lifting it out of the sockets or eyes. The rudder is fastened to the post with galvanized-iron pins ten inches long and three-eighths of an inch in diameter driven through snug holes bored in the wood as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 17 B.

It is impossible to hold a boat on the wind without a centre-board, but as this sharpy has none a lee-board will be required to keep her from drifting leeward. Fig. 18.

This board can be made five feet long, thirty inches wide, and hung over the lee side when running on the wind, where ropes and cleats will hold it in place. The board may be made of three planks banded together at the rear end with a batten, and at the forward end it is strapped across with bands of iron as shown in Fig. 18.

With a sail of twilled or heavy unbleached muslin this boat may be driven through the water at five or six miles an hour, and two boys can have a great deal of fun out of her. Care should be exercised in handling the boat; and be sure to reef the sail in case of a strong breeze.

A Centre-board Sharpy

When making a sharpy to sail in, a trunk and centre-board should be built when the keel is laid so that the cumbersome and unhandy lee-board may be done away with. The centre-board is housed in the trunk, through which it can be raised or lowered as occasion requires.

The arrangement of the trunk in the boat is shown in Fig. 19, and it is located so that the front of the trunk is three feet from the bow. For a centre-board one inch and a quarter in thickness the trunk should be one inch and three-quarters wide between sides, five feet long, and eighteen inches high. It is made of tongue-and-grooved boards one inch and one-eighth in thickness, and these are attached by stout screws to posts one inch and three-quarters square at bow and stern. The trunk is mounted on the keel, set in white-lead, and securely fastened with screws. A slot is cut in the keel the same size as the inside opening of the trunk—that is, two inches wide and about five feet long. The bottom planking is butted against the sides of the trunk at the middle of the boat as shown in Fig. 20.

An inner keel is laid over the bottom planking through the centre of the boat from stem to stern, and where it fits around the trunk it is cut out. Both the inner and outer keels are six inches wide and the exposed edges are bevelled with a plane. A sectional or end view of the trunk and its location in the keels is shown in Fig. 20, where the shading and lettering will designate each part.

The centre-board is four feet and nine inches long, thirty inches wide at the back, and twenty-four inches at the front. It is attached to the trunk with a hard-wood pin located near the forward lower end, and when it is drawn up it will appear as shown in Fig. 21 A, but when lowered it will look like Fig. 21 B.

The centre-board is made of hard-wood, several boards of which are pinned together with galvanized-iron rods three-eighths of an inch in diameter and driven through from edge to edge of the boards in snug holes made with a long bit or auger. The rods are riveted at both ends over washers to prevent the boards from working apart.

It would be better to let a boat-builder or carpenter make this board the proper size and shape to fit the trunk, for it is the most difficult thing to construct about a boat and somewhat beyond the ability of many boys. A large galvanized eye and a rope made fast below the middle of the board at the rear edge will provide the means for raising and lowering the centre-board.

The deck ribs and the planking are put in the same as described for the sailing sharpy.

A Proa

In the South Sea Islands the natives dig out the trunk of a tree, rig a lateen sail on a single stick, and arrange a counter-balance on the end of two poles in the form of a catamaran. With this rude contrivance they can outsail anything in the shape of a small boat such as our types of cat-boats and sharpies.

These queer craft are called proas, and a modified type that a boy can make is shown in the illustration Fig. 22.

This is a perfectly safe boat, and as it lies close on the water a great deal of fun can be had with one in comparatively smooth waterways.

To make the hull get two ten-inch planks sixteen feet long and spring them five feet from either end so that they come together at both ends and are separated fifteen inches along the middle for five or six feet as shown in Fig. 23. Between the sides place four or five spreaders, two of which should be stout enough to receive the bolts that will hold the two cross-braces or outriggers. Set a step-block for the mast, then plank the deck and bottom, using plenty of white-lead and lamp-wicking between the joints.

The cross-braces or outriggers are of two-by-four-inch clear spruce six feet long, and their outer ends are bolted to a solid spruce timber twelve feet long, four inches wide, and ten inches deep. They should be sharpened at both ends with an adze, draw-knife, or a chisel and plane.

A mast twelve feet long and three inches in diameter is stepped seven feet from the bow, and to it a lateen rig is lashed fast having the gaff eighteen feet long and the boom fifteen feet in length.

A block and tackle at the bow will pay off the angle and another at the stern will regulate the position of the sail.

Cross-wires for braces may extend under the short decking to steady the outrigger and keep it from racking the braces, and three or four narrow planks can be laid across the braces close to the large boat on which the boy and a friend or two may sit when sailing.

A rudder may be attached to the stern of the large boat, as shown in Fig. 17, or an oar can be used to steer with.

Paint the boats any desired color, and for the first time give them at least three or four thin coats not less than two days apart, so that one will dry thoroughly before the next one is laid on. Never put thick or gummy paint on a boat; thin it down and apply two coats rather than one thick one.

A Lark

Perhaps the safest kind of a sailing-craft next to a catamaran is a lark with a broad beam and flat at both bow and stern. There are various forms of the half-rater, but the one shown in Fig. 24 is easy to construct and requires less careful fitting and joining than the hulls with pointed bows and long, overhanging sterns.

In general construction this hull is similar to the punt, and when putting it together the description for the building of the punt must be borne in mind.

Obtain two clear cedar planks sixteen feet long and from fourteen to sixteen inches wide. Four feet from either end begin to round the lower edges of these side boards. Cut two spreaders five feet and six inches long and make them fast four feet from the ends of the sides as shown at Fig. 25. Between these spreaders attach an inner keel in the forward end of which an opening has been made. The keel is of hard-wood eight inches wide and the opening is three inches and a half in width and four feet and eight inches long.

A centre-board trunk is made and fitted into this opening as described for the sailing sharpy. Then braces are fastened between the sides and trunk as shown at Fig. 26.

Two bevelled hard-wood bow and stern pieces are cut as shown at Fig. 27. The ends of the boards are sprung in and attached to the ends of these pieces, and between them and the spreaders two more boards are fastened as indicated by the lines of nail-heads in Fig. 26. At the bow just ahead of the forward long cross-piece or spreader step the mast, and at the stern make the rudder-post trunk, taking care to use plenty of white-lead and lamp-wick so as to render the joints water-tight. Put a line of braces through the middle of the frame, then begin at the bow and plank the bottom with boards not more than three or four inches wide.

With the planking on and the braces, spreaders, and trunk in position the frame will appear as shown in Fig. 28. The deck planking is of strips seven-eighths of an inch thick and three inches wide. Begin at the middle of the boat by laying down a strip six inches wide by one inch and a quarter in thickness. Drive the deck planking close to this and smear the points with white-lead in which the lamp-wicking is embedded. Make all the fastenings with galvanized boat nails and drive the heads well into the wood with a nail-punch so they can be puttied and covered from the action of the water. An outer flat keel is laid along the bottom of the hull from the forward part of the cockpit or about under the mast. This leads aft to where the stern begins to round up and there it is stopped.

This keel is attached with galvanized or brass screws, and a generous number are driven through the keel into the bottom edges of the centre-board trunk.

The rudder is made from galvanized sheet-iron as shown at Fig. 29, and is let into a one-and-a-quarter-inch round iron rudder-post and riveted fast. Just above the rudder-blade a collar of iron is welded to the post and this bears against the bottom of the boat. To prevent the rudder from dropping down a pin is passed through a hole in the post close to the deck and a large washer made fast to the deck will prevent the pin from chafing the wood.

Have the top of the post made with a square shank so that a tiller may fit over it and be held in position by a nut.

The rudder-blade should be twenty-six inches long and twelve inches wide.

The mast is fifteen feet long, cut from a four-inch spruce stick with draw-knife and plane. The boom is fifteen feet long, cut from a two-and-one-half-inch spruce stick, and the gaff is eleven feet long.

Extending out from the mast and attached to the deck is a short bowsprit five feet and six inches long. This is of two-by-three-inch spruce with the sharp corners rounded off beyond the end of the boat.

A wire forestay and two shrouds lead from mast-head to bowsprit and to both sides of the boat as shown in Fig. 24.

The main-sheet is seven feet on the mast, ten feet on the gaff, fourteen feet at the foot or on the boom, and eighteen feet on the leach. The jib is eleven feet on the forestay, five feet at the foot, and ten feet on the leach. The blocks are all of galvanized iron or wood, and three-eighth-inch Manila-rope should be used for the halyards and sheets.

This lark will ride well on the water, and if properly rigged it should be a very speedy boat.

A Power-boat

A novel feature for the propulsion of a flat-bottom boat or punt is shown in Fig. 30. Two small paddle-wheels attached to one shaft are hung out over the stern, and by means of a sprocket on the shaft connected to another and larger one on the seat frame the wheels are turned by the boys who mount the seats and work the pedals.

The punt is fifteen feet long on the deck line and six feet wide. The side boards are twelve inches wide, and with the thickness of the deck and bottom planking it will make the total depth about fourteen inches. Through the middle a strengthening rib is run the same size and thickness as the outer sides as shown in Fig. 31. This gives an additional rib to nail the sheathing boards to and also an anchorage to which the uprights forming the seat frame can be made fast with bolts.

The outriggers that suspend the wheels are of spruce two inches thick and three inches wide. They are bolted to the deck and at the outer end U-notches are cut for the axle of the wheels to fit into and capped with iron straps such as shown in Fig. 32. A blacksmith will make these for you from strap-iron an eighth of an inch thick and two inches wide. They should be bolted on when the wheels are in position, for they not only have to support the weight of the wheels but also stand the action of the water against them.

The wheels are each twenty-four inches in diameter and two feet long, and are made from wood seven-eighths of an inch in thickness. Seven blades eight inches wide are screwed fast to the sides or held in place with long, galvanized boat nails.

The axle is of spruce two inches square, and the wheel sides are provided with square holes through which the axle is driven as shown in Fig. 33. The ends of the axle are banded with iron, or copper wire may be wound round them to prevent their splitting. Into the ends half-inch round iron pins are driven which revolve in the bearings.

The seat-frame is thirty inches high and made from spruce rails three inches wide and one inch and a half in thickness. On the middle upright a large and small gear wheel are arranged on an axle with the cranks and pedals, and on the front post a small wheel is attached so that tandem power may be used on the paddle-wheels or one boy alone can work the boat. A rod and handle-bars may be arranged for the rear boy to grasp, and with a socket and set-screw it can be raised or lowered at will.

The forward bars have a cross-piece of iron at the foot of the vertical rod. This is two feet long, and from the ends of it running aft wires connect with the ends of a tiller for operating the rudder.

The rudder is hung between the wheels on a skag which is the rear extension of a short keel that should be nailed fast to hold the punt steady on the water.

Four canopy poles may be arranged to fit into sockets at the sides, and an awning six by ten feet can be supported over the machinery of the boat to keep off sun and rain.

This is a genuine boy-power boat, and as the wheels are substantially large and strong it can be driven over the water at quite a good speed. While it takes two boys to properly run it, that is not the boat’s capacity, for she will easily carry from four to six boys, their lunch-baskets, or a one-day camping outfit for a visit up the river or lake.