2014 Rare Craft Fellowship Award

The American Craft Council, in association with The Balvenie, a Scottish distillery, awarded the 2014 Rare Craft Fellowship February 6, 2014 in New York City at Per Se restaurant.  I had received a letter in December informing me that I had been nominated anonymously as one of five national finalists.  To my great surprise and honor, I was named the winner.  The Rare Craft Fellowship honors those who practice a rare craft and seek to preserve the skills of their trade.  I was honored for my work in Japan documenting traditional boatbuilding.

The Balvenie prides itself on making whiskey in the most traditional manner possible, controlling all aspects of production by farming their own grain, making their barrels and even employing a coppersmith to build and maintain their distilling equipment.  As part of the award The Balvenie is bringing me to Scotland for a two-week residency.  http://www.thebalvenie.com/

(all photographs courtesy FineYoungMan Productions: https://www.facebook.com/fineyoungman)

The other finalists represented a stunning array of crafts practiced today in America.  It is sincerely humbling to have been named in their company.  They include:


 *   Scott Baxendale | Luthier http://www.baxendaleguitar.com/ Athens, Georgia—Scott Baxendale began building custom guitars in 1974. Since then, he has created instruments for the world’s top musicians, restored vintage guitars for museums and private collections. His skills extend to teaching the craft of lutherie to a new a generation at his shop, Baxendale Guitar, which he opened in Athens in 2013.
 *   Stephen Bilenky | Bicycle Builder http://www.bilenky.com/ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—Stephen Bilenky has been working with bicycles for 44 years and opened his shop, Bilenky Cycle Works, in 1983. He has received widespread acclaim for his custom bikes and is the man behind the annual Philly Bike Expo.
 *   Ubaldo Vitali | Silversmith http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubaldo_Vitali Newark, New Jersey—As a fourth-generation silversmith, Ubaldo Vitali has gained extensive knowledge in both historic and modern metalworking techniques. He was born and raised in Italy and moved to the US in 1967. Vitali creates new works using historic techniques, restores old metalwork, and promotes the preservation of historic collections.
 *   Ina Grau | Shoemakers http://inagrau.com/ Minneapolis, Minnesota—Luisa Fernanda Garcia-Gomez and Crystal Quinn started the Ina Grau shoe company in 2011 with their limited edition lines. The pair’s unique shoes emphasize traditional techniques, a blend of Columbian and American styles, which are handmade in both countries.

Finalists and jury.

For further information about the American Craft Council Rare Craft Fellowship Award in Association with The Balvenie or for any media inquiries, contact:
Annie Taplin / Sonia Lessuck
Susan Magrino Agency
212-957-3005
annie.taplin@smapr.com
sonia.lessuck@smapr.com

Lofting Workshop

The second week of January I spent at the Carpenter's Boatshop in Bristol, Maine, teaching a lofting workshop to the ten apprentices there.  This is the second year I have conducted a lofting workshop for apprentices.  This year was a bit different because we were also going to take the lines (measure) a historic skiff from Orland, Maine the Boatshop has owned for many years.  Its a lovely skiff, admired by many, and the decision had been made to build a replica of it this Spring.  The project gave our lofting workshop special meaning, since apprentices will be following up our workshop by building moulds from their lofting, and then the boat.

First we lofted a very simple flatiron skiff just to introduce apprentices to the concepts of fairing lines in three views: profile, plan, and sections.  Lofting is an essential first step in boatbuilding, a process formerly done by carving half models.  It is now threatened by computer-designed boats where lines are drawn full-size by a plotter.

I believe that learning lofting is still a skill worth having.  So many boat designs are available from books and museums and anyone who can loft a boat has access to an enormous range of designs.

We had to piece the bow of the skiff back together, but luckily we had all the pieces.  The hull had to be squeezed back tight to the keel.  It was important that we get the boat as close to original shape as possible.

The boat was put up on one edge or our lofting table.  I like to loft on a temporary table, rather than on the floor.

We set rough-cut plywood forms covered with paper at our stations.  We clamped them to the table so they were at right angles to the keel centerline.

Using tick sticks, apprentices scribed measurements at each station.  The paper templates were then laid on the lofting and the shape of each station was transferred to the lofting.  From this the apprentices were able to develop a table of offsets (dimensions) which was our starting point to loft the lines.

Boatshop instructor Sarah Highland (center) working with apprentices on the lofting.  I loft boats on rolls of high quality paper.  This way the lofting of all my boats can be easily stored.

Some students decided to make half models, an exercise I encourage because it gives students a sense of how fairing lines and reconciling three views of the hull work.  In this case the model is the Boatshop's own sloop.

Rushton Construction Details

On the WoodenBoat Forum someone asked for construction details for this dinghy and I thought that was a good idea, though its bitterly cold today and even colder in the barn where I store the boat, but I did find some decent shots from the day I brought the boat home.

Of all the things missing from the dingy the saddest might be the match to this rowlock.  I know there are sources for replicas but it would be fun to have the real thing.  I didn't get oars either.

A small thing but no doubt intentional: the curve of the grain matches the curve of the rabbet in the deadwood.  Some historic photos of the Rushton shop show dinghies and the entire deadwood is radiused parallel to the rabbet.  My understanding has always been that this allowed boats to be launched off ships with less risk of banging gunwales.

You can make out here how the rubrail transitions to almost a square edge at the location of the rowlocks.  Its beautifully done and of course easy and functional and with the hardware on it the transition seems to disappear. 

Note the thwart risers are about as minimal as you can get.  Obviously a weight savings, handy in a dinghy.  I regret that I built a strongback around the boat to preserve its shape (slightly hogged) and I didn't weight it beforehand, but its extremely light.

The frames are half-round stock, possibly red elm.

Rushton made no attempt to use natural crooks for the breasthook or quarter knees.  They might be mahogany.  The breasthook is two pieces for strength and I need to investigate how the two halves are fastened.  That particular detail is visible in the sketch in Rushton's 1903 catalog (reprinted by the Adirondack Museum) but note that the sketch of the dinghy in the catalog is not at all reflective of the overall shape of this boat.

I can see daylight through much of the stem at the rabbet so I think it is two-piece, with an inner stem and a cutwater applied.  All steam-bent stock, of course.  This is a faster and more fool-proof way to make a stem.  I did the same thing building the Rushton catboat, though I laminated material.

http://www.douglasbrooksboatbuilding.com/rushton_cat.html

There is a link to my builder's log at the bottom of the page.

The lifting rings fore and aft are simply a piece of flat stock with a hole in it that passes down through a metal pad.  The flat stock is screwed into the inside face of the transom and stem.

Rushton dinghy

This blog has been dominated by boats from just one half of the blog title "Boats East and West."  Its time I posted something about a Western-style boat, and this one is very special.  A few years ago I saw a boat sitting upside down in a front yard just a few miles from my home.  It was obviously a lovely boat, so I stopped and got reacquainted with the owner, someone I hadn't actually spoken to in several years.  He wanted to get rid of the boat and said that several people had stopped by offering to take it and restore it.

The boat was obviously special, and from my museum work I knew that this boat was NOT a candidate for restoration.  It was obviously very old, and so it was truly an artifact.  It was also clear that while the boat was basically intact, restoring it would involve a complete rebuilding, replacing most of the original material.  In short, the boat was more valuable left as is.

It took several conversations with the owner, but amazingly he remembered me and my museum work and so he sold me the boat.  After getting it home and turning it over I discovered the builder's tag.  The boat is from Henry Rushton's Canton, New York shop.  I have a reprint of Rushton's 1903 catalog and this boat is clearly identifiable as one of his five sizes of dinghies.  I've been told that this style of tag dates the boat to before 1890.

As I looked at the dinghy dimensions I realized that the Rushton catboat I built several years ago had to be the same hull as the largest dinghy listed: 15-feet long with a 5-foot beam.  Having rowed the catboat I can say its too big for a good rowing boat so Rushton must have repurposed that model for his catboat, giving it a deck and coaming in the process.  You can read more about this boat at the Rushton catboat page at my website, as well as the link at the bottom of that page for a series of articles I wrote detailing the boat's design and construction:

http://www.douglasbrooksboatbuilding.com/rushton_cat.html

Since getting the boat I've done some more research on Rushton's dinghies.  There are some historic photos online of the Rushton shop and several show dinghies in the varnishing room and one photo showing one being rowed on the DeGrasse River just outside the shop.  I took the lines (measured) of my boat and plan to loft and fair the lines to give me a table of offsets.  Obviously I would like to build it.

The boat has a lovely whitehall shape and its incredibly light.  The thwarts and floorboards are missing, along with one of the oarlock sockets.  The boat has lifting rings fore and aft that seem like add-ons, so this boat must have hung in davits at one point.  The details of construction are too numerous to list, but suffice to say that the quality is exquisite, with many very interesting elements.  Its been a real pleasure and an education to study its construction.

Stay Tuned.....

While I was in Japan this past summer I received a deposit for another Japanese boat.  Its for a formal Japanese garden in the Midwest (as in USA Midwest).  I will be building it this winter in my shop here in Vermont.  Please look back for detailed updates on its construction.

The boat will be a slightly scaled down version of one I built with my teacher in Tokyo.  My web page on this particular boat is: http://www.douglasbrooksboatbuilding.com/tenmasen.html

These were cargo boats, but they feature (at least they did in Tokyo) lots of copper plating so they are pretty dramatic.  Again, keep in touch and it should start appearing here at the blog sometime in December.

Sabani sailing!

Soon after I returned from my summer in Japan, I was sent a photograph showing the sabani that I helped build in Okinawa two years ago racing this summer.  It was great to see, as the boat was sent directly to a museum in Tokyo after my teacher and I finished building it (a process I chronicled on this blog back in 2009-2010) where it went on display.

The museum later agreed to donate the boat to a sabani racing team back in Okinawa.  Its great to see that its in the water and competing.  No word on how well it did.

It's my fervent hope to get back to Okinawa next July for the 15th Anniversary Sabani Races, an open water event in which boats race 35km from Zamami Island to Naha.

photo by Mr. Yoji Mori

http://f-sabani.net

Follow up

I've been in Kyoto the last week, doing some legwork for a possible return to Japan in November to build another boat: this one a river boat in Kameoka, northwest of Kyoto.  I visited there today to look at one surviving wooden river boat and view the venue, an art gallery in the center of the city.

Tonight I thought to take a look at YouTube and see what might be there about the Festivale.  Lo and behold my friend Shinya Tominaga, who came down from Tokyo to attend the launching, uploaded video of our launch.  Its a very nice clip (I like the way he ends it) showing us rowing back to the crowd and throwing gifts to them, a traditional called mochimaki.  The soundtrack is provided by the Bengali musicians who attended.  Please check it out at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=supFXGcwWoM

And thanks for reading this blog!

Sincerely,

Douglas Brooks