Epoxy Encapsulation & Prefinishing in Montana!

We can go one step further with epoxy encapsulation: paint some parts before they get set up on the strongback. One of our kit builders is demonstrating this nicely in his Beg-Meil build. He lives in Billings, Montana and started the project this past summer. I advised him to layout all the parts from the kit and precoat them with 2-3 coats of epoxy....

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Quality Plywood & Epoxy Encapsulation

I am a believer in epoxy encapsulation of wood; I wasn't always. Encapsulation entails coating the wood with multiple coats of epoxy, saturating the wood surface and building up a moisture-barrier. The moisture barrier is key for bilges and underbodies as it keeps water out of a laminate and maintains a more constant wood moisture content in timbers....

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Top 5 Thanksgivings at Clint Chase Boatbuilder

We are certainly thankful at CCBB for five big things:#1: The new shop. The goal by the time we were sitting down for turkey was to be in the new shop and pretty well set up so we could get back to customers' projects with as little delay as possible. We are a few days off the goat but still pretty darn thankful for this 1100 SF space where we'll be...

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Dories get some attention!

I signed onto the Wooden Boat Forum the other day and to my utter delight someone else had created a post on one of my boats, the Deblois Street Dory. At the wonderful 2nd annual Fall Shop and Messabout, I finally had an opportunity to sail the D St. D myself. First off, the talk and messabout was wonderful. We had special guests, Walter & Karen...

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The Perfect Rowboat, Sailboat, or Both?

Do you like the idea of a boat that can row and sail but they often don't like the idea of compromising on one or the other? It is a trade-off. A good sailboat's lines are not good for rowing and a rowboat's lines are not good for sailing. The latter is true mainly because the hull is quite narrow and fine on the waterline, especially at the ends....

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Invitation to Fall Shop Talk & Messabout in Portland, Maine

Please join me for the 2nd annual � �It�s a tradition now� � shop talk and messabout. This year we�ll welcome our guest designer/builder Walter Wales. Also with him will be WoodenBoat�s Associate Editor Karen Wales (Walter�s wife) and renowned illustrator Sam Manning and his wife Susan. Walter is an acknowledged expert on the Marblehead Gunning Dory...

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New Francois Vivier designed Yawl with Clint Chase

Francois Vivier and Clint Chase are busy designing a new dayboat/weekender. This has been a fun collaboration and we have a lot more work to do. By this time next year, it is planned that we will be building this boat in our shop for our family use and for showing in 2012. Francois's boats are designed with a CAD-CAM approach, meaning the drawings...

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Free Goat Island Skiff Yawl Plan

Drake and family at the beachDrake is getting built in the shop to test the fitting of the kit before they get shipped off to first customers in WA and PA. Kent Fosnes in WA will be exhibiting Drake next year at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. All kits are tested more than once to ensure everything goes together properly. Many of these CAD...

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Day Three in Drake: The final day of the Small Reach Regatta

The final day was going to have big shoes to fill after an incredible reach and row day 2. The rowing group gathered at breakfast to scheme a separate rowing group to explore along MDI's north coast and down to Bar Harbor. We did just that with the generous support of the chase fleet whose member take very seriously there job to watch everyone, help...

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Small Reach Regatta: Day 2 in Drake Rowboat

I was a little nervous beginning day 2 on a long reach with a potentially gusty offshore breeze that would carry the fleet 8+ miles to the lunch stop. The cracked mast step was only glued back together last night. Would it hold? This was going to be the same tack that I was on when it snapped. I didn't want to ruin this sail!While the rowboats and...

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Drake in the Small Reach Regatta on the Coast of Maine: Day 1

The Small Reach Regatta was the next stop in my busy summer. The SRR is a gathering of 70 sail-and-oar boats, this year, at Lamoine State Park and put on by the Downeast Chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association. Irowed and sailed (downwind) his rowboat design Drake and consistently finished in the front of the fleet (but of course it wasn�t...

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Teaching at The Wooden Boat School: Tradional & Modern Oar Making

After work at Shaw and Tenney, I had my debut teaching job at Wooden Boat School. One of my favorite (and most labor intensive) specialties is oar making, so I was to teach the traditional way and the modern way, using composite blades. Each students chose an oar type of their choice to fit a boat they had or wanted to have. We had everything from...

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Mast making at Shaw and Tenney

The second iconic work spot of the summer was 2-weeks of mast building at Shaw & Tenney. Shaw and Tenney has been in business since 1858 making gorgeous paddles and oars as well as masts, boat hooks, etc for boats. Sometimes they get interesting orders like for this project building four 8" diameter laminated, Douglas Fir masts for a high-end playground...

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Wooden Boat Show Family Boat building

We are catching up with a nons stop summer of boating events and where best to start the series of updates than with the Wooden Boat Show in Mystic, CT. In 2 1/2 days, a father son duo built one of our Echo Bay Dory Skiff kits. They discovered that there is a lot of boatbuilding, sweat, creativity and work to do even starting from a kit. They...

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Birdsmouth Sparmaking Demo

Clint will be giving a hands-on demonstration of Birdsmouth sparmaking at the Wooden Boat Show at 1pm on this coming Sunday. Please come by. The show starts Friday in Mystic, CT.See more at http://www.clintchaseboatbuilder.com/Birdsmouth.h...

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A new rig for a Goat Island Skiff, Spruce for Roger Long's Yawl Dory and more Birdsmouth Masts and Spars

The finished mast and spars delivered and stepped into John Goodman's Goat Island Skiff Yawl #1 in Houston, TX. John does the Texas 200 in a few weeks!To find good spruce you need to go right to the source. I enjoyed some wonderful walking with a customer who is having a Yawldory by Roger Long, N.A., built and wanted the Spruce for the spars, masts,...

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CNC Boat Kit Cutting at Harbor Sales; First Three Francois Vivier Kits Sell

   Last week, Clint took a trip to Maryland where Harbor Sales is located and cuts our CNC boat kits. The goal was to oversee the cutting of three Vivier kits that sold, Youkoulili, Ebihen 16, and Beg-meil. Harbor imports the plywood and cuts the panels on any of their four CNC machines (one of which has a 10x23 capacity and the one...

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