By Anna Hill
During February and April vacations, I spent 10 days building and painting a 12-foot skiff, named Loon-I-See. Not the biggest or most intimidating challenge, but a challenge, nevertheless. This boat is perfect for holding two to three full-sized adults, and fishing supplies to boot, on the Eastman Lake. It took seven teenagers (six males and me), John Larrabee and Bob Katz to build the boat. It took time, work, and lots of patience.
Building a boat, even a small one, starts with the frame. In this case we started by screwing the sides of the boat into the vertical wooden plank that would later become the bow, or the front of the boat. After that was finished, we screwed in the back, and then were able to put in the runners, ribs, and seat rack. We flipped the boat over and screwed the bottom into place. After the wooden boat had taken shape, we fiber-glassed the bottom with epoxy in order to support and strengthen it. The fiberglass adds years to the boat’s life, so our work wouldn’t go to waste. After the fiberglass was done, we added the fin to the bottom, and Loon-I-See was ready for paint.
By “ready for paint,” I mean ready to sand, then sand again, and again, and some more, then paint. The wooden boat wasn’t ready enough for paint to cling to, so we had to gradually sand the surface from low-grit to higher-grit sandpaper so the paint would stick better. Painting the fiberglass also would be a challenge since epoxy isn’t rough enough for the paint to stick to it. Not varnishing the boat made this job a lot shorter, otherwise a lot more sanding would have been in order. Either way, the sanding and painting was done in many layers, like peeling an enormous onion. We would sand, then wipe with paint thinner in order to clean the surface, then paint. Sand. Thinner.
Paint. Repeat. This took several coats and sandings to finally get to the proper stage to start using specialized paints. We used a white paint that would help keep water out and lengthen the boat’s life and make it look tidy and crisp. We taped out the bottom color’s edge, and the boot stripe which is a neat line of paint to mark the water level. We set to work, using special bottom paint to improve the resistance to rot and microorganisms. It seemed like it would never dry. Once we painted the boot stripe and bottom, we removed the tape and we stuck the vinyl letters for the name Loon-I-See to the back. Loon-I-See was finished—well, almost.
There was an extra activity, one that concerned the oars. The wooden oars had metal oarlocks that would be pressing and grinding into the wood. That was a problem as the wooden oars would be dented beyond recognition and the scraping metal would give water and mold a chance to rot the oars. This was a chance we didn’t want to risk. We needed to sew on protective leather strips. Being the only one in the group of seven teenagers who had sewn before, I volunteered and was given the task. It may seem simple at first, but any tanner would know that it can be harder than you think. The tough leather needed to be measured, cut, punctured, soaked, stretched, and kept stretched as I sewed with waxed thread. The risk of hurting myself was relatively small, but the work was tough, and the string would bite into my fingers if given half the chance. The rhythm was simple: left needle, pull, pull again, right needle, pull, pull both, inspect, pull if needed, rub hands occasionally, and repeat. Eventually, after two days, and a little bit of improvisation, the leathers were finished and varnished. They were ready to be put to work.
The work was long, but John and Bob made it interesting and as fun as it could be. They knew what they were doing and definitely deserve some recognition for putting up with so many teenagers for two whole weeks. Building Loon-I-See was an extremely enlightening experience for me, and I would do it again if given the chance. We had a fun time, worked hard and did more than just sit around all vacation, and we now have something to show for it. The christening was equally as interesting as we performed the classic Viking technique, suggested by one of the builders, Jack Chase. Loon-I-See has been exhibited, christened, and opened for renting, so you can enjoy “whatever floats your boat.”
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