Block Island Cowhorn!

[Tanbark Spanker]

I think the Glory Anna II at Mystic Seaport would make a great little cruising boat. I found the plans, while looking through Chapelle's American Small Sailing Craft, and believe this to be one of the best boats in the book. The Isle of Shoals is a good choice, for the home builder, but is is twenty-eight feet on deck. I found the Reuel Parker Isle of Shoals to have costed $8500 to build in the late '80's. This may be a little out of my price range.

So, what happens if you use green Doug Fir to strip plank this boat and use the same wood for floors, sawn frames, deck beams, deck structures, spars, keel and keelson, stem, and post ...and laid deck? It seems that select flat sawn nominal lumber would provide nice 1"x1-1/2" strips. But, how does one use 1" planking where the plans specify a 5/8" rabbet? Do you just cut it deeper and bump the back bone scantling up a half of inch?

Do you really need glue between the planks, when using a fair amount of frames? Should I just order the lumber and figure this out as I go along 'googe-less.'

[Jay Greer]

"Pacific Child" is one such boat, having been built to the Chappell drawings. It was built during WWII by John Pearsen on Terminal Island. The last I heard of the boat was that it was being offered free for rebuild in Gig Harbor WA. It sails very well indeed!
JG

[RonW]

(" green douglas fir to strip plank with") --

Very bad idea, as that green lumber dries you are going to have gap city. (it will shrink quite well)You are going to end up haveing to caulk it like it was a carvel hull.

In John Gardner's last book, -classic small craft you can build- a play or rewrite of one of his first books.
He has a excellent article on traditional strip planking, along with a builder who builds boats up to around 40 feet, with strips and no gooes, glues, coatings, epoxy or anything else of any kind.
Resulting in very sound, solid, dry and fair hulls.

But you have to use very well seasoned and very dry lumber.
You would have to continue to dry what the lumber yards sells as kiln dried in construction lumber.

[Nanoose]

Hi Tanbark: Nanoose is an Isle of Shoals boat, built in 1979 from Chappelle's book. Your post mentioned another Isle of Shoals, the Reuel Parker. Where is she? Any info? Contacts? (we thought we might be the only one!). THanks

[Norm Harris]

TS

I have a Cowhorn that was built in Newport Beach, CA in 1943. Pics can be seen at http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2108029514
This boat may be something of a derivitive because she is not a true double ender.

I have little of her history, but I'm doing some research. I haven't seen Chappelle's plan, but George Buehler drew one in the early '40s.

We've found that she is a very stable and comfortable sailer, but because of her underwater shape a bit of a freight train in close quarters.

edited for grammar

[Nanoose]

"...a bit of a freight train in close quarters..."

Perfect description!

[Frank E. Price]

George Buehler was born about 1946, I think. But he has shown two different Block Island double-enders in his catalogs, never both in the same catalog as far as I know. One about 34' and the other 36' or thereabouts. The biggest Block Island boat drawn by Chappelle in the Smithsonian Ship Plans catalog is 31'.

Building any boat with green wood can't be a good idea. Either wait for it to dry or get wood that is already dry. On the other hand, a short-lived and leaky boat is a lot better than no boat.

Frank

[Ian Marchuk]

Norm , was the Sans Souci listed for sale in the last 12 or so months ? Ebay perhaps ? I am sure that this is a boat I drooled over for some considerable time before I lost track of her . Would you fill me in on some of her background ? Memory says she is a dead ringer. Best Wishes ..... Ian

[Ian Marchuk]

Norm , I just reread your post . I missed the statement you made about researching her history , on the first reading . I was startled to see the profile picture , as it is identical to the picture I remember admiring in the not too distant past . That picture was used in a sale listing somewhere on the west coast not long ago ,16 mos. if that.
Hmmmmm..... Lovely boat , what can you tell me/us about her ?

[Norm Harris]

Frank, sorry about the date confusion, obviously Buehler couldn't have drawn Sans Souci.

Ian, she is the same boat. I found the owner through Craigslist at the same time she was listed on Ebay. She took control of us last October.

We don't know much about her yet. The previous owner had a few pictures of Sans Souci that were taken in the Pacific Northwest when she was owned by a woman who wrote freelance about alternative life styles. This we were told by two brothers who live here in the Bay area and who lived on San Souci when they were young. They couldn't remember the writer's name.

The brothers are named Campbell and evidently lived on her as kids in Southern California and then here in the Bay. The brothers told a funny story of the family setting out for Hawaii but because of really poor planning and serious seasickness never got more than a week out in two attempts.

There is also a story, totally unsubstantiated, that prior to the Campbells stewardship she was raced in Southern CA and won a Transpac in the '50s on corrected time, possibly under the name "Ugly Duckling"

Before that she cruised in the South Pacific, but once again I have no details. Very frustrating!

The boat was built by William Bennett in Newport Beach in 1943. An interesting question is how the Bennett yard managed to find the materials to finish her 1-1/2 years into world war II. One thought is that she was comandeered by the Navy for the duration, but if so, I have no direct information.

So as not to be guilty of totally highjacking the thread, my thoughts on using green lumber is that it is a terrible idea. Aside from the shrinkage problem, TS, if you build with green lumber and any of the pieces have twist in the grain the drying out process will cause the pieces to twist and warp. If this happens to a plank, you may well wind up with a sprung plank or at the very least one that stands proud.

If you are planning to build a boat as big as Sans Souci, you may be able to buy green lumber for some of the stages that are two or so years down the road, such as decking or planking (if you are really slow). If you buy good wood and dry it in carefully stickered stacks, you can probably save a substantial amount of money. But remember, don't use it until is fully seasoned.

[Jay Greer]

[QUOTE=Norm Harris]TS

I have a Cowhorn that was built in Newport Beach, CA in 1943. Pics can be seen at http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2108029514
This boat may be something of a derivitive because she is not a true double ender.

I am just wondering if your boat is the one that was finsihed out by
Bob Sloan of Newport Beach back in the sixties or early seventies?
If so, I might be able to lend a bit of information to you about the boat.
JG

[Norm Harris]

Jay, the only thing that I know for sure is that she was laid down in Bennett's yard, and I know that because of the USCG documentation. It could well be that she had her interior finished later because of my supposition that she may have spent her earliest years in the Navy.

The interior is not finished out as a "gentleman's yacht". She has a main cabin and a huge fore cabin that lends itself more to stowage of stores than as a master's stateroom. Her furniture is spare and utilitarian. She never had refrigeration or an icebox, and originally had a wood burning stove that was replaced by a wonderful Shipmate propane one.

If this is anywhere in line with what you know, PM me at norman_h@sbcglobal.net

[sv Lorelei]

It's my understanding that there was a Block Island Double ender used during WWII to carry Naval dispatches between San Diego(?) and Hawaii. I remember running across the boat as being under charter in Fla a few years ago and was named Island Belle after one of the last true BI Double Enders.

I have a couple of very sketchy sets of line that I think Chappelle took off the last couple left on BI (Island Belle and Dauntless) before they were broken up. We were looking seriously at building one until we settled on Atkins Tally Ho Major. There was one built here on the east coast I think in the fifies named Roaring Bessie which cruised extensively (if not quickly) here in the North East. It was the whole not quickly part that made us pass on the design in the end. That's a whole lot of hull to move through the water! The one at Mystic is a smaller version. In their day, they were built in lengths anywhere from the high teens to the low forties.

[Tanbark Spanker]

Thanks for the information, advice and pictures. Beamish boats, indeed. It's the swelling of the strips that has got me worried about the strip method. Increasing the plank scantlings to 7/8" seems to be possible, even in the traditional rabbet. I keep thinking I can just call the lumber yard and use nominal 2" Doug fir flat sawn stock, mill it. and nail it together so the edge-grain is facing out. Still, I can see a pile of exploded splinteds floating across the water on launch day. The opinion seems to be cold mold over strip, for stability. Then you have your fellow who cut his strips from marine fir plywood.

[PVanderwaart]

Your post mentioned another Isle of Shoals, the Reuel Parker.

Reuel Parker designed an Isles of Shoals boat for "cold-molded plywood" construction. There are study prints in his book, "The New Cold-Molding." Perhaps also on his web site. It's a cabin boat. Though the cost would be driven up by the need for a lot of epoxy, I think it would be on the inexpensive side for a boat of the length. The wood for traditional construction would be both heavier and more expensive per pound.

The Cowhorns boats were designed for a breezy area, and I doubt the builders expect to row very much. They are heavy, and (I think) ballasted with rocks. Due
to the beam, they would require long oars.

[sv Lorelei]

The originals were working boats ballasted internally with rock so that as the catch filled up the boat the rock could be jettisoned to compensate. The vast majority of the boats were likely built on the small end of the scale. As Block Island didn't have much in the way of a storm protected harbor until the Old Harbor jetty was built in the late 1800's they were made to be sailed or rowed through the surf and pulled up on shore with oxen teams prior to storms. They were (and still appear to be) pretty simple boats to build, though the original Block Island Bald Headed rig seems to have been replaced by more conventional Ketch rigs on the boats built post WWII

[Norm Harris]

Sans Souci has poured concrete ballast along the center line. This is supplemented with moveable small concrete blocks and lead plates. I guess this is close to the ballast plan of original cowhorns, and will allow us to trim the boat when we load her for extended cruises.

One big advantage in having an internally ballasted hull is that we don't have to worry about keel bolts rotting away unseen until the ballast keel falls off.

[Tanbark Spanker]

In the day's gone bye, the ol' timers complained that the 'lee boards' interfered with the ballast sliding out durring a capsize. What a great method: the boat tips over, the ballast falls out, and everybody freezes to death clinging to the floating hulk. Oh joy.

ps -just watched "The Perfect Storm' for the um-teenth time. Er .... I'll have the lobster, please.