Wooden Boat Construction

Shipwrights building wooden boats used a wealth of knowledge and skills which they only learned through practice. Some applied woodworking skills they had acquired in other types of construction, and taught themselves to build a boat. Many North Coast boatbuilders learned on the job, apprenticing with senior boatbuilders who were more often than not their fathers.

Most North Coast wooden boatbuilders did not use plans. They designed the boat using the traditional method of a half model. This is a small wooden model of half a hull, cut down the length of the boat, usually built to a scale of one inch to a foot. As they shaped the half model they worked out the line of the hull, its length and beam. Using the dimensions taken from the half model, they build full-sized frames or models of the cross section of the hull, every four feet or so.

Oona River boatbuilder Freddie Letts described the basic steps in constructing a wooden boat:

'First your keel has to be made, then you have to make a keelson. It sits on top of the keel. All your ribs are notched into that, so that if you ever tear the keel out of your boat you can unbolt the keel and change it without all your planks and ribs falling off. Some boats, they notch out the keel and put the ribs right into it but if you ever happen to hit the beach and smash up your keel then you have to cut it out and splice it in. The other way you just let all your keel bolts go, drop the keel down, stick a new keel in and it's fairly simple.'

'And your bow stem and forefoot are bolted onto that, either natural crooks or pieced together. The only thing with putting a natural crook in is if you smash up your stem, you've got to cut pieces out. Whereas, when Wahl's built them, they made them with pieces bolted together, but in the shape. Which is actually a little better idea.'

'Then you had to put your shaft log, that's where you propeller goes through. That goes on top of the keelson The horn timber with the ring timber... The horn timber is the one that goes out over the propeller, the back end of the boat out to the stern. The ring timber is the one that sits right on the end of the horn timber. Then all your.. if you have a stave stern, they're all fastened into the ring timber. Or if you have a timbered stern, your timbers are all timbered on top and fastened.'

'Stave is like fence pickets, up and down. Timbered is round, they're just a layer of usually 6' timbers, then cut so the two joints don't line up in the same place, then you have to caulk all those seams. The only thing about those is that water usually gets into them, then they freeze apart, the seams get bigger, then water stays in there and they rot. I guess the transom stern would be the one that would last the longest. Because staves sit on end, and wherever that top end comes, if you don't cover that really well and make sure it's absolutely watertight, then the water runs down the end of that, and it starts to rot.'

'Once you've got your keel, keelson, shaft log, horn timber and all that in place, you sit it up and level it up, make sure your bowstem is plumb and put all your models in, every four feet or so, and you put battens on the outside of the models. You have your rib notches cut in the keelson. Then you just steam all your ribs in, fasten them all to the battens, and start planking. You just carry on till you get the boat built. As you're going up you put in your bilge stringers, main deck stringer, fore-deck stringers, bilge clamps.'

It's quite a process.' (Interview on February 26, 2006)

Building the Legacy

What better way to understand the process of building a wooden fishing boat than following along with the construction of a troller named the Legacy. This, the last wooden fishing boat to be built on the North Coast, was built in the old Wahl shed by Larry Wahl, assisted by his father Iver, brother Gary and other members of the family. It was launched on April 26, 1990. The family took photographs throughout the process, and they have generously shared their pictures with this project.

Please go to the Legacy Gallery to witness the construction of the Legacy.

Wood from the Rainforest

Using the best materials available is paramount. Northern boatbuilders generally used red cedar, yellow cedar and fir. Fir doesn't grow on the North Coast, so it, like oak and teak, had to be ordered in. The harder yellow cedar was used for the main structural features like the keel and horn timber, while red cedar was used for the planking and decks. Red cedar is much more readily available than yellow cedar, and it lasts well and is easy to bend. To hold the curve the planks were steamed for about 40 minutes in a steam box.

Often boatbuilders logged the timber themselves from local supplies of red and yellow cedar. Some of the bigger outfits like John Group and Wahl's built their own sawmills so they could cut the quantity of lumber they required.

Half the weight of a tree trunk is water and most of this moisture must be lost before it can be used. The drying process, called seasoning, is slow. Ideally the wood has been air dried for at least four years, preferably more. Kiln dried wood is not suitable.

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