All Flotsam » Wooden Boat Building

Our concise wooden boat building videos don’t just tell you what to do, they show you how. Also be sure to check out our two in-depth wooden boat building video series: Stitch and Glue Boat Building and Plywood Lapstrake Boat Building.

Posted By	Title
Sandy Lam	NWSWB Alumni Spotlight: Ginny Wilson: Ginny Wilson talks about her journey to becoming a shipwright after studying at the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Buil...
Ben Mendlowitz	Van Dam Custom Boats – In Pursuit of Perfection: Few boatbuilders get permission from their clients to go all-out for perfection in the boats they build. Van Dam Custom...
The Off Center Crew	The History of the Beetle Cat, with Bill Womack at Beetle Cat Boat Shop: If you've wondered how the Beetle Cat came to be, and what's happening with this design today... Learn more at Beetle Ca...
The Off Center Crew	I Feel Like I Can Make Anything: MORE INFO ON IYRS: IYRS School of Technology and the Trades is one of the top boatbuilding and restoration schools in th...
Steve Stone	How It Feels to Restore a Beetle Cat at IYRS: Each first-year student at IYRS gets a Beetle Cat to restore, and many of the students have no woodworking skills when t...
Steve Stone	A Second Life: It's not often that any of us get to have a second life, doing something we love that is totally different than our life...
Nate Rooks	TALLY HO – Episode 76: Finishing the Transom: Watch Leo Goolden as he brings back the 47’ teak-planked TALLY HO to the glorious gaff cutter she was when launched ov...
Nate Rooks	TALLY HO – Episode 72: Bilge Stringers / Oak problems!: Watch Leo Goolden as he brings back the 47’ teak-planked TALLY HO to the glorious gaff cutter she was when launched ov...
Bill Mayher	Scoggie: From the furthest tip of Nova Scotia comes this sketch of a young boat builder with a philosophical turn of mind and an...
Nate Rooks	The Passage: Growing up, growing old, and the wild places that define us: When my brother and I set out on our own Inside Passage adventure, the stories of historic paddlers like Betty Lowman Ca...
Eric Blake	Be Inspired, by Steve Van Dam: This short little ad says a lot about one of the finest custom boat builders — Steve Van Dam. For more inspiration, se...
Steve Stone	Martin Litton’s Grand Canyon Dories: Thanks to Off Center Member Nathan Lunstrum for submitting this new Flotsam Video: The late Martin Litton believed the b...
Steve Stone	Anchor Point: What a remarkable story of forgiveness and grace. Thanks to J.T. Van Zandt, a fly-fishing guide in central Texas, for op...
Steve Stone	Kids Building a Herreshoff 12 1/2 at Rocking The Boat in the Bronx: Rocking the Boat, in the Bronx, New York, is one of the best kids boat building programs in the world, as evidenced by t...
Erik Sayce	Building a 70-Foot Scow Schooner on Martha’s Vineyard: Scow: The Zen of Boat Building is a feature-length documentary that chronicles the journey of world reknown driftwood a...
Ben Mendlowitz	Van Dam’ Gentleman’s Runabout on American Craftsman:: Steve Van Dam has been building custom wooden boats since the late 1970’s. Known for a modern take on the classic gent...
Maynard Bray	Building Wooden Lobster Boats, with Chummy Rich: If you’ve ever wondered how those beautiful Maine lobster boats and their pleasureboat sisters are put together, step...
Bill Mayher	Building Vietnamese Fishing Boats: Enjoy this scene from a shipyard in Vietnam. A couple nice-looking vietnamese fishing boats are emerging from an impress...
Dustin Urban	Traditional Greek Boat Building: Traditional greek boat building methods are portrayed in this well-done short film by The Society for the Protection of...
Maynard Bray	The Film Charlotte – Inside the Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway: Looking for a wooden boat film to keep you occupied for an evening? Skip the hollywood entertainment one of these nights...
Maynard Bray	Billy Moore Builds a Chesapeake Deadrise named MARINER: I've admired this video ever since it was produced, and was delighted to discover it the other day on YouTube. Both the...
Eric Blake	Allspice by Coire Williams: Very cool slideshow by our friend Coire Williams as he constructs a traditional dinghy from a half model a carved under...
Maynard Bray	Båtbygge med Hemming Forsell: Building a boat doesn't get anymore down-to-earth than this. No glue; no plywood. It takes place in Perna, Finland, in 1...

 

Related Videos

Title
How to Build a Wooden Boat – AROHA, Part 25: Trim Details: Eric talks through trim details and how trim can accentuates the lines of Aroha....
How to Build a Wooden Boat–AROHA, Part 24–Interior Joinery: Eric walks us through the lightweight construction of the interior furniture....
The McKenzie Drift Boat Class, Fretwater Boatworks at Lowell’s Boat Shop: Drift boats, custom designed and built to handle the nation’s most challenging white water rivers, are a stunning exam...
How to Loft a Boat, Part 5 – Drawing Lines and Developing Stations: The lofting continues as Sean demonstrates laying out points on the lofting lines plan to create lines.   Part 5 is...
How to Build a Wooden Boat – AROHA, Part 22 – Milling Parts for the Pilot House: Some handy pointers for milling up pieces of wood straight off the plans.  ...
How to Build a Wooden Boat – AROHA Part 21 – Tops for the Cabin & Pilothouse: The crew at Brooklin Boat Yard scarfs, laminates and vacuum bags the roof-tops for the cabin and pilothouse. After which...
Refastening a Wooden Boat Hull with Eric Dow – Part 2: Eric takes us through a few more techniques for a different boat....
Model Making as a Boatbuilder’s Sketch – SJOGIN III: There are as many ways to mentally prepare for building a boat as there are boatbuilders. Steve Brookman's approach is o...
How to Build a Wooden Boat – AROHA, Part 20 – Floors, Sole, & Bilge: Eric walks us through the process of laying out and then beginning to build the interior of AROHA.  ...
How to Loft a Boat, Part 4 – Plotting and Drawing the Sheer Line: In Part 4 Sean plots and draws the sheer line from information in the table of offsets....
Tom Robinson’s Row Across the Pacific, Part 2 – The Rowboat MAIWAR, A Close-Up Tour: Armed with Aussie ingenuity and determination - Tom Robinson is setting out to row across the South Pacific Ocean. If he...
How to Loft a Boat, Part 3 – The Grid, Masterlines and Lines: In Part 3 Sean takes us through how the grid works and drawing a boat from all angles using the grid....
How to Build a Wooden Boat – AROHA, Part 18 – Templating the Decks: A quick and easy walk through of template making for the fore, aft, and side decks.  ...
Refastening a Wooden Boat Hull with Eric Dow – Part 1: Refastening a wooden boat hull involves taking out the old screws that secure the planks to the frames, and then replaci...
How to Build a Wooden Boat—AROHA, Part 17 – Deck Structure and Sub-Deck Prepping: In part 17, we learn how to build the structure that supports the deck of the boat....
How To Loft a Boat – Part 1 – Tools, Terminology & Overview: Sean Koomen, Chief Instructor at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding (NWSWB), goes over part 1 of his Lofting Ma...
How to Loft a Boat, Part 2 — The Lofting Sequence: Sean Koomen, Chief Instructor at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding (NWSWB), goes over the school's lofting seq...
How to Build a Wooden Boat – AROHA, Part 16 – Glassing, Priming, and Flipping the Hull: Watch as the Brooklin Boat Yard crew sheaths the hull in fiberglass and zeros in on the exact fairing, shaping in prepar...
Building the Oonagh Rowing/Sailing Dinghy, Part 19 – Making the Daggerboard and Rudder: Kit goes over the shaping of the daggerboard and Rudder....
Building the Oonagh Rowing/Sailing Dinghy, Part 18 – Oarlocks & Pads: Getting the oarlocks properly made and placed makes for better rowing - See how it's done....
How to Build a Wooden Boat – AROHA, Part 15 – Outer Keel & Skeg Assembly: In Part 15 of the Aroha series, we see how the outer skeg and keel assembly is mounted.    ...
How to Build a Wooden Boat – AROHA, Part 6 – Making an Effective Scarf Joint: Mastering the scarf joint is essential to making parts to go the entire length of a boat and longer.  ...
Building the Oonagh Rowing/Sailing Dinghy, Part 6 – Preparing for Planking: Fitting the garboard planks snuggly against the keel calls for cutting a precise bevel.    ...
Building the Oonagh Rowing/Sailing Dinghy, Part 5 – Scarfing Planks Together: To make planking joints are secure and fair, they should be carefully sanded to achieve a precise dry fit before the epo...
Building the Oonagh Rowing/Sailing Dinghy, Part 3 – Ladder Frame, Molds and Transoms: The OONAGH build starts shaping up as Kit dry-fits and fixes the molds and transoms to the strongback. It's easy to get...
Building the Oonagh Rowing/Sailing Dinghy, Part 2 – An Overview of the Building Process: The challenge here was to design a dinghy that could compete with rigid bottom inflatables and we think designer/builder...
Building the Oonagh Rowing/Sailing Dinghy, Part 1 – A Real Rib Alternative: If you've wanted something more aesthetically pleasing to replace your inflatable tender, or a wonderful little family b...
Understanding Wooden Boat Construction, Part 4—Deck Structure: Deck beams both pull a boat’s structure together and form a landing place for deck planking. See how everything fits t...
Designing with Mock-Up Patterns & Prototypes, A Motor Mount for a Caledonia Yawl: Watch as a professional boatbuilder works through a design problem with prototypes to achieve an elegantly simple soluti...
Jack Stone’s Senior Project: My son Jack chose to build a boat for his senior project in high school, and here's a video we made for his presentation...
Understanding Wooden Boat Construction, Part 3 – Planking: In the third part of our series on wooden boat construction, Sean illustrates carvel, lapstrake, and cold-molded methods...
Understanding Wooden Boat Construction, Part 2 – Hull Structure: In Part 2 we see how the basic components of a wooden boat (bilge stringers, clamp, shelf, frames & planking) go tog...
Understanding Wooden Boat Construction, Part 1 – The Backbone: This clear and authoritative visual depiction of a wooden boat’s backbone structure will raise your understanding of h...
How to Build a Wooden Boat — AROHA, Part 1 – A Close Look at the Original Boat WHIO, a New Zealand Weekend Cruiser: When WHIO hove into view across our camera lenses, the entire OCH crew found a new boat to fall in love with. As easy on...
Harry Bryan’s Off-the-Grid Shop for Building Boats: This visit to the “World of Harry Bryan” might just get you thinking about how you can make your shop a more innovat...
Boat Shop Talk – Building Boats by Hand and by Eye, with Jim Tolpin: Listening to an expert talk about their craft is always a treat, but to be a fly on the wall when four of them get toget...
At Home in the Bilge with Maynard Bray, Part 1 – How New Zealand’s Classics Were Built: How do you build wooden boats to last for over a century dependably? Ask the Kiwis, that's how they do it. So we went an...
Brooklin Boat Yard Walkabout – January 2019: Always a treat to wander down to a boat yard and see what's going on - and Brooklin Boat Yard does not disappoint....
Scribing & Maintaining a Waterline, With a Batten and a Pull-Saw: Havilah Hawkins shows us how to make and maintain a classic looking waterline on your wooden boat....
Walkabout at Brooklin Boat Yard, 91-Foot Cutter SONNY: Sure, yachts are beautiful when the crowd gathers for launching day. But we wanted to see what it's like four days befor...
Building Birchbark Canoes, Steve Cayard Teaches a Wabanaki Tradition: As kids, many of us wondered how Native Americans built birchbark canoes. Well here’s master builder Steven Cayard sho...
A Visit with Bertram Levy, Part 1 – In the Shop & Building Boats: One of life's fine pleasures is simply hanging out in the boatshop talking shop. And so we stopped by to visit retired d...
How to Vacuum Bag, Part 1 – Making a Wood & Epoxy Laminate: Eric takes all the mystery out of what otherwise might seem like a daunting operation: Vacuum bagging. Step by step we s...
How to Vacuum Bag, Part 2 – Watching it Happen: Vacuum bagging with over 4000 pounds of pressure, and then opening the bag to see how it went is impressive enough- but...
How to Make A Flat Blade Oar, with Wesley Reddick of Rower’s Oars: At his shop at Rower's Oars, Wesley Reddick shows us how to make a flat blade oar from a few pieces of spruce....
Building Momentum, Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding: Eric Blake joins Head instructor Sean Koomen for a tour of the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock,...
Shortcuts Shaping Complex Wooden Boat Pieces, Part 3 – Routing & Sanding the Curves & Tapers: Eric Blake demonstrates routing and sanding shortcuts to the shape complex curves and tapers of wooden boat pieces....
How to Build The Off Center Skiff, Part 16 – Outer Stem + Sanding and Priming the Hull: The kids put in some elbow grease with sandpaper and paintbrushes....
Shortcuts Shaping Complex Wooden Boat Pieces – Part 2, Cutting the Tapers: We return to the Brooklin Boat Yard with Eric Blake as he walks us through cutting the tapers in shaping complex wooden...
Restoring MINK, a 1914 Buzzards Bay 25, Part 1 – An Uncommon Approach: Over the last century, the Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 25 has lived a storied history indeed.  Now, one of the five boats t...
How to Build the Off Center Skiff, Part 13 – Planking the Bottom: The Brooklin Skiff Club makes quick work of planking the bottom of their skiff....
How to Build the Off Center Skiff, Part 11 – The Frames: Eric, Havilah and the rest of Brooklin Skiff Club are installing the frames as the Off Center Skiff continues to come to...
How to Build a Beautiful Skiff, Part 10 – Planking the Sides: This week, Brian Larkin joins the Brooklin Skiff Club as planking the sides begins on the Beautiful Skiff....
How to Build a Beautiful Skiff, Part 9 – Shaping the Inner Stem: As the skiff series continues, Eric Blake demonstrates how to plane a twisting bevel into the skiff's inner stem....
How to Build a Beautiful Skiff, Part 8 – The Transom: Gluing-up and fairing the cedar boards that comprise the transom, and then mounting it, is the task at hand as the Beaut...
How to Build a Beautiful Skiff, Part 7 – Setting Up The Molds: With measuring sticks and pencils, the kids join Eric Blake and Havilah Hawkins to set-up the molds for the skiff....
How to Build a Beautiful Skiff, Part 6 – Layout and Building Molds: Before the kids arrive, Eric Blake and Havilah Hawkins walk us through the process for laying out and building the molds...
How to Build a Beautiful Skiff, Part 5 – The Strongback: A strong and precisely constructed strongback is a critical element in getting the skiff building project off to a good...
How to Build a Beautiful Skiff, Part 4 – Cutting & Planing Planks: In the fourth video in our series, Eric Blake takes us to the Brooklin Boat Yard to begin work on cutting and planing pl...
Handsaws for Boatbuilding, with Harry Bryan: When it comes to handsaws, whether you're working with plywood or natural stock, Harry Bryan knows which saw is the be...
How to Build a Beautiful Skiff, Part 3 – The Local Wood Option: In the third video in our series, Eric Blake visits David Gray, an owner of a local sawmill, to have Eastern White Ceda...
How to Build a Beautiful Skiff, Part 2 – Getting Screws and Lumber: In the second video in our skiff series, Eric visits our local hardware store and lumberyard to purchase screws and rev...
How to Use Epoxy, Part 2 – Getting a Smooth Finish for Paint or Varnish: Eric Blake continues his walkthrough on how to use epoxy to get a smooth finish for paint or varnish at the Brooklin Bo...
Making a Pilot House Door, Part 1 – Flush Panel Construction: Woodworking techniques abound as Tony Grove puts together a frame and panel constructed pilot house door for a Northwest...
Making a Pilot House Door, Part 2 – Finish & Fit: Woodworking techniques abound as Tony Grove finishes and fits the frame and panel constructed door for a Northwest Fish...
Building Boat Furniture Using Plywood and Cleat Construction: We visit the Grove Woodworking School on Gabriola Island in British Columbia where boatbuilder Tony Grove demystifies th...
Cool Shop Trick: Applying a Herreshoff-Style Sheerstrake to a Cold Molded Alerion 26: Cold molded boats don’t really have individual planks, so sheerstrakes, especially ones in the Herreshoff style that a...
Installing Floor Timbers in a Wooden Boat, Part 1 – Making the Pattern: It's better to have a whole boat, rather than two halves. Installing floor timbers in a wooden boat ties everything toge...
Installing Floor Timbers in a Wooden Boat, Part 2 – Cutting & Fitting Big Oak: Handling big oak timbers is an art unto itself. Peter Buxton passes along valuable tips while he's installing floor timb...
Installing Floor Timbers in a Wooden Boat, Part 3 – Fastening with Drift Pins & Screws: Fastening the newly shaped piece of oak with drift pins to the keel, frames and planks is the final step of installing f...
How to Build a Caledonia Yawl, Part 42 – Final Thoughts: A few final words from Geoff as we prepare for launching day....
How to Make a Herreshoff Tiller, with Alec Brainerd: The tiller is the conduit for a sailor's intentions and a boat's response; delicacy is an asset....
Carvel Planking a Wooden Boat, Part 3 – Fastening a Cedar Plank: The fat lady sings (well, not really) when Peter screws the plank into place.  It's snug, it's lovely, and it's sure to...
Carvel Planking a Wooden Boat, Part 2 – Making & Fitting A Pair of Cedar Planks: After spiling the plank to achieve a rough shape, Peter planes it down to fit precisely before fastening....
Carvel Planking a Wooden Boat, Part 1 – Spiling: "Spiling" is the technique boat builders use to determine the shape of a plank. In the abstract, it is a difficult proce...
Building Interiors Upside Down: Building hulls upside down happens these days more often than rightside up, but keeping them that way while building the...
Building Raised Panels at Rockport Marine: Building a raised panel is no simple task, and yet Joe Kobak at Rockport Marine knocked out this entire raised panel pro...
Drilling Holes with Boring Bars: Have you ever wondered how they bore a 10+ ft straight hole through a hull? Let's take a trip to a few boatyards and let...
Laminating Wooden Boat Frames on the 68′ Sloop ISOBEL: Strong, light weight epoxy laminations are surely the wave of the future for many boat building projects. Even though yo...
Wooden Boat Building Techniques: Steam Bending Oak Frames: Watching hot oak timbers go into a boat is fascinating. Join Maynard Bray as he describes how Brian Larkin reframes the...

 

Related Guide Posts

Author	Title
Nate Rooks	New e-Book: Classic Wooden Fishing Boats of the Vietnamese Coast: Along with the new video from Ken Preston's presentation at the 2022 Worldwide Classic Boat Show, we have a very excitin...
Steve Stone	Are You Scared of Your Boat? (Reality Check): Are you scared of your boat? After filming hundreds of boatbuilders and craftspeople over the past ten years as they bui...
Harry Bryan	Am I A Luddite?: Am I A Luddite? Some Thoughts On Where We Are And Where We’re Going On a recent trip across the country by train, I fe...
Maynard Bray	Tapering Molded Sheerstrake Endings, Step-By-Step: Those swelled-out Herreshoff sheerstrakes, so admired, don’t come into being without a clear idea of what their final...
Steve Stone	The Secret to Happiness, Part 2: At Off Center Harbor, we like encourage the ideas of slowing down, getting out into nature in simple boats, and making t...
Havilah Hawkins	Why This Skiff?: Note: The new skiff that we're building in Brooklin this summer with local kids was designed by Havilah Hawkins. In a wo...
Walt Ansel	BONNY BRIDE Progress — Restoring a Wooden Lobster Boat, Part 10 — Windshield, Trunk Cabin & Side Deck:   It’s been a great spring on the BONNY B. My dad left for Maine in March, so I was back to single-handing, with...
Eric Blake	Walkabout at Brooklin Boat Yard – Winter 2016: It has been a while since my last walkabout, so I thought it was time to get everyone back through the doors of the Broo...
Maynard Bray	Carvel Construction; John’s Bay Boat Co. Builds a Wooden Lobster Boat, Part I: Some 40 years ago, Peter Spectre, then of International Marine Publishing Co. engaged me to edit Royal Lowell's manuscri...
Harry Bryan	Building a Quarter-sized Skiff; A Post by OCH Guide Harry Bryan: What a pleasant surprise to get this post from Harry! From the following, you can practice boatbuilding without needing...
LinAndLarry Pardey	Hatches That Are Watertight, Easy to Maintain, and Handsome: “If you didn’t want to get wet, you shouldn’t go to sea!” That’s how one owner defended the salt water that sp...
Eric Blake	Walkabout Brooklin Boat Yard, Part 10 – 3/24/13: The end of scallop season brings our good friend and local fisherman Cecil Holdens boat out of the water to get rerigged...
Eric Blake	Walkabout at Brooklin Boat Yard, Part 9 – 2/28/13: I smile every morning when I walk through the door. I have never, in the ten years I’ve worked here, seen the shop as...
Eric Blake	Walkabout at Brooklin Boat Yard, Part 8 – 2/13/13: How many clamps does it take to build a 70-foot cold-molded hull? All of them. There must be close to 300 clamps of vari...
Eric Blake	Walkabout at Brooklin Boat Yard, Part 7 — 2/1/13: The month of January was a bit of a blur for me. Lola, the newest addition in my life, has had enough of laying on the f...
Eric Blake	Walkabout at Brooklin Boat Yard, Part 6 – 12/1/12: For those of you just tuning in to Eric Blake’s weekly walkabouts, the boats he describes being built new in Brooklin...
Eric Blake	Walkabout at Brooklin Boat Yard, Part 5 – 11/11/12: What a beautiful fall we have had in Center Harbor! These chilly fall mornings bring with them sea smoke. The harbor is...
Eric Blake	Walkabout at Brooklin Boat Yard, Part 4 – 10/22/12:   One of the most frequently asked questions at the yard goes something like this: " How do you boys get those boats so...
Eric Blake	Walkabout at Brooklin Boat Yard, Part 3 – 10/14/12: Here is a great reason why I am having so much fun with this walkabout post. Midweek I says to myself,  "Hey self, why...
Eric Blake	Walkabout at Brooklin Boat Yard, Part 2 – 10/5/12: I can't help but feel that I threw you all off a cliff last week, freefalling into construction details of an unknown cr...
Eric Blake	Walkabout at Brooklin Boat Yard, Part 1 – 9/27/12: Fall is in the air in Center Harbor and the fleet is slowly making its way into winter storage at Brooklin Boat Yard. It...
Maynard Bray	Scrollwork and How to Carve It: Boats planked with wood lend themselves so beautifully to carved-in decoration that it's surprising you don't see more o...
Eric Blake	The Sterns of Brooklin Boat Yard: , It was this very stern that did it to me. About 16 years ago as I walked down the dock of Falmouth Harbor in Antigua,...
Geoff Kerr	Projects at Two Daughters Boatworks: Our two winter projects have been delivered and launched with general grins and giggles all around. Peeler, the 15’ ou...
Eric Blake	Installing a Teak Boat Deck on the 47′ Sloop Lark:   With the deck frame and plywood subdeck nearly laid on the 47' sloop Lark, it's time to start marking out the pieces...
Geoff Kerr	In the Two Daughters Boatworks Shop: Bare ground for Valentine’s Day is a sad, sad thing in northern Vermont. Not only is the skiing bad, but every mouse o...
Eric Blake	The First of Three Sailing Yawlboats Takes Shape: There were a few things responsible for getting this project underway. Two of my closest friends needed a small boat to...
Eric Blake	How to Install A Teak Boat Deck: Laying It Out and Laying It Down: Here we are at the stern of a 26' center-console  jetdrive launch that's under construction at Brooklin Boat Yard. The...
Brion Rieff	The “Radical” Skeg: Eric Blake and Steve Stone stopped by Friday afternoon to check out a 30' oak keel we're getting ready to install. I'll...
Eric Blake	My Winter Boatbuilding Projects: It's the beginning of March and spring is on its way! The view from the design office at the Brooklin Boat Yard is inspi...
Eric Blake	Building Wooden Boat Steering Wheels at Brooklin Boatyard: The steering wheels that come from most boats at the Brooklin Boat Yard are some of the coolest I’ve seen up close. My...
Maynard Bray	Building Boat Interiors Upside Down: Brion Rieff's ingenuity blows me away. Brion is a neighbor and one of our OffCenterHarbor.com Guides. He's always trying...