Shellback Construction Begins

Here are the Shellback station molds set up on the strongback. The bottom of the boat is made of 12mm marine plywood. The lapstrake planks will be 6mm. The stem and the midship frame are laminated clear grain spruce. The transom is 18mm marine plywood.

The garboard plank and first plank are installed. Planks are glued onto each other with epoxy thickened with cotton fibres.

This is the first of two Shellbacks that we are building. Both will be rigged for sail and rowing.

New Shellback starts

"Eric"

We are starting a new Joel White designed Shell back Dinghy. This 11'2" dinghy has 4'5" of beam and weighs approximately 100lbs. The Shellback pictured here was built for our client who wanted it to be in two pieces so that he could stow it on deck on a larger yacht. It clips together under the centre thwart, and the forward and aft sections  float independently.

The sailing rig is a balanced lug sail on an unstayed mast. The sailing version comes with a daggerboard, rudder and tiller. Finish is gloss marine paint inside and out, with varnished mahogany in-whale and varnished mahogany seats.

This is the amidships frame of the new Shelback. The photo is of the laminated strips of wood clamped onto the jig.

Launched

Here we are just off the launch ramp, with our friendly Zodiac tug towing us out to the middle of the river. The wind is a bit gusty so we have tied in the first reef. On a catboat if you think you should reef then its too late if you don't.

The owner decided that he wanted an outboard, so the one he chose is a 2.5HP four stroke, so we wanted to make sure the motor worked, and it did!
We stayed alongside our tug until we got the sail up.

Now we don't have enough wind for our reefed sail, and we are trying to sort out our trim and our rig!

Now we are moving though we should have swung up the outboard! What a great day!

Ready to launch

We have finished the Marsh Cat!
Here she is loaded on the trailer ready to leave the shop, Her paint is complete, varnish is done, We just have to finish the rigging when she gets out of the doors, The sail has been picked up so we want to make sure it fits.

The mast is installed and the rigging fits, We are going to install the sail, then take the boat to be launched. Note that the boom crutch is also a paddle....an idea taken from our friend's Danish Folkboat.
Next we will attach to the truck.....

As you can tell, we are doing this in late fall, but on this day its actually 15 degrees Celsius outside, so we are hopeful that our first sail will be ok.
Sailing pics will be on the next post.

Details Details on the Marsh Cat

 The devil is in the details when we get to this part of the project. The hull has had two coats of AWLGRIP topcoat and the deck has one coat. The varnish is getting built up, and we are starting to install fittings. The rudder and centrboard are being painted and the spars are complete. Floorboards are all installed and the boat is beginning to look good!
The fittings are cast bronze and include the bow chocks, the rudder pintles and gudgeons, the tiller fittings and the goose neck.
The sail, standing rigging and running rigging will arrive next week. The we will jack up the boat to finsh the antifouling and install the centrboard. We plan to get the boat onto its trailer and outside the shop to rig very soon. Its getting exciting!

Marsh Cat primed, coaming and floorboards installed

The hull and deck have been primed and now have two coats of AWLGRIP primer. The mahogany coaming was laminated and formed on a jig with a vacuum bag. The floorboards are mahogany and installation is complete except for the hatches.

Marsh Cat deck

 The deck has been installed. The interior has been top coated and the mahogany floorboards are cut out and in the process of being placed. The mahogany bowsprit which carries the forestay is installed.

The centreboard and rudder are built and ready to be painted. The deck is sheathed with 6 oz fibreglass cloth and epoxy resin and will be primed and topcoated with AWLGRIP and Griptex non-skid. Next will be the cockpit coaming and the toe rail.

The birds mouth mast has been glued and clamped, and the gaff and boom are in the varnish shop.