Portfolio

Adirondack Guide Boat

Adirondack Guide Boat

Baidarka

Baidarka

Bateau Restoration​

Bateau Restoration​

Cedar Chest

Cedar Chest

Dark Harbor

Dark Harbor

Drafting and Lofting

Drafting and Lofting

Herring Skiff

Herring Skiff

Jointers Mallets

Jointers Mallets

Paddles

Paddles

Proa

Proa

Skiff Baby Lou

Skiff Baby Lou

Spar Construction

Spar Construction

Voyageur Canoe

Voyageur Canoe

Traditional Wood Canvas Canoe

Traditional Wood Canvas Canoe

Project Ideas

I’m always dreaming up ambitious projects. Here are a few that I am interested in pursuing grant funding, partnerships or investments to complete. If you’d like to collaborate on something like any of these please contact me.

The Minnesota Peoples Pontoon

An all wood pontoon boat!

This would have tortured plywood pontoons, a criss-crossed wooden swim platform as a deck, decorative wooden railings, comfortable benches, possibly inspired by folk or green woodworking traditions, and even a wood framed sun canopy.

I envision this as a public art piece, that would offer rides on inland lakes around Minnesota, bringing a bit of cabin life and Norwegian Folk Art to everyone. Maybe Northwoods picnic food would be served at times!

Mackinaw Boat

These were the work boats of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan before the industrialization made them inefficient. They were double ended boats, like big fat canoes, traditionally built in lapstrake fashion. They were sailed or rowed and in later eras even had inboard motors. Mariners used them to fish and get around the Great Lakes.

I would like to build one that can be used as a tourism/experiential history boat. Six passengers with a captain and crew might row together and sail this burdensome boat for a short tour. They would haul a fishing net into the boat by hand and see how heavy that is!

Modern Wooden Fishing Boat

Built of state of the art wood composites in the highly utilitarian format of a contemporary bass boat, this boat would have body lines similar to a classic work boat, with a plumb stem, dramatic sheer and ample tumblehome aft.

The goal is to convince people who buy expensive aluminum fishing boats that they’d prefer to fish in a classier, but equally functional, wooden work boat.

Classic Expeditionary Rower

It’s super fun to get a group of friends on a big sailing “yacht” and cruise around an island chain for a week! However, you spend a lot of the time just sitting around. Especially when there isn't much wind!

So, I’d like a boat that is big enough to camp on with a few people, but also small enough that several people could row it together fairly well. I have some design ideas I'd like to combine, including the modern ocean rowboats and classic lines of the Cornish Pilot Gig. Likely built as a wherry with a plank keel for easy beaching.

Adirondack Guide Boat

The Guide boat is commonly recognized as one of the hardest small boats to build. They were used by hunting and sportsmen guides in the Adirondack Mountains in the later part of the 19th Century.

I built this boat under the guidance of Josh Swan, a mentor of mine who is a very fine boat builder. Josh worked at the Adirondack Museum where he learned some insider tips for how these are built.

The Guide boat is built with frames and stems sawn from tamarack root (crooks). It has a very lightweight construction, riveted lapstrake planks and a flat dory bottom.

Baidarka

Baidarkas were seal hunting kayaks built by the Aleutian Islanders. They were traditionally lashed together with sinew and covered with seal hides. This modern Baidarka was lofted from lines taken by maritime anthropoligist David Zimmerly.

Frames were laminated to the lofted dimensions. The kayak is canvassed with ballistic nylon coated with a flexible two part polyurethane. The distinguishing bottom half of the bifurcated stem was left exposed and finished bright.

Bateau Restoration

Bateaus were built by French loggers in the new world to get log drivers across lakes and rivers to the logs needing to be moved.

This Bateua was built over twenty years ago at North House and has been a staple programming boat there for some time. From being stored upside down for winter too long, one sheer strake and both gunwales were rotten, rendering the boat unrowable.

Working with a volunteer who encouraged me to help him save this boat, we scarfed in a new sheer strake, replaced the gunwales, and faired up a few parts of the boat to breath new life into her.

Cedar Chest

This sea chest is built with rabbeted posts and joined to rail and stile frames holding raised panels. It is built of aromatic cedar and curly maple.

Dark Harbor

I was part of team building this B.B. Crowninshield designed east coast racing sloop at the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building. It a really a beautiful sailing machine!

This boat features:

Caravelle planked western red cedar on steamed oak frames
Honduran Mahogony backbone and purpleheart deadwood
Sitka Spruce spars

Some parts of this build that I focused on are the deck structure, which was built separate from the hull at the same time, and then dropped into place when the hull was planked. I also did the bulk of the lofting of this project, a fair amount of planking and built the mast.

Drafting and Lofting

I especially enjoy drafting and lofting. I sometimes will measure and document lines of a historic boat I am interested in. Other times I will play with an existing design and make some changes to it and see how it comes back together. Mostly I’m just lofting patterns to prepare for a build.

Here is just a sampling of some things I’ve drafted or lofted.

Herring Skiff

Herring Skiff are the vernacular small work boats of Lake Superior. They evolved from doubled ended rowboats to outboard motor boats.

I am building a replica of a the outboard motor version of the herring skiff. The lines were taken from a boat that the Cook County Historical Society considers to be a great example of the late era Herring Skiff. Construction will start in a class at North House Folk School in January of 2020 and be completed in the summer of 2020, with a series of volunteer community boat building days.

Jointers Mallets

This is a production run of pretty jointers mallets I built.

Paddles

I teach paddlemaking classes from time to time. Paddles I build have laminated shafts and blades. Tim tips of the blades typically have a very hard wood like black Locust to protect from wear. I hard carve T grips and mount them to the shaft with a wedged tenon.

Proa Boat Building Competition

This boat was built with a group of friends in a 3 day boat building competition. We designed it ourselves and placed third in the competition.

The main hull is built of plywood, the outrigger is hard carved cedar, and the arms are bent laminations.

Skiff Baby Lou

A handsome flat bottom rowing skiff. I built this as part of a team at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding. The breasthook and chine logs are my bigger contributions.

Spar Construction

This is the mast of the Dark Harbor. It is a box section mast that is filled in at the bottom section below deck. The center of the mast has electrical conduit to run the masthead lights. The mast tapers.

Voyageur Canoe

I designed and built this 11 person canoe for Wilderness Inquiry. It was a redesign of their primary programming boat that they use to take youth out in.

My new design made the boat flatter and fatter in the middle section, added several inches of freeboard, and used a more dramatic sheer and recurved stem. I lofted the new design and had it reviewed by a naval architect to analyze hull performance.

The boat is strip planked over laminated frames. The bottom has a foam core doubler. The new design was well received, so I proceeded to build a plug that is now being used at Wenonah Canoe to mass produce these boats in composite.
Download Canoe Lines

Wood Canvas Canoe

This boat was built under guidance from Ely, Minnesota based canoe builder Jeanne Bourquin at the North House Folk School. It was built as a fundraiser for the local Chamber of Commerce to raffle off.