19' Gaff Sloop Centreboarder, based on a design by Paul Gartside

My good friend Arnt proposed we build a boat for my wife and I in his shop. We selected Paul Gartside's design #164 "Spartan II" so I purchased the study plans, and started estimating a bill of materials.

Ordered the plans, had them printed, and immediately started thinking about things we might change a bit! For instance: the cabin height could be a bit taller so we can sit up on the bunks!

The design calls for strip-building, 3/4" by 1-1/4" Western Red Cedar, glassed inside and out. We found some very tight-grained 2x4 green material at a local building supply, and purchased 17 10-footers and 17 12-footers. They'll have to be scarfed to achieve our desired length, a little over 21 feet. Totally stunning wood... there isn't much of this stuff left in our forests, so, worth every penny of their ridiculously expensive price!

Ripped it down to 3/4 by 1-1/2" ...a bit wider than the plans, but a much better cut out of the material. We'll see how difficult it is at the turn of the bilge, and perhaps have to rip a few in half at the sharpest turn. Then stickered and stacked them up in the shop rafters to air dry.

When Arnt bought his 23' gaff cutter ANJA, it had a solid fir mast that was smaller in diameter than designed in the plans. Finding it much too flexible, he build a new one, and hung this one up in rafters of his shop. We took it down and scraped off all the paint to see if it would work for our new boat.

After stripping the paint off it looked like it might be ok. However, it seemed to be made up of many pieces, so we ripped it down the centre on the bandsaw to see what the structure was. There was some rot in the bottom where the tabernacle hinge bolt went through, but the scarfs looked fairly good if we put in a couple of dutchman repairs into the few spots we didn't like. The plans for this boat call for a hollow mast of Douglas fir, so this might be just the ticket!