3 Piece Rowboat

A 12 ft rowboat that saws apart into three sections which nest into a package about 6 1/2 ft long, light enough for one man to carry on a car roof in a cradle. It comes from an old magazine article and is built exactly like a normal one-piece rowboat, with a keelson, frames, chines and inwales, and then cut apart between pairs of plywood bulkheads set a saw-width apart.

Sides and bottom are thin plywood, the bottom from a single sheet, and the joints are sealed with binding tape and white lead. The article warns that the plywood of the day needed waterproof grade or several coats of paint or shellac, especially on the edges, to stop the plies separating. Bolting the sections back together uses caulked joints shown in a detail.