Building the microBootlegger at the WoodenBoat School

Watch the progression from a bundle of wood strips to a completed kayak in 7 minutes. In this week long class students made a beautiful fine strip planked kayak.

Here is the schedule for the week shown in this video:

Sunday: I roughly set up the forms. I another room to the right I also set up forms for the Mystic River Tandem canoe which people are also working on throughout the week.

Monday: The students trued up the forms, got them aligned straight, fair and true, then worked on getting the first strip well situated. Off camera we talked about wood selection and matching the strips.

Tuesday: The students worked on getting the bulk of the kayak covered with strips. This goes quickly while there is no fitting of the strip ends. Once the forms are sufficiently covered that each strip needs to be carefully fitted with the pre-existing strips, progress slows down.

Wednesday: We finish installing strips, covering all the way across the bottom to the whiskey strip. The strips are then scraped and sanded smooth. The coaming riser is installed on the deck. At the end of the day we fiberglass, followed by an after-dinner fill-coat party.

Thursday: The deck and hull are flipped over and we start cleaning, fairing and sanding the interior. We finish by fiberglassing the interior.

Friday: The deck and hull are joined together. The coaming lip is installed, as are the outer stems.

Saturday: We clean up the outer stems and the coaming lip. The exterior seam gets fiberglass. We are done by noon. 

Learn about other classes at the WoodenBoat School: https://www.thewoodenboatschool.com