By Lorne Swarthout

The sanding is finished, and today was time for the first coat of epoxy. This was just a primer coat today; the epoxy-plus-fiberglass will be next. As the resin hit the wood the change in color, as you can see, was dramatic. The brown/red cedar got deeper and the white cedar stripe got whiter. 

It was over pretty quickly, as jobs with so many willing hands tend to be. We kept busy moving boats, cleaning boats, trailering boats, and patching boats. John and Chuck also prepared the outside rails, and Gus and Richard worked on coxswain guards for Quixotic.

Over the next several weeks we will be busy with fiberglassing the exterior. Some of you told me that you will be away holidayizing. We will miss you and wish you all the blessings of the season. Rest assured, there will be plenty of work on the interior of our beautiful boat when you return.

by Lorne Swarthout

On Sunday the volunteer boatbuilders of VCB laid the last strip on our new American Star. The hull is now complete. Over 3,000 strips of western red cedar (and a dozen of Alaskan yellow cedar) have been carefully glued together over the last three months to form the long, sinuous hull that will become the newest custom wooden boat to emerge from the VCB workshop.

We all celebrated, as is traditional, with a whiskey toast. This was not a boat launch, which is usually celebrated with champagne for the swells, but a big moment for the workers who know what has gone into getting the boat to this point. They have turned a pile of sticks and boards into a beautiful, organic thing. It is a moment worth savoring and deserves a toast.

Actually, the volunteers were really toasting themselves. And well they should. They have labored with diligence, good humor and increasing woodworking skills to create this craft. They have helped to bring something new into the world.

We are a long way from finished. Next will come sanding and fiberglassing of the outside, and then we will flip it over and go to work on the inside. It will be several more months before we can launch our American Star (which some of us are starting to call the Hudson Star).

But Sunday we reached an important milestone: we are pleased with our boat and proud of what we have accomplished.

By Lorne Swarthout

The turnout for our Sunday afternoon boatbuilding continues to be robust. As a result the “stripping” of our new American Star is almost complete. More gratifying than the beautiful hull that is growing under our hands has been the good cheer and increasing confidence that I see around me every Sunday afternoon. The Wednesday crew is smaller but equally focused and congenial.

We will have regular sessions on Sundays going forward, but there will be no boatbuilding this Wednesday because of the VCB board meeting.