Tips From A Shipwright

In his latest series, Shipwright Louis Sauzedde shows how to build a work skiff right in your own backyard or garage. In the first episode, Lou breaks down the lumber needed for each part of the boat as well as some history of the heritage of the Rhode Island work skiff and how to go about best constructing a boat yourself at home. TotalBoat and all other products featured in the video are available at Jamestown Distributors in Bristol, RI.

In Episode 2 of our Building the TotalBoat series, Lou shows us how to rip a stem for his skiff from a 5x5 piece of white oak.

The next step in our skiff build is cutting and fitting the side planking together. Lou shows us how to use each plank as a guide for the next plank before cutting them with a skill saw and table saw.

In the latest episode of our skiff building series, Lou shows us how to slip board the side planking for a better fit as well as his method for cutting and assembling the transom planking together.

Lou and Andrew are back at it building the skiff. In Episode 5 they show us how they use a guide to drill and connect the two large white oak planks that make the transom of the work skiff.

Follow shipwright Louis Sauzedde as he shows us step by step how to build a boat in your own backyard or garage. In the latest video of this series, Lou shows us how to rip the starboard and port chines out of large piece of red oak using his custom circular saw. We also learn more about the differences and reasons for using red oak versus white oak in wooden boat building. Subscribe to the 'Tips from a Shipwright' and 'TotalBoat' Youtube channels for more boat building and wood working how-to videos.

In this episode the wooden skiff is starting to take shape. First, Lou straightens out some warping on the transom with water and clamps to make sure it is flat and tight. Next, Lou shows how he will bend and fit the planks from the stem to the transom on his custom built skiff building station.

Shipwright Louis Sauzedde's work skiff is coming together and starting to look like a boat. In this episode he shows us how he cuts and installs the chines inside the bottom planking. The first step is to make sure the bottom of the planking is flat and then each chine must be measured and fit at both ends before being sawed and then clamped into position.

The wooden skiff is continuing to take shape with Lou's old man methods of boatbuilding. In this episode Lou shows how to mark and prepare to fasten the chines from the stem to the transom on his custom built skiff building station. The chines are attached with galvanized screws and polysulfide bedding compound using a custom made drill bit. Next Lou hand saws the end of side plank off to be flush with the skiff's transom.

Lou is back at it building his work skiff in the Open Door Boat-shop. This week Lou cuts down the bottom plank with a saw and then planes it down so it's flush with the chines and transom. He then shows us how he plans to design and attach the frames to the side planking and chines.

Watch as Lou shows us his tips and tricks for manufacturing all the frames needed to build his work skiff. Several tools are used to accomplish the task and Lou has some great advice for each. Subscribe to Tips from a Shipwright and TotalBoat for more how-to videos with Louis Sauzedde.

In this episode, Lou sets out to hang the frames on his work skiff. He shows us how he divides up the chine and plank to accept the frames, before using a plumb bob to make sure each frame is hung on the boat nice and straight.

Lou's work skiff is really starting to take shape. In this episode he first shows us how to hang the last two frames all the way forward before then bedding and fastening the first plank on the starboard side to the frames.

Lou and Andrew are back at it building their TotalBoat work skiff at the Open Door Boatshop. In this week's episode, Lou shows us his method for making sure the boat is in perfect symmetry before fastening on the bottom planking. Subscribe to Tips from a Shipwright and TotalBoat for more how-to videos.

We're back at the Open Door Boatshop and Lou is just about ready to put the bottom planking on his work skiff. The final step is to surface the bottom on each side to accept the planking. Watch as Lou shows us his methods and how he sets up his tools to work properly for job.

It's finally time for Lou to start laying out the bottom planking on his work skiff, his first move is to rough cut and lay out the Douglas Fir planks on the bottom of the boat. Each plank is then edged on both sides on the jointer so that they fit together nice and tightly. Lou then uses an electric planer on the transom so that it too is perfectly level with the sides.

Master Shipwright Louis Sauzedde is back to work in the Open Door Boat Shop for the highly anticipated 17th episode in this skiff build series. In this episode Lou will reveal his 'old man method' for crowding up and bedding down the bottom planking with polysulfide aka spreading the mud.

Lou is working right away on his TotalBoat work skiff. In the latest episode and continuing with his hang over and cut off method of shipwrighting, Louis Sauzedde shows us how he uses a circular saw to cut bottom planks where they hang over the side planking before using an electric planer on the ends of the planks and then finally a number 5 handheld planer. We see Lou's homemade tool for removing screws and he checks all the fastening are ready for the application of TotalBoat TotalFair Epoxy Fairing Compound.

In our latest Episode, Lou shows us his method for filling the screw holes left by the fastenings with TotalBoat TotalFair. He then uses a scraper and sand paper to get the sides and bottom ready for paint.

Happy Thanksgiving - In this episode Lou fits the final two planks in position on the skiff. The next step is to sand and prep the boat for the first coat of bottom paint to be applied. In the next episode Lou will make and attach the runners.

The final step before flipping over his skiff over is to rip and attach the three runners to the bottom planking. In this episode Lou shows us how he cuts the center runner with a circular saw from a large piece of White Oak lumber. The piece is then planed flat on all four sides before being applied to the boat and cut to fit at the stem.

It's finally time for us flip the skiff over, but first we need to finish attaching the runners to the bottom of the boat. In this video Lou is going to show you how he pre-drilled the runners with three different bits before nailing them down using 3 1/2-inch boat nails or cut nails. After that we'll saw off the over hanging ends of the runners and then touch them up with a handsaw, planer and chisel blade. Now we're gonna flip it over and take a look at all our hard work.

The boat is flipped over and it's time for us to design and create the sheer. We're going to add the third plank and two more small planks up forward and then use a batton to sight and draw our sheer line. Once we have that we can remove the forward pieces and cut them on the band saw, while the longer planks we'll cut in place by hand with the circular saw. Then we can cut the tops of the frames off and touch up the transom some before putting our sheer planks back onto the boat so we can take a look at our new sheer line!

The cameras have been rolling at the Open Door Boat Shop and Lou is back with Episode 24 of his TotalBoat work skiff video series. It's finally time to install the lift rails! Join Lou in the shop as he shows us about this important part of the skiff as well as his methodology for installing them on the hull of the boat. Stay tuned for more episodes on the TotalBoat work skiff featuring Louis Sauzedde.

This week we are venturing out into the woods of the Hudson Valley in New York in search of a 60 degree timber to make the breast hook for our TotalBoat work skiff. We're going to do some cutting with a chainsaw and some milling of some larger pieces and hopefully we'll come out of here with a good piece of lumber to make our breast hook out of.

We're back in the Open Door Boatshop and ready to begin shaping the piece of lumber we're hoping will make our breast hook for the work skiff we're building. Before we do that though we are going to make a slight adjustment to the shear line now that we have the lift rails on the boat. The breast hook is still rough within the notch we took out of the tree so we're going to flatten one side down with an electric plane. Then we can pass it through our shipsaw to get it flat on both sides before heading over to our steam bag contraption so we can cook the piece.

It's time to install our breast hook and quarter knees!

It's time to install our Inwales!

It's time to add the guards to our skiff, all important in its finished look, but also for protection from bumps and scrapes throughout the life of the boat. Before applying the guards, Lou shows how to correctly nail down the floor planks, using a small but heavy sledge hammer to drive the heavy nails needed to secure these floor planks. Remember, we just "steer the hammer" on its way down. Lastly in preparing the guards for mounting, Lou shows us how to bevel off the bottom edge of the guards and so they look a little nicer and won't catch up on anything when we mount them on the boat for final fastening.

We're back and having a ball making videos in the Open Door Boatshop. Our skiff is coming along nicely, this week we're putting on the gunwales caps or cover boards. The lumber is still coming from that same timber we started with, in fact, we've built most of the main parts of the boat from that one piece of wood. The gunwale caps will go on in two pieces and be scarfed together using TotalBoat 5:1 Epoxy Resin. This will give us a very strong bond between the two pieces, effectively making them one long piece. Once both boards are cut out and in their final position, we can then bed and nail them down.

We're back cranking on our TotalBoat skiff build, it's time to install the hardware needed to fasten and secure the spring lines once the boat is in the water. By substituting plastic through hull fittings for much more expensive Hawes pipe fittings, we've fashioned our own holes that allow us to run a line down through the top gunwale and tie off below. This keeps the coverboard free of any and all obstructive hardware. Using a hole saw and a little effort, we now have a much cleaner design for tying up our TotalBoat work skiff.

The skiff is coming along nicely, we're just getting everything ready to apply our first coat of TotalBoat 2-Part Epoxy Primer. But first we need to touch up our stem, make it a little more functional and little prettier. We then need to fill and fair the sides above the waterlin, this is one of the most important steps in obtaining a flat and nice looking hull.

I have been waiting a while for this, today we are going to apply our first coat of topside paint, but first we need to give our primed surface a good sanding. I'm sanding the entire boat by hand because it gives me a better feel and allows me to keep a nice fair shape. We are also going to touch up the ends of our cover boards with a chisel and some sandpaper so they can act as chock for a line. We are going to paint our topsides with TotalBoat Wet Edge Cold Cure. It's pretty cool in the Open Door Boatshop this time of year and this paint can be used down to 45 degrees F so that makes it ideal for us in this case. For me, this is one of the most fun parts of building a boat because when I apply the paint, it really lets me see the shape of the boat and how fair the hull is.

In this week's episode we are out to varnish the gunwales. I've got my friend Ricky with me here at the Open Door Boatshop and the first thing for us to do is to make sure the entire boat is sanded smooth, we're going to start with some 80 grit and finish up with some 220, taking our time and doing a good job. Once the surface is ready for our first coat of varnish, we're going to thin our TotalBoat Lust with equal parts Thinner to make sure we get good penetration and the wood really takes the varnish. Once we get a good coat on the entire boat we are going to tip the varnish one last time. The last step for us at this point is to plug our screw holes, so we're just going to make our own plugs using a piece of wood, a drill press and my band-saw.

We're getting really close to putting our work skiff in the water but there are a few last things we still need to square away. In this episode we will fashion a new pair of Hawespipes from a pair of bronze through hull fittings. The pieces were turned on a lathe first and now I'm using a file and some sand paper to get them nice and smooth on the top and bottom so the line will run through them without any problems. Then we're going to bed them into the gunwale with TotalBoat 2:1 Epoxy Resin and Milled Glass Fiber and add two bronze rods below that you can tie off to.

Welcome back to the Open Door Boatshop and our TotalBoat work skiff! What a project it's been, this week we will finish off with some drilling of the quarter knees and install the last knee in our transom. Drilling is one of the most complicated procedures in all of boat building. We need to get our placement and direction right before we start drilling to avoid making any major mistakes at this late stage. Then I'm going to rip our final knee out of a large piece of lumber and scribe that into the boat until we have nice fit and we're happy with the look and shape.

The last thing for us to do is put on our final coat of bottom paint now that we have attached our deep runners. Then we are going to lift the boat up onto a trailer and bring it next door so we can mount an outboard motor to the transom. 50hp should do the trick. Before we swell up the bottom planking we are going to apply TotalBoat Teak Oil to the entire interior of the boat but not the bottom for now. Then we're just going to take a garden hose and run some water into the boat to help the planking swell up tight. Now we're all set to launch our skiff, down the ramp and into the water she goes. It's been almost 25 years since I've driven an outboard skiff like this I can't wait to see how it performs.