Building A Mucked-With Adirondack Guideboat Rowboat

I started building a new rowboat that I have desired and thought on for a number of years. It will be rather unique, an experiment. Think 65% Adirondack Guideboat, a dash of Saint Lawrence River Skiff, and the remainder a hodge podge of arm chair design work, mixing in stubborn desire and fears.

I had intended to get my Lavro Dory power boat done first. But about a year ago I took a full time job at the Northwest Maritime Center, which slowed my progress. And being on the waterfront five days a week bumped the car-toppable-rowboat to the top of the boats-to-build list. I can launch right outside my office.

Where Did The Desire For This Rowboat Come From?

Nearly every day I walk from my house to a bluff overlooking the Strait of Juan De Fuca. To the north the San Juan Islands, to the east Whidbey Island with Mount Baker in the background, and out to the west, Protection Island just down the shoreline, and Vancouver Island in the distance.

During the calmer summer months, I started getting a strong desire for a capable little rowboat that I could throw on a bicycle trailer, peddle my ass down to North Beach, and launch for some explorations along the shoreline of the strait. Once in good rowing shape, I could see circumnavigating Protection Island, and maybe explore Discovery Bay a bit.

This is not a piece of water to take lightly though. It is big, with strong tidal currents. I see people paddle boarding out here regularly, with seemingly little safety gear, and I shake my head. To even consider it I wanted a rowboat capable of handling some waves, and with a turn of speed to overcome currents and wind, positive buoyancy for self recovery, with room enough for some safety gear and foul weather clothing. I also need to be able to carry it over some parking lot barriers to launch.

It also needs to be easily car-toppable, to access other local waters that don’t have trailer launch ramps, and for use at work.

Finally, I plan to have the boat on the roof of my Lavro Dory, for quick jaunts across the strait, and southern areas of the Puget Sound, anchor the mothership for a couple of days, and go exploring and taking pictures in the rowboat.

My Rowboat Requirements List:

1. Very lightweight, 55lbs or less, 16′ in length or less, and 40″ beam or less
2. Fixed seat rowing
3. A fast design proven to be capable of handling some coastal ocean conditions, waves and currents
4. Significant volume of positive buoyancy chambers for self recovery
5. Good load carrying capability for some camping trips
6. Small downwind sail, but no foils
7. It must be pretty

Choosing A Lightweight Rowboat Design

After a very thorough look at what was available, there was really only one design that almost fit my design brief, an Adirondack Guideboat. It had the speed, low weight, correct dimensions, and capability of handling some rough conditions. I figured I could use the basic hull shape functionality of a guideboat, and modify it to fit my other needs.

If you are unfamiliar, over a 100 years ago this boat was regularly being built to a weight of only 60 lbs, before any modern composites or glues. They are fully double ended, slender, low in the middle, with high ends, and tippy. Initial stability comes from sitting very low in the boat, like a kayak. They have very little wetted surface area, but pick up lots of volume when gear is added, which explains their excellent speed. It may look a little canoe-like, but it is very different.

They proved themselves as very capable boats that could be carried over long portages by the guides. And in more recent years, they also commonly won the Blackburn Challenge Ocean rowing races, for fixed seat. There have been very rough years of that race where some guideboats made it, when many other designs did not complete. Here is one of those stories. And here you can read an exciting story that Brooks Towns had in the guideboat below, in the very waters I want my boat for. Another friend of mine has had a guideboat for a few years in the PNW. You can read about that here.

Would I Enjoy Rowing This Tender, Low Seat Boat?

Next, I figured I better get out and row one of these boats, before building, and was lucky enough to be able to test out three different guideboats locally. One peculiarity of a guideboat is that the beam is fairly narrow, and yet you still use 8′ oars, so there is a good bit of overlap at the oar grips. I wanted to see how that felt. Traditional guideboat oars are also pinned, meaning you can’t feather them.

The good news was that I really liked rowing them, particularly a super lightweight 13′ boat. Although I was going to have to stretch out my hamstrings. The sitting position is low, and you are mostly straight-legged, which my body has some trouble with. Getting in condition for that will be good for me. It was now a go for guideboat.

Choosing A Building Method – Strip Planked In Paulownia Wood

Guideboats are traditionally built in a unique way, compared to other boats. They don’t use plans, or offsets. Instead each builder had their own full sized templates for the ribs, the bottom board and stems. Those are all cut out (the curved ribs from spruce roots), and joined together. Then the planks are attached over the ribs, each edge feathered together into a smooth round bottom, held together with a gazillion little nails. There are no building forms, other than a stand to hold it up for planking. In more recent years a few folks have created plans, and lofted lines.

I don’t have the skills to build a boat like that. More precisely I don’t have the patience. And I desired a boat that was less a work of art, more durable, easier to clean out, and painted, for active use and easy touch ups. Why not just buy one of the product boats? Mostly because of weight. They start at over 70 lbs, before adding decks.

So I decided to strip plank my boat, which is now a fairly common way to build these boats. Most are stripped in Western Red Cedar.

But in years past I had heard about a type of wood called Paulownia (or Empress Tree), that was about 30% lighter than Western Red Cedar, that some boat builders were using, particularly in Australia. It is not yet commonly used in the USA. But I am sure it will become more common. It is one of the fastest growing trees in the world, so is very renewable, and a very good carbon sink. It can even regrow from a stump up to seven times.

Besides being very lightweight, Paulownia glues well, without absorbing a bunch like balsa does. It is very stable, and is not prone to rot. It’s even fire resistant. But it is definitely not as strong or as dense as cedar, and more prone to denting. So I think it is most suitable as a sandwich core material, with fiberglass on each side. A local boat builder friend is trying to get a Paulownia farm in the US to produce marine grade plywood, which would be very interesting.

I happened to find a small mill in Aberdeen that had acquired a log of Paulownia, and bought up as many planks as they could get out of it. I stickered it and got it good and dry in my shop over a number of months.

The planks are kind of crazy feeling, almost like you are holding pieces of foam board. So far though, I like working with it, and it is not toxic like cedar.

I will be fiberglassing the boat, inside and out, in 4 ounce S-glass, doubling up over the bottom board. S-glass, compared to the more common E-glass, offers much higher tensil strength, elastic modulus, and greater stiffness, which will help reduce dents in the soft Paulownia wood. A friend who builds kayaks in Paulownia has had good luck with this combination.

I plan to minimize every ounce of weight that goes into this boat. Hopefully I can reach my weight goal.

Which Guideboat To Build?

Now that I had settled on a guideboat and build method, the question was which boat to build. There are a few plans and kits available, but the lines of the boats did not turn me on.

Fortunately, through my process of research, I had made good friends with Rob Davidson and Allison Warner, two highly accomplished traditional guideboat builders on the east coast. Allison spent many years building guideboats for the Adirondack Museum, and Rob built a number of custom boats for clients. Between them they have a load of experience in this rare field. And it turned out that Rob had a connection to Port Townsend, and planned to move here. Over a few years we have become good friends, and have had them to our home on visits.

Rob & Allison gave me the lofted lines for what they consider to be one of the most refined guideboats, a 100 year old, 16′ design by Caleb Chase, with a few of their own ideas added in. The boats they had built to these lines were drop dead gorgeous (pictured above), and are apparently not as “cranky” as many other guideboats. And my friends were cool with me using the lines in this experimental way.

Watch this video which happens to feature Rob and Allison and other guideboat builders to learn more.

Converting Guideboat Lines For Strip Planking

My lines plan had full sized lofted rib profiles, stem profiles, and bottom board offsets, and the respective bottom board rocker and shear lines. Actually I only had the rib profiles for 1/4 of the boat, because it is a fully double ended design, and symmetrical on each side as well.

First I used tracing paper to transfer the rib lines to plywood, that was going to be cut into station forms. I created half as many stations as there were ribs, except in the ends, where there is a lot of shape and hollow to the planks.

I cut out all the forms, and the bottom board (also in 3/4″ thick Paulownia), and beveled its edges to receive the planking, and put it all together on a strongback. I then attached the stems, and shaped them to receive the planks.

I am using a two piece stem system. The inner stem allows the strips to easily lay along side, and to be cut off flush. Then the final stem shape will be glued to that surface, before glassing over. I almost went entirely stemless, like some super lighweight strip planked canoes do. But this Paulownia is so lightweight that I decided against it, and also because I would have lost around 8″ of waterline, without the lower stem shape on bow and stern.

Next on the project will come the strip planking.

The Mucking-With

Sealed End Decks
As mentioned, I will not have any ribs (the fiberglass replaces their function). But there will be a full bulkhead in each end with decks, creating large sealed buoyancy chambers, and access hatches for lightweight camping gear. There will be just enough room between to store the 8′ oars.

Lower Freeboard In The Ends
The original lines have very tall bows, necessary for an open boat designed to carry a much heavier load than I plan on. But since I will have sealed decks and some coamings, I decided to lower the freeboard in the ends a good bit, to reduce windage and weight. I also slightly raised the center freeboard. We will see if these changes prove wise or not when I get in some waves. I did not go crazy with it though. When compared to several other highly regarded coastal rowboats, I have kept similar proportions.

Asymmetrical Sheerline
Fully double ended sheerlines have never really turned me on. So in addition to the stern being lower, the center of the shear line curve will move slightly to the stern.

PNW Bows
I also won’t be keeping the iconic guideboat stem profile that tumbles past vertical, and will instead use a curve more similar to a Pacific Northwest handliner peadpod (see a sweet version in SOF here), while still keeping a long waterline. This is for purely aesthetic reasons.

Standard Oarlocks For Feathering
I have nothing against pinned oars that are used on traditional guideboats. But they evolved that way for specific purposes I don’t need, and have drawbacks. I plan to have lightweight, flexible, balanced oars, that I can feather when it is windy and wavy. I happened to have bought some 8′ cedar oars at the closing sale of Pygmy Kayaks, that were originally for a Wineglass wherry. They have a unique long slender blade, almost like a Greenland style kayak paddle (not surprising coming from a kayak company), that I think will work great on this boat, and the conditions I will be in. I also recently bought a used pair of spruce Shaw & Tenney 8′ slender spoons. The blade shape, long and slender, other than the spoon cut. I look forward to seeing which pair I prefer on this boat.

A Small Downwind Sail
Sure, this will be a dedicated rowboat. But I can’t resist the idea of having a very easy to launch and retrieve downwind sail. I plan to make a sail rig similar to those on Cape Falcon’s SOF canoes, which he adapted from kayak sail systems. There will not be a centerboard or rudder, and I will steer with an oar. Guideboats traditionally carry a unique sneak paddle, for paddling up narrow creaks, or sneaking up on prey. I think I will make one to have on board for multiple uses.

What Name?

I will be calling the boat Hummingbird, because the boat will be small and lightweight, and when going fast the rowing cadence will be very rapid, like a hummingbird’s wings. Maybe I should give the bow some bright iridescent red/pink paint, like the beautiful male Anna Hummingbird that visits our coast?

A Silly Aside – Rowboat or Rowing Boat?

I mentioned to an avid boating friend of mine that I was building a rowboat. After describing it he said, “oh, you are building a rowing boat“. I was momentarily confused, but then we both realized this is probably an East Coast/West Coast thing. Having migrated from the East Coast, to him a rowboat, is more like a short dinghy, and a rowing boat is a more dignified, longer pulling craft. I am not sure that distinction exists on the left coast.

Compromise Be Damned!

This project has taken years just to get to this point, being stubbornly persistent, but not working fast. And I find it interesting writing this that this persistent and almost silly desire for a very specific boat has led me down the road of meeting and making some good new friends, learning about new materials, building a relationship with a small wood mill in Aberdeen, and talking with a multitude of other boat builders and designers. Even if it never comes to fruition, it has been worth it so far. Sometimes it pays to stick to what you want and see it through.

Stay tuned for more stories as this build continues over the next few months.

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