by way of introduction

[Umbra]

Hello, Everyone.
I would like to introduce Myself-

I have been building boats for some thirty two years, not very glamorous as a profession, when it gets right down to the nitty gritty elbow grease and the performing of.

I am not a yacht designer, or a great business success.
I am an old sailor, a merchant marine, and a boat factory/ boatyard worker since the very early seventies. I have built several boats of my own, repaired tens of hundreds over the years and was fortunate enough to spend some twelve years under the tutelage then in the company of a consumate boatbuilder and repair artist of wooden boats in California.
Up untill then, I was fairly roughshod in My woodworking skills, those that I had were garnered primarily from living aboard and sailing and refitting My personal old wooden sailboats. These i lived on and sailed for twenty five years.
My feeling is that after twenty years of woodwork, and ten years of glass work prior to that, there is still plenty left to learn. God willing, I will never know it all.
That is what brought Me to Your site here. Plenty of opinions, experience and information to be found.

My personal affectations are a love for tools old and new, and My favorite books are My editions of Chappelle. Sailing and woodwork are My hobbies, still. (Although I do admit ownership of a stinkpot, at the moment)
In any case, stumbling across the site here, I thought I would like to say Hello.

[dionysis]

Welcome umbra. This is a good forum.

[Umbra]

Thank You for the welcome.

Everyone appreciates knowing they are amongst their peers when they arrive somewhere, and could in time be considered a part of the group.
I think i will enjoy being here very much.

[Bergalia]

A bit late, Umbra - but welcome... I think you'll feel at home here. ;)

[Umbra]

Thanks-

I have changed jobs recently, being encouraged primarily by the difference in boatbuilding wages and home construction wages- sad, in a way, that some thirty years collecting skills and tools pays less than being able to read a tape and a square on a construction site. But rolling with the punches is the typical sailors lot, LOL.

I have finished a mast repair since i met this forum crew here-
A woodpecker hole that required the standard twelve to one ratio repair, hollowed spar, interior radius cutaway, depth of cut was four inches- after the splice, for one woodpecker hole, the repair was seven feet long.
Then a deadrise needed a new stem and some planking, along with a new cutwater and bowsprit for a hundred year old "Three log canoe" at the local museum.
I will see about posting some pics or a link when I have time, i have been doing a three hour commute lately, and after a ten or twelve hour workday, that doesn't leave much time for anything but sleep. Thanks for the welcome,
I appreciate that.
My next project, which i expect to take far too long, so I may as well enjoy the trip, i want to be of lofting the N.Y. Whitehall, which is a fun one, and setting up to see if I can make the planking work with a a convex and concave edged plank from spiled patterns with the shaper table.
I think that if I can get the edge mating carvel planking process simplified, i should be able to process planking in sister image copies that would be easy to assemble without requiring a great deal of planking skill, and perhaps market the kits.
That should allow the average joe to construct their own modified whitehall with a minimum of headache. They are great little boats and I love those lines.