Boat building workshop

I am hosting a four day hands-on boat building workshop in my backyard in San Francisco. This is part of a non-profit project to revive traditional sailing in the Mariana Islands. We recently completed a 47 foot Chamorro Flying Proa built from a Mendocino redwood log and based on a drawing made in 1742 "the Anson Drawing" (http://www.chamorro.com/tall_ship.jpg). This proa is currently in the San Diego Maritime Museum, on the water until the end of July. Now we want to build more using modern materials that are less expensive and for this we have chosen the KSS method of foam resin infusion (foam infused with polyester resin sandwiched between two layers of fiberglass using vacuum bagging).

Yacht designer and builder Derek Kesall will be leading the workshop. It will run four full days from 8/15 through 8/18. There is room for more if you want to join us. We will build a 25 foot proa hull and outrigger and there will be demonstrations of how to build catamaran hulls. The resulting hulls are top quality and professional. The cost for the four day workshop is $750 for the entire workshop and includes coffee and lunch each day. This is a great opportunity for novices and professionals alike. If you've never built anything out of fiberglass, this workshop will give you the practical skills and knowledge to build a boat.

We have a flyer posted at http://www.chamorro.com/kss.pdf with more details.

Hope to see you here. It will be a lot of fun.

Pete Perez
pete@chamorro.com
415 215-6362

 

Its a great twist that Derek has - get paid to design a boat, then get the builders to pay for the privilege of building it too.

I would like to hear from any Kelsall design builder who actually finished a boat without Derek being on site to supervise the KSS method.

 

Actually, when Derek holds a workshop the builder, who is usually building his own boat, gets all kinds of free help as the class works on part of their boat and Derek is onsite to answer questions that come up, both of which benefit the builder. The builder asks Derek to host a workshop, not the other way around, and the builder doesn't pay for the workshops.

Also, this design is not a Kesall design - it is a resurrected Micronesian design from hundreds of years ago. Derek was kind enough to do the lofting himself, based on the 1742 drawing, and he did it for free. Since we've only built with wood, having Derek help us really shortcuts our learning curve.

I think you're wrong to disrespect Derek. He's a soft-spoken, kind Welshman and it has been great to meet and work with him. I went to a workshop two years ago and it was great value for the money. At that workshop our group built a 40 something foot catamaran hull in four days. I know it was a real help to the owner/builder who had only his wife to help him. I could have taken what I learned from that workshop and built the Chamorro proa, but I don't have the lofting skills and had no design, so I contacted Derek who I knew was passing through San Francisco and got lucky. Now our project will go faster and will be successful the first time.

Best,

Pete Perez

 

I wasn't 'disrespecting' Derek, more admiring his "value adding" technique

It doesn't matter "who asks who", I know Derek mostly gets paid for most of these sessions, so its not a case of "kind generous nature" - although I am sure Derek is a really lovable guy. And, he has to make a living like all of us.

I have been a fan of his work since his first plywood designs, and his innovative work in plywood.

Therefore, I am intrigued why you chose fiberglass and foam for a 'traditional' project, and why you consider you are "building more using modern materials that are less expensive". I wouldn't have thought foam and fiberglass in the Marianas were all that cost effective.

 

The 47 foot Chamorro Flying Proa that we built using redwood took two years to build and cost about $20k just for materials, and that was in California, not in the Marianas where it would have cost three times as much. The traditional material was the wood from breadfruit trees that were abundant on the islands, but it is not available today due to loss of undeveloped land and the greatly increased instances of super-typhoons in the last 20 years that knock down the taller trees. In the Marianas there really isn't available local wood anymore. Imported wood is very expensive. Any material has to be shipped in and foam, resin and glass is much cheaper to ship than wood due to the weight and container space.

Now that we've built the proa it has become a cultural treasure - it is the first one in over 250 years. We'll be sailing it to the Marianas probably next year. But our goal was not just to build one - but to build 500 in the next twenty years. The reason for that number is that in the old days, in the 1600s and 1700s, Europeans arriving in the islands reporting seeing hundreds of proas on the water. 500 is the largest number mentioned. The sailing tradition was completely lost during Spanish colonization when the Chamorro population dropped from 80k to 2k people due to disease and war, and the Spanish forced all the Chamroros off the 14 northern islands and onto Guam where they were forbidden to build proas or even to sail off the reef.

We consider that if we can teach the younger generations how to build and sail again and if we can get 500 Chamorro Flying Proas on the water at the same time once again, that we will have recovered our maritime tradition. The fact that the material isn't wood is not ideal, but on the other hand the Chamorro flying proa is a Chamorro invention and the design is unique in the world, so we reason that whatever material is used, it is a Chamorro proa.

By the way, these proas are fast. In the old days, European mariners clocked them at over 22 miles per hour. The one in San Diego, with a make-shift tarp sail that is only 70% of the proper size has hit 15 knots. I'm excited to see what the lighter fiberglass/foam proas will do.

Our plan to get to 500 proas is to build three canoe houses - one on Guam, one on Saipan and one in San Diego where there is a large Chamorro community. The idea is that anyone who wants to build a flying proa can just pay for the materials and go to the canoe house to use the table, tools, etc. and get instruction and help building their proa.

Pete

 

Many thanks for that detailed overview. It sounds like a great project.

I also suspect that foam and glass will survive longer than timber in the marine environment, which would make it good value.

Even so, have you done the detailed costing of marine plywood ( not timber ) with say epoxy ?

If you want to teach people to build boats, plywood is by far and away the easiest technique - especially if you want to get 500 + boats in the water.

Derek is an expert in fast build plywood hulls.

 

Didjallen

I am considering having a ply wood 45" cat built in the Philippines by Woodern Boat Builders Nigel Roberts. He builds Marine Ply cats of difference lengths. Does any one have any input, on having it built there. It would run two motors and single sail, no main.
Being new i would like any input thanks Allen

 

I was not aware that Derek Kelsall ever designed in plywood, that would have to have been a long, long time ago, i believe he has been pretty much committed to foam/glass/polyester for at least 40 years.

 

Only for the last ~25 years, before that he perfected a great plywood method for doing catamarans.

He still sells that plans

eg

http://www.duckflatwoodenboats.com/mainpages/gallery?KID=49

 

Cool, i dont know how i didnt know that, i learnt something today. I know he has been doing foam core cats and tris since Toria in the 60s, one of of not the earliest foam core multies. Those ply cats would be a nice choice if one wanted to go that route.

Steve.

 

Yes, he may have started early on foam, but not exclusively since the 60's by any means.

I am still curious if you have actually done the costing between ply and foam, considering you have so many boats you want to get in the water.