How have you enjoyed our trip over these past two days? Have you found the pace to be to your liking? Perhaps the lack of the dissemination of facts has been irksome. Perhaps it has been downright upsetting. To me it has been freeing! The two or three days we blogged at the 
WoodenBoat School were kind of a pain. At the risk of becoming redundant, the cottage does not have internet access. There are a few hotspots here in Stonington, but nowhere that is interesting enough for the whole clan to engage in stimulating activity while I do my thing. And so, I’m trying something different this time. I’m typing this at the cottage as a Word document, then I’m going to try to sit outside of a hotspot in the car and just cut and paste it! If it doesn’t work, it will likely be yet another day without a post.
Monday, July 30—WBS Day 1
As I type this on Friday evening the kayak is almost done. It was a kit, with all the parts cut out already. On Monday we got all the parts figured out, stained a few pieces as Drew’s design
required, glued up the hull pieces, and put epoxy on the outside of all parts. We got our work done around 2:00. Drew and I were the first group done, which has been the case most of the time. The experience I have through building my kayak has been helpful. There are seven kayaks being built in our class, and only three of them are being built by one person.
Tuesday, July 31—WBS Day 2
On Tuesday we stitched the hull parts together, wired them into the forms, and glassed the inside of the hull. Nick Schade is the designer of the kayak, and he is also our course instructor, which is convenient. The hull is made up of about 9 pieces, and rather than make the joints plain or have us scarf them, he designed them with puzzle joints. The type of construction we are using is called stitch and glue. The puzzle pieces have matching holes, which we tie together with copper glue—stitching. We then complete the assembly
of each joint by putting a spot of CA glue every ½” or so, spraying on accelerant which cures the glue almost instantly, removing the stitching, and putting a dookie schmutz fillet where two angled pieces come together—glue. Dookie schmutz is a commonly use
d term among boatbuilders. It’s mixed epoxy with enough wood flour to give it the appearance and consistency of creamy peanut butter. When placed along to surfaces that meet at an angle, it serves two purposes: first, it glues the joint together, and second, the fillet shape of the dookie schmutz makes the joint very strong. For example, on my kayak, the coaming riser is ¼” wide, and the coaming lip is also ¼”. Just applying glue or even fiberglass and epoxy does not p
rovide enough strength because the coaming gets a tremendous amount of abuse. The dookie schmutz fillet makes the joint much stronger. Glassing means we lay in a 4 oz. layer of fiberglass and paint on a thick coat of epoxy, which soaks completely into the fiberglass. A layer of two of fiberglass with cured epoxy is incredibly strong. The wood in a wooden kayak only provides the shape and the appearance for the boat. All of the strength and rigidity comes from the fiberglass/epoxy sandwich on the inside and outside of the boat.
Wednesday, Aug 1—WBS Day 3 & our 15th wedding anniversary!
On Wednesday we glassed the outside of the hull, assembled the deck pieces, wired them into the forms, put dookie schmutz fillets on the inside of the deck, and glassed the inside of the deck. That all sounds like a lot of work, but with some experience under our belt we finished up work around 4:30 or so. That night the fam ate supper at a restaurant in Stonington called Fisherman’s Friend. It was advertised as family friendly, but I don’t know what that means. There wasn’t anything special like clowns or anything. I had a lobster for the first time, and I would summarize the experience in this manner: first, it is a good thing to have because it supports the lobstermen in places like Stonington, and second, it usually runs around $25 for 6-8 oz. of meat that tastes so-so and is a lot of work to get to. Plus, it’s a giant mess. It is a good time crushing the claws, ripping the tail off, and so forth. Valerie and I enjoyed some champagne before retiring for the evening as a little celebration of our wedding anniversary. Valerie is a wonderful wife, and I am so blessed to have her by my side. I think often of the part in the movie Jerry Maguire where Jerry’s secretary/soon to become wife observes a deaf couple as the man signs to his lady. Jerry asks what he said and is told, “You complete me.” That’s how it is with my beautiful wife. I wish I could say that we get along perfectly and like each other all the time. Unfortunately, that’s not the case as we are both human beings and we live in a fallen world. What is true is this—she is wonderful at lots of things that I do horribly, and the opposite is also true. The fact of the matter is this—Valerie completes me. While we don’t always like each other, we love each other very much and we are both completely committed to our marriage. Too many couples give up on their marriage because they fall out of like and there is no commitment. Praise God our marriage is based on more than sex and like! One of the reasons I am looking forward to working at Timm Services on a full time basis is that we will be together most of the time. For some couples that would be a problem. As far as I’m concerned, it gives me more time to look at her cute rear end!
Thursday, Aug 2—WBS Day 4 
On Thursday we installed cheek plates on the underside of the deck, prepped the hatch parts, glued and taped the deck to the hull—very exciting, it looked like a kayak—and taped (fiberglass/epoxy) the hull/seam joint. Cheek plates go on either side of the kayaker as he sits in the cockpit, and they are very helpful when underway. The hips are very important when kayaking, and cheek plates keep your hips in contact with the boat. Also, rolling a kayak is done mostly with a hip snap, so the cheek plates are necessary there too. Getting the 3” wide fiberglass tape on the deck-hull seam is one of the most difficult jobs in building a kayak. You cut the tape a little over half the length of the boat, so each side will have
two pieces that overlap behind the cheek plate. Then you saturate the glass with epoxy, roll it loosely, and use a long stick to poke the tape all the way into the end of the boat with your head and shoulders inside the cockpit. Bear in mind Drew’s kayak is 5.5 meters long! You use a flashlight to see as well as you can, and you either wear an respirator or just endure the smell for a while. It’s a rough job, but it adds a lot to the strength of a kayak, and it’s how they are all done, even composite boats. We didn’t get done on Thursday until after 6, which is why I didn’t blog that day. I couldn’t see sitting outside of the store for another hour when we were ready to head home and see our people. This was our busiest day of the week, and it went well. Drew has worked hard almost all the time. I took to calling him Dandelion Boy on occasion today because he sometimes has trouble keeping his mind on the task at hand. It reminds me of the kid in the outfield during a baseball game. Since there’s not always a lot of action in the outfield, you usually see them playing with dandelions eventually. But most of the time he has done a great job, and I’ve had Drew do a lot of the work on this boat.
Friday, Aug 3—WBS Day 5
On Friday we installed the cockpit coaming (riser and lip both), glassed those parts, installed the hatch parts, and glassed the deck. Valerie and 2, 3, and 4 came up around 5:30, and we finished up shortly thereafter because Friday night at the WoodenBoat School is lobster cookout night. The whole crew went down to the waterfront and enjoyed steamed lobsters, corn on the cob, and salad. There are five or six classes going on right now, and many students brought guests, so there were well over 100 people in total. The Eggemoggin Reach Regetta made it to Brooklin today, so we had the distinct pleasure of seeing well over 100 wooden boats in the school harbor today. There was everything from 10’ or 12’ dingies to 60’ yachts. Beautiful sight.
This has been a great week, and as it was the crux of our journey to the northeast, I can say that it was absolutely worth all the planning, driving, and being away from home and family. I’m not at all ready to go home yet. I love to travel, I have had a wonderful time on this trip, it has been great being around my wife and four kids all the time, and we can make our way home with a great looking kayak strapped to the roof of Blue Van now. Drew will paddle it proudly.
Thanks for following our journey!
Hustle, make the play, be the hero.
WoodenBoat School were kind of a pain. At the risk of becoming redundant, the cottage does not have internet access. There are a few hotspots here in Stonington, but nowhere that is interesting enough for the whole clan to engage in stimulating activity while I do my thing. And so, I’m trying something different this time. I’m typing this at the cottage as a Word document, then I’m going to try to sit outside of a hotspot in the car and just cut and paste it! If it doesn’t work, it will likely be yet another day without a post.Monday, July 30—WBS Day 1
As I type this on Friday evening the kayak is almost done. It was a kit, with all the parts cut out already. On Monday we got all the parts figured out, stained a few pieces as Drew’s design
required, glued up the hull pieces, and put epoxy on the outside of all parts. We got our work done around 2:00. Drew and I were the first group done, which has been the case most of the time. The experience I have through building my kayak has been helpful. There are seven kayaks being built in our class, and only three of them are being built by one person.Tuesday, July 31—WBS Day 2
On Tuesday we stitched the hull parts together, wired them into the forms, and glassed the inside of the hull. Nick Schade is the designer of the kayak, and he is also our course instructor, which is convenient. The hull is made up of about 9 pieces, and rather than make the joints plain or have us scarf them, he designed them with puzzle joints. The type of construction we are using is called stitch and glue. The puzzle pieces have matching holes, which we tie together with copper glue—stitching. We then complete the assembly
of each joint by putting a spot of CA glue every ½” or so, spraying on accelerant which cures the glue almost instantly, removing the stitching, and putting a dookie schmutz fillet where two angled pieces come together—glue. Dookie schmutz is a commonly use
d term among boatbuilders. It’s mixed epoxy with enough wood flour to give it the appearance and consistency of creamy peanut butter. When placed along to surfaces that meet at an angle, it serves two purposes: first, it glues the joint together, and second, the fillet shape of the dookie schmutz makes the joint very strong. For example, on my kayak, the coaming riser is ¼” wide, and the coaming lip is also ¼”. Just applying glue or even fiberglass and epoxy does not p
rovide enough strength because the coaming gets a tremendous amount of abuse. The dookie schmutz fillet makes the joint much stronger. Glassing means we lay in a 4 oz. layer of fiberglass and paint on a thick coat of epoxy, which soaks completely into the fiberglass. A layer of two of fiberglass with cured epoxy is incredibly strong. The wood in a wooden kayak only provides the shape and the appearance for the boat. All of the strength and rigidity comes from the fiberglass/epoxy sandwich on the inside and outside of the boat.Wednesday, Aug 1—WBS Day 3 & our 15th wedding anniversary!
On Wednesday we glassed the outside of the hull, assembled the deck pieces, wired them into the forms, put dookie schmutz fillets on the inside of the deck, and glassed the inside of the deck. That all sounds like a lot of work, but with some experience under our belt we finished up work around 4:30 or so. That night the fam ate supper at a restaurant in Stonington called Fisherman’s Friend. It was advertised as family friendly, but I don’t know what that means. There wasn’t anything special like clowns or anything. I had a lobster for the first time, and I would summarize the experience in this manner: first, it is a good thing to have because it supports the lobstermen in places like Stonington, and second, it usually runs around $25 for 6-8 oz. of meat that tastes so-so and is a lot of work to get to. Plus, it’s a giant mess. It is a good time crushing the claws, ripping the tail off, and so forth. Valerie and I enjoyed some champagne before retiring for the evening as a little celebration of our wedding anniversary. Valerie is a wonderful wife, and I am so blessed to have her by my side. I think often of the part in the movie Jerry Maguire where Jerry’s secretary/soon to become wife observes a deaf couple as the man signs to his lady. Jerry asks what he said and is told, “You complete me.” That’s how it is with my beautiful wife. I wish I could say that we get along perfectly and like each other all the time. Unfortunately, that’s not the case as we are both human beings and we live in a fallen world. What is true is this—she is wonderful at lots of things that I do horribly, and the opposite is also true. The fact of the matter is this—Valerie completes me. While we don’t always like each other, we love each other very much and we are both completely committed to our marriage. Too many couples give up on their marriage because they fall out of like and there is no commitment. Praise God our marriage is based on more than sex and like! One of the reasons I am looking forward to working at Timm Services on a full time basis is that we will be together most of the time. For some couples that would be a problem. As far as I’m concerned, it gives me more time to look at her cute rear end!
Thursday, Aug 2—WBS Day 4 
On Thursday we installed cheek plates on the underside of the deck, prepped the hatch parts, glued and taped the deck to the hull—very exciting, it looked like a kayak—and taped (fiberglass/epoxy) the hull/seam joint. Cheek plates go on either side of the kayaker as he sits in the cockpit, and they are very helpful when underway. The hips are very important when kayaking, and cheek plates keep your hips in contact with the boat. Also, rolling a kayak is done mostly with a hip snap, so the cheek plates are necessary there too. Getting the 3” wide fiberglass tape on the deck-hull seam is one of the most difficult jobs in building a kayak. You cut the tape a little over half the length of the boat, so each side will have
two pieces that overlap behind the cheek plate. Then you saturate the glass with epoxy, roll it loosely, and use a long stick to poke the tape all the way into the end of the boat with your head and shoulders inside the cockpit. Bear in mind Drew’s kayak is 5.5 meters long! You use a flashlight to see as well as you can, and you either wear an respirator or just endure the smell for a while. It’s a rough job, but it adds a lot to the strength of a kayak, and it’s how they are all done, even composite boats. We didn’t get done on Thursday until after 6, which is why I didn’t blog that day. I couldn’t see sitting outside of the store for another hour when we were ready to head home and see our people. This was our busiest day of the week, and it went well. Drew has worked hard almost all the time. I took to calling him Dandelion Boy on occasion today because he sometimes has trouble keeping his mind on the task at hand. It reminds me of the kid in the outfield during a baseball game. Since there’s not always a lot of action in the outfield, you usually see them playing with dandelions eventually. But most of the time he has done a great job, and I’ve had Drew do a lot of the work on this boat.Friday, Aug 3—WBS Day 5
On Friday we installed the cockpit coaming (riser and lip both), glassed those parts, installed the hatch parts, and glassed the deck. Valerie and 2, 3, and 4 came up around 5:30, and we finished up shortly thereafter because Friday night at the WoodenBoat School is lobster cookout night. The whole crew went down to the waterfront and enjoyed steamed lobsters, corn on the cob, and salad. There are five or six classes going on right now, and many students brought guests, so there were well over 100 people in total. The Eggemoggin Reach Regetta made it to Brooklin today, so we had the distinct pleasure of seeing well over 100 wooden boats in the school harbor today. There was everything from 10’ or 12’ dingies to 60’ yachts. Beautiful sight.This has been a great week, and as it was the crux of our journey to the northeast, I can say that it was absolutely worth all the planning, driving, and being away from home and family. I’m not at all ready to go home yet. I love to travel, I have had a wonderful time on this trip, it has been great being around my wife and four kids all the time, and we can make our way home with a great looking kayak strapped to the roof of Blue Van now. Drew will paddle it proudly.
Thanks for following our journey!
Hustle, make the play, be the hero.
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