DESIGN CHALLENGE

Professional BoatBuilder and Wooden Boat magazines are offering a design challenge for new, creatively designed powerboats in any material that are efficient, fun, and could possibly be the only vessel a boating family of modest means might actually afford.

NORTH CAROLINA'S WORKING WATERCRAFT

The current exhibit at the North Carolina Maritime Museum is an excellent history of North Carolina Boatbuilding.


The first of North Carolina's historic watercraft were dugout canoes built by the Indians. Settlers made dugouts but used boatbuilding tools. Woods used for boat building included cypress, white cedar, white oak, and heart pine. Examples are shown here and can be touched.

Dugout canoe: This canoe is a replica of a canoe made from a cypress log on Crusoe Island near Lake Waccamaw, NC.

From sloops to steamships to sharpies: The models represent the sloops of the 1700s, steamships of the mid-1800s, and the sharpies of the late 1800s and early 1900s used in North Carolina's rivers, sounds, and coastal waters for trade and transportation.

Flat-bottom skiff: This boat was rowed or poled in the shallow rivers and sounds of coastal North Carolina in the late 1800s and early 1900s. A skiff is still a popular means of transportation for fishing or short distance travel in the creeks and estuaries. You may touch this full-sized boat.

Spritsail skiff: This full-sized sailing skiff, built in 1910, was restored by the museum in the 1970s. Without paint, it is easier to see the traditional juniper (Atlantic white cedar) planking, oak frames, and other construction details. This boat type is pictured in the museum logo. You can feel the old wood gunwales, stern, and rudder.

Three basic types of North Carolina traditional small boats are flat-bottom, V-bottom, and round-bottom. Models of these hull shapes are mounted here where you can feel the differences.

• The flat bottom is more useful in the shallowest waters.

• The V-bottom or "deadrise" is better than the flat bottom in deeper water where there is more exposure to heavy weather and seas.

• Round bottom hulls are the ultimate in seaworthiness and comfort, but become very expensive to build because they require more time, skill, and specialized materials than the other types.

The spritsail rig for sailing is typical for all three types. The basic rig consists of a mainsail, which is supported by the sprit (pronounced "spreet"), and a foresail or jib. There is no boom to get in the way of a working fisherman and the whole sailing rig stores easily against the mast. A unique feature of the sprit rig in North Carolina is its ability to carry a topsail, independent of the main rig, which can be used when working in light winds, near a tree-lined shore, or while racing.

The shad boat model represents North Carolina's State Boat. Developed in North Carolina, the boat was a sturdy craft designed for practicality and dependability in the state's northern sounds

Rake of the Eye meets Technology

When classes started Monday August 24, 2009 at NC Martec/ Carteret Community College's Boat Manufacturing Program, the Hull and Deck construction class was introduced to "Marissa" a state of the art 18 foot boat designed by B&B Yacht Designs of Vandemere, N.C. Under the direction of Joe Clay, a seasoned and experienced shipwright and boat building, students will be using state of the art equipment and technology to prepare them to meet the future demands of the boat building industry throughout North Carolina.
At the same time The Charlotte Observer columnist Jack Betts was preparing an article entitled "Sound boats" which appeared in the News and Observer on Tuesday August 25 2009. He wrote about North Carolina Downeast, which is part of Carteret County. As Jack Beets writes,” They built them then the way a few still do: without plans, using a few tools and native woods such as juniper and cedar. They built them according to their needs, proceeding from plank to plank with the help of a virtual blueprint in their brains. Local craftsmen had an expression for it: "rack of the eye." We are fortunate to have Early's photographic record of these works of art.

In that class early Monday, there was a young man who recounted how he had worked with his grandfather and father repairing and constructing those boats. He has the opportunity to continue that tradition in a new way, with the current advances in boat design and construction, because of  his willingness to learn and the support of the people of North Carolina through Carteret Community College.