Saturday & Sunday 9am–4pm
March 12th & 13th | $275

2 Class Sessions

Registration Deadline: Friday, February 25th, 2022

Lofting is an essential first step in the boatbuilding process, and yet by nature, it is extremely difficult to learn in any other way than by doing it. Lofting involves drawing the lines of a boat full-size in order to check the dimensions for accuracy and to provide patterns for construction. In this workshop students will learn all the steps involved in lofting a 16-20 foot boat. Using a table of offsets, students will work on fairing the lines, expanding the transom, and lofting the stem rabbet. We will also discuss techniques for building moulds from the lofted cross-sections, cutting the stem rabbet based on the lofting, and half model-making. No prior experience is necessary.

This course is invaluable for amateur boatbuilders and will greatly expand the range of boats one could build. Rather than relying on kits with full-size patterns, it becomes possible to build thousands of traditional boat designs from books and museum collections. This same method is also useful for furniture makers, particularly those building pieces featuring curved elements.

This course will be taught by instructor Douglas Brooks. Douglas is a boatbuilder, writer and researcher. He specializes in the construction of traditional wooden boats for museums and private clients. Brooks has lectured, taught, and built traditional boats at museums and schools across the United States and Japan. He has published numerous articles on his research and is the author of five books on traditional Japanese boatbuilding. His work has been honored by the American Craft Council and the Japanese Ministry of Culture. He lives in Vergennes, Vermont and his work can be seen at www.douglasbrooksboatbuilding.com.

Photo Credit: Erin Tokarz