TotalBoat Sport Dory Episode 25: Flipping Off The Mold

This is it! It’s finally time for Lou to remove the TotalBoat Sport Dory from the jig and flip it over! We have put all the planks on it the boat now, the final two had to go on in two pieces with a scarf in the middle because they had such a radical twist. The next thing for us to do is now pry it off the jig. And we’re pretty certain you’re all ready for this next phase of the build.

Lou is going to rivet the seams in between each frame but in order to do that, he needs access to both the inside and the outside of the boat. That’s why he screw fastened to the frames because it would have been too much trouble to crawl under the boat each time he needed to fasten a rivet.
The mold will have to come apart in several pieces but as you might’ve guessed, Lou is not too worried about that. He could always re-create it and we would probably put more stations in it if we were going to build another one so we could have more area to attach to when planking.
With the boat flipped over and the mold off, you can finally see the very cool interior of our Sport Dory. The frames run directly into the bottom where Louis routed a slot for them. They keep the bottom free of any obstructions for your feet and makes it much easier to bail. Another clever tip from Lou!
There are still some things to do, like attach rails, seat risers, oar locks and a few other things, but the Dory is getting very close. Lou is pretty excited to take it out for a row in some heavy seas! Let’s hope there is a video for that week!
Also, don’t forget to come to visit Louis Sauzedde, filmmaker Halsey Fulton and the TotalBoat Sport Dory at the WoodenBoat Show this weekend in Mystic Seaport. See you all there!

Leave a comment