Steve and some helpful friends with sailing experience are in the Acorn to Arabella boathouse this week to help determine the best placement for some important parts of Arabella. With the sealed and varnished deck beams in place, they can layout a few options for placement of the house top, the mizzenmast, and for the … Read More
If you’ve been a YouTube fan or TotalBoat customer for longer than a bit, then you’re likely a fan of our old friend, Lou Sauzedde. We were lucky to collaborate on the video and boatbuilding series, the TotalBoat Skiff and the TotalBoat Dory with Lou in past years, and we are beyond excited to announce … Read More
Andy Miller is beginning to work on a fiberglass sailboat in need of many different repairs, from filling pinholes to repairing crazing and actual holes in the boat. The most important step is to determine your end finish. Finishing with gelcoat will have a process that is different to that of using paint for your … Read More
Finally, it’s time to begin preparing wood for the installation of Arabella’s knees and the clamp. Steve reached out to inquire about the best finish for the interior wood down below on Arabella, and we know satin finishes are pretty standard for use below decks. We also heard that Steve could use some varnish … Read More
Best Boat Build – Rob Funk – Wood Strip kayak Best Furniture/ Woodworking Build – Tim Gallagher – Adirondack Chairs Best Restoration – Mark Baragar – “LaFenice” 1964 56′ Chris Craft Roamer Congratulations to the winners of our JD Summer 2020 Photo Contest! We love picking a few winners when we have so many awesome entries for our … Read More
TotalBoat Ambassador, Richard Honan, has been sending us updates of his most recent boat building project, a 13′ Peapod. Richard is a talented (and award-winning) artist, woodworker, and retired signmaker who has invited his young neighbor and his 2 granddaughters into his basement woodshop to assist with the build of this most recent boat. His … Read More
It was a tense, but exciting moment for backyard boatbuilder, Steve Denette and his crew. In today’s episode, they get to the long-anticipated step of removing the molds from Arabella. This step was celebratory when the hull stood taught without her molds installed. Now the team can install knees and finish planking with a clear … Read More
After building the TotalBoat Sport Dory, Lou took some time off to find a new shop and reinvigorate the Tips from a Shipwright video plan. The YouTube channel, with over 140,000 subscribers, has obviously hit home with many of you. And like you, we were excited to see that Lou is back at it making … Read More
Today we find Steve and a collection of skilled friends working on planking and preparing for the sawmill’s arrival. The crew of Acorn to Arabella have been able to motor along with the oak planking, even with Alex away. With three people in the shop, two could work on Arabella while the third picked timber and made … Read More
Leo Sampson and his crew of merry boatbuilders are making great progress on the restoration of his 1909 sailing yacht, Tally Ho. In episode 73 Tally Ho has started to resemble the curvy, gorgeous yacht that she is quickly becoming. With her deck beams ready for installation, the team is taking the time to seal … Read More
Using scraps from her first foray into wooden canoe building, TotalBoat Ambassador, Xyla Foxlin, decided to attempt next level steam bending and made herself a wooden corset. You could argue everyone needs a fiberglassed, steam-bent, wooden strip corset – but maybe if this is on your project list you’ll reconsider after seeing how much work … Read More
Jose Nieto knows a thing or two about fixing up boats. He’s on episode 10 of his Boston Whaler 13 restoration and in this episode, we loved his rolling and tipping demonstration using our varnishes. He started by sealing the wood with a few thinned coat of our Wood Sealer* and then topped that using … Read More
In today’s *riveting* video from the Acorn to Arabella crew, we get a boatload of love from our friends who are working feverishly to keep pace on their 2-10 year boat building project, their Atkins Ketch, Arabella. They aren’t letting a little quarantine slow them down, and we were certain to make sure they had … Read More
The TotalBoat team met boatbuilder, Bob Emser, last year at the Wooden Boat Show and was enamored with his gentle, artistic style of boat building and of video creation, too. It was a pleasure to meet and talk to Emser whose calm, educational videos talk through his build of a Joel White designed Haven 12 … Read More