We’ve enjoyed discovering lots of new talents who are using and loving TotalBoat and sharing their experiences with their followers. YouTube, specifically, has become a playground for makers and builders, dreamers and doers. Our TotalBoat Ambassadors are there creating videos of their boats and boards or are busy dreaming up the next big thing. There … Read More
An old friend of the Maker Godfather, Jimmy Diresta, once said “There’s more than one way to build a boat,” and so he used plastic for a wooden boat’s frames and made makeshift steaming bags so that his wood could be bent in place. Convention has no place in the workshops of Louis Sauzedde and … Read More
We have finally reached the episode you’ve all been waiting for! It’s time to launch the TotalBoat Sport Dory and take her for a row. Lou is excited to finally sit in the boat, pull on the oars, and feel the dory sliding easily over the water. Catch the final episode in our series … Read More
Today we find Lou in his Open Door Boat Shop, shaping a piece of quarter sawn white oak into the skeg for the TotalBoat Sport Dory. Using a table saw, a router, a hand plane, and some sandpaper, Lou – as you would expect him to – expertly fits and shapes the oak and then … Read More
Lou is getting pretty close to finishing up and launching his TotalBoat Sport Dory!!! In this week’s Episode, Lou answers some great questions from the audience as well as taking a close look at how he installs the guards and inwales.
Welcome back to the Open Door Boatshop, where Louis Sauzedde is busy making progress on the TotalBoat Sport Dory. In this episode, Lou determines the height and location of the seat risers and seats for the dory. The positioning of the seats is very important for stability and for efficiency when rowing. Getting this placement … Read More
Louis is back for Episode 28 in his series on Building the TotalBoat Sport Dory. With a fresh coat of Penetrating Epoxy applied to protect the wood, Lou gets to work making the bow stem. By laminating the wooden pieces for the stem using our TotalBoat High Performance 2:1 Epoxy, Lou shapes the glued pieces … Read More
Part 2 of Louis Sauzedde’s walk around the WoodenBoat Show brings you along for a row on the Mystic River. It’s Lou’s first time being on the waters off of Mystic Seaport, and his first row in years. Again, Lou finds inspiration in the many great hulls and DIY builds at the boat show as … Read More
The Wooden Boat Show brought together Tips from a Shipwright star, Louis Sauzedde with many of his fans. The TotalBoat Sport Dory greeted people at the door and attracted new followers who admired her beautiful lines and marveled at her plastic frames. In Episode 26, come and follow Lou around the grounds of the Wooden Boat … Read More
The TotalBoat Sport Dory is looking pretty sporty with her second binder strake attached. In today’s video, Lou shows us a revolutionary solution to a problem he was having clamping the pattern and the planking onto the boat. Using an aluminum bracket that he is attaching to the sides of the molds, Lou has created a … Read More
We’re back with another episode of the TotalBoat Sport Dory build. Our master shipwright, Louis Sauzedde, is working to shape and fasten the binder strake on the Dory. Using his block plane and everyone’s favorite, the electric planer, Lou expertly matches the bevel of this new plank and slides it into place so that he … Read More
Episode 22 finds Louis Sauzedde back in the Open Door Boatshop where he is fitting a binder strake to the TotalBoat Sport Dory. With some hollowing, planing, and adjusting, Lou adds this latest plank to the dory with some extra tricks for getting a super tight fit to the bow stem and to the existing plank. … Read More
If you can’t make it next Saturday the 14th to our Annual Tent Sale to meet Louis Sauzedde and see the Dory in progress, then we really hope you’ll tune in to watch Lou apply a special kevlar/carbon combo weave onto the bottom of the TotalBoat Sport Dory. Again, reaching for the TotalBoat 2:1 epoxy … Read More
It’s Q&A time! Tune in to Episode 19 to get answers to many of the pressing questions being asked of Louis Sauzedde and his unconventional dory build. Some unusual boat building is leaving many of you wondering how he plans to bring it all together, and if some of Lou’s unique methods will work out … Read More
It’s time to put the bottom of TotalBoat Sport Dory together, but before Lou can do that, he has to get everything set up properly. The idea is that he’s going to layup everything at once, the two layers of bottom with the carbon fiber in between. You’ll remember Lou had glued the second … Read More