We know you are counting down the days until Lou and the next great boat building project and video series get underway. We are too, and to prime you for the occasion, we give you this little overview from Lou of dory designs. As he pours over many popular dory designs already penned, he considers … Read More
With the joinery mostly done and installed, Vela is ready for multiple coats of varnish on her beautiful brightwork, and lots of paint. Using Envy 2-Part varnish, Brendan and the team are able to apply 8 coats of varnish over just 2 days which gets Vela back to the paint booth at Itchiban Yacht Painters … Read More
No one likes cutting holes in boats, but when you’re opening up a new deck to install a hatch, it’s the right thing to do and it’s imperative that you get it right! Brendan takes his time making sure the new foredeck hatch is level and tight. Meanwhile the main hatch to the cabin is … Read More
The Vela restoration team is in full swing fitting small details pieces like the cockpit coamings, the bow stem fitting and the vital carbon fiber main beam. The bulkheads are reinforced and new chainplates are installed. These are important jobs that not only tighten up the aesthetics, but are vital to the engineering of a reconfigured … Read More
Lou is back to work in his Open Door Boatshop and gearing up for another season of Tips from a Shipwright. We will be building and filming our next series, the design and construction of the TotalBoat Sport Dory. The first of 36 weekly episodes will debut this August. In the meantime, enjoy this introduction … Read More
With Vela’s decks and cabin house on and fiberglassed, it’s time to apply primer and get a look at the new surfaces to gauge how much filling and fairing needs to be done. TotalProtect Barrier Coat is used on a number of Vela’s surfaces both above and below the waterline and the team makes quick work … Read More
Happy Friday! We thought we would take a break from the Vela video series to remind you of all of the video work we do to offer you great boating tips and techniques with our weekly video offerings. Whether it’s the Tips From A shipwright Series with Louis Sauzedde, the Vela Restoration series going on … Read More
With Vela’s deck attached and the beautiful cabin house sides created, it’s all about finishing the house roof and fiberglassing the decks. Using Thixo Flex, Dan and his team bond the house sides to the new house top, leaving plenty of corners that need fitting and finishing. Dan draws on the expertise of the composite … Read More
In episode 5, the deck is on with double layers of marine plywood so it’s on to cutting windows in the house sides, a “happy accident” for to the project that was instantly gratifying for the build team. Designer Ezra Smith weighs in on the windows and the cockpit which were built out with an extension to add … Read More
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. Especially to those of you who love boating and who love boat building. And as a special treat we are happy to announce the next series we will be sponsoring with Louis Sauzedde and the Tips from a Shipwright crew. If you missed the TotalBoat … Read More
Progress aboard Vela, the Graves Constellation undergoing a full restoration in our TotalBoat Workshop, is moving along nicely. The deck beams and carlins from episode 3 have been attached and glued in and this week we see the aft bulkhead shaped to prepare the boat for new decks. Once again, boatbuilder Dan Shea uses cedar … Read More
With Vela’s cabin house and deck fully removed, leaving only the deck flange and cockpit, Dan Shea is ready to construct, fit and glue in the deck beams that will support the new deck and house. Carlins, the longitudinal structural beams, are also fitted to bulkheads and to the side deck beams and Dan gives us … Read More
With Vela’s deck and cabin house removed, the 1965 Graves Constellation is ready to take some steps forward towards reconstruction. Boatbuilder Dan Shea’s first order of business is to cut strips of Douglas Fir to laminate into new deck beams. Then comes the careful job of measuring and fitting the beams to precisely fit the hull and … Read More
When Mike Zani’s 1965 classic sailboat, the Graves Constellation, “Vela,” rolled into the TotalBoat Workshop we knew we had a great video series about to unfold right before our eyes. Welcome to video 1 in the series on restoring this beautiful keelboat. It’s a project that was too big for experienced yachtsman, Zani, who had previously … Read More
Around here we love testing products. We have the TotalBoat Workshop setup for testing all sorts of products to increase our understanding of how they work, how they work best, and how to help you use them with the best possible outcome. We test bottom paint in a scientific study with Marine Bio students from … Read More