The photos are of the cradle boat I made for the grandson a couple of years ago. I mentioned it in one of my earliest posts but I didn't have any pictures at the time. I've been storing this thing for a while and when we were loading it up to move it the other day, it seemed like a good time to get a couple of pictures of it. The ropes weren't rigged properly but when you build yours you can do a nice photo shoot. The plans were obtained from Jordan Wooden Boats. It's the Baby Tender II. The plans are relatively easy to follow with full size patterns for most of the parts.
One of the hardest things about the job was finding decent lumber for the side planking. I hit a couple of the local lumber yards for some clear pine but couldn't come up with any. They carry some type of crap that's from Africa as I recall but it's not pine. When I ran it through the planer it actually pulled apart. The sides are only about 5/32" thick and bent, so you need something straight grained and workable. I ended up with cotton wood from a local guy with his own sawmill. I asked for pine, he said no problem. I went to pick it up and it was cotton wood. After my initial disappointment, both at the material I received and the price, I found it worked quite nicely and looked pretty good in the bargain. Besides, babies don't wait. When it's time, it's time. The baby came a little early but the boat was done in time for the shower, so everybody was happy.
One of these days soon, I'm going to tackle the full size boat. It will be the same type of construction with lapped side planks riveted together with copper rivets. The bottom will probably be plywood instead of individual planks but basically the same thing. I've got some big pine boards from the barn demolition that I think I might be able to use for the planking. I think it would be pretty cool to be able to recycle the old barn into a boat.
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