A light dinghy for sailing and rowing
With long voyages and life on board, comes the need for confidence in the dinghy. So Matt decided to build it himself. And since his Duracell 60 must combine comfort and pleasure under sail, he decided to equip himself with a dinghy that is as efficient under sail as it is under oar, the Scout 14, designed locally and sold in kit form in Port Townsend. Equipped with built-in buoyancy, it remains a safe dinghy, while allowing 2 crew members to have fun sailing and carrying onboard equipment.
Training in sewn-and-glued construction
Matt doesn't build his dinghy alone as he leads the Duracell refit, but joins a group course at the Northwest Maritime Center, a Port Townsend-based facility specializing in wooden boats. The trainees and instructor build 6 boats in the space of 2 weeks, and learn the technique of glued-stitched plywood boat building.
In this first episode, Matt and his mates start by gluing the kit planks together, before laminating them with glass cloth for protection. The planking and structure are then assembled using plastic clamps, quickly giving the boat its shape. The team took less than an hour to build this 14-foot sailboat at cruising speed.
