Building a 14′ Outboard Amesbury Skiff

This is a six-day course.

Following WWI, Amesbury skiffs were redesigned to accept ever more popular and available internal combustion engines.  The transom was widened to make the boat more capacious.  Later, the boat was redesigned slightly to accept an outboard engine.

Founded in 1793 in Amesbury, Massachusetts, Lowell’s Boat Shop is the birthplace of the American fishing dory. Thousands of dories and skiffs were manufactured at Lowell’s throughout the last two centuries. We invite you to join professional boatbuilder Graham McKay in constructing a traditional 14’ Amesbury Outboard skiff. As lead boatbuilder at Lowell’s, Graham has extensive experience and insight into traditional dory and skiff construction methods.

Graham will use John Gardner’s The Dory Book as a construction guide through the course. The skiff will be built from traditional methods with the bottom and topsides planked in northern white pine and the frames, stem, and other parts made of white oak. Laps will be secured with copper rivets, and the frames will be joined at the chines with riveted stainless-steel clips.

Using traditional Lowell’s building methods, lofting will be minimal, using patterns lofted from plans and planking by eye. The skiff will be built upright so that plank lines can be sighted and the rivets easily reached. By week’s end, the hull should be completely planked and the inwales bent into place and fastened.

Graham will cover building from plans, copper-riveting, caulking, spiling, beveling and lap fitting, steam-bending, and other traditional skills. This will be a fast-moving, exciting class where everyone will be actively involved. And if you’re lucky in the class lottery on Saturday, you could be the winner of a beautiful, new skiff. Previous boatbuilding/woodworking experience will be beneficial in this course.