How to learn wooden boatbuilding if you don't have a workshop

“I want to learn boatbuilding, but …”

I’ve been in touch with a lot of people who want to learn wooden boatbuilding but are held back by obstacles that feel difficult to overcome.

What I hear the most is:

1. I want to learn boatbuilding, but I don’t have access to a suitable workshop.
2. I want to learn boatbuilding, but I don’t have the time
3. I want to learn boatbuilding, but I can’t afford it.
4. I want to learn boatbuilding, but I’m afraid I’ll fail.

These are all real and relevant concerns. But in most cases, I believe they can be overcome.

In this blog post series, I’ll address each of these four issues, one by one.

Obstacle 1: I want to learn boatbuilding, but I don’t have access to a suitable workshop

When you build a boat, you'll of course need a place to build it.

The workshop space should be at least as big as the boat, and ideally a bit bigger. It should be under a roof. Good lighting, electricity, a workbench and some tools are necessary, too.

Not everyone has access to these sorts of facilities. Especially if you live in the city, a suitable workshop space can be very difficult to find.

The great news is that you can easily get started learning boatbuilding without a full-sized workshop. The key is to start out by building a scale model boat.

Scale model boatbuilding is a great learning platform

Building a boat at, say, quarter scale, will teach you almost all the skills you’ll need to build a full-sized boat:

• Reading and understanding the plans
• Lofting (drawing the various parts of the boat at full size)
• Accurate setup of molds, stem(s), keel, transom(s)
• Spiling (creating plank patterns)
• Fairing, cutting and fitting planks
• Cutting and fitting knees, frames and other parts with complex shapes and bevels.

I would argue that you can learn 80% of the techniques you’ll need to build a full-size boat when you build a scale model.

Scale model boatbuilding is much more accessible

At quarter scale, a 12-foot (3,6m) boat is all of a sudden just 3 feet (90cm) long. This means that it easily fits on a table in your kitchen, basement or garage. It’s not heavy and can easily be put aside when you’re not working on it.

It can be built of readily available material such as doorskin plywood or 1/8” (3mm) veneer. All cuts can easily be done with inexpensive hand saws instead of stationary power saws.

So building at scale is much more accessible than building full size.

But that’s not the only reason you’d want to consider it. Working at a smaller scale puts you in a much more forgiving, playful setting, because the stakes are much lower: Materials are much less expensive. You don’t need a big workshop. Getting building materials is much easier. You can get by with very few, inexpensive tools. You’ll spend less time completing the project. And, not least: Because you won’t go on the water in your scale boat, the integrity of the boat (or lack thereof) won’t put the personal safety of you or any passengers at stake.

These factors all make the learning process much less stressful - and possibly a lot more fun. You’ll get to the point where you learn core boatbuilding skills a lot faster than if you have to set up a full workshop and source full-sized lumber first.

What you don't get when you build a scale model

The downside to building a scale model is - of course - that the project won’t get you a boat that you can go on the water in. You’ll “only” get a model.

And, although the process is very similar to building a full-size boat, there are of course some things that are different: You won’t need to go to the sawmill or lumberyard to select and purchase big lumber. You won’t learn to use stationary machinery such as bandsaws and jointers/thickness planers that are used to mill large sized lumber. Model boats are usually assembled using glue instead of mechanical fasteners such as rivets, screws and nails. And the haptics of working with full scale lumber is different from working with fraction scale wood.

But that said, most of the general skills are exactly the same regardless if you build a scale model or a full-size boat.

Scale models: A good way to start learning wooden boatbuilding

So if you’re just getting in to boatbuilding, and especially if you don’t have a workshop yet, I would argue that a scale boat would be a good way to get started: You’ll learn the basic techniques, and you’ll make all your beginner’s mistakes in a playful setting where the stakes are not too high.

And the scale boat will be a great practice run in case you decide to build the full-size boat at a later stage: You’ll have a very good feel for the entire process, which will help you steer clear of mistakes. Your model boat will be a great reference for checking construction details.

The total time you’ll spend building a scale model and a full-size boat might actually be more or less the same as just building a full-sized boat, because you’ll work more freely and because the model build will have given you experience which will keep you from making time-consuming mistakes.

If you're interested in learning wooden boatbuilding (full-size or fraction scale) I teach an online-based boatbuilding apprenticeship program that might be just the ticket for you. Or: you can start out by signing up to my free mini course. Both focus on full-size boatbuilding, but - as mentioned above - the building techniques are mostly the same.

- Mikkel Pagh

My friend Mark Reuten at Nomad Boatbuilding has over a quarter century of experience in wooden boatbuilding, but he still builds lots of models. Here’s a model of the Fiddlehead Canoe that he built while he surveyed the early development of a Small Boat School course on building this boat.

Here are a few process shots from Mark's Instagram account: 

If you want to dive deep into the mindset and work processes of a long-time pro boatbuilder, I highly recommend Mark's Nomad Boatbuilding YouTube Channel.