I started working on my Penobscot 14 in the early fall of 2007.  After a careful study of the building guide book, plans and video I was ready to start. First things first, and that meant building the jig or platform that I would frame and plank the hull on. You see, the boat is initially built in an upside down position and this required a large rectangular structure made from inexpensive pine. On top of this I placed the molds and the fore and aft bulkheads. Each of these was placed at a particular station, the stations being certain exact distances from one another. Once these were in place I installed the stem,  which forms the very front edge of the boat, the transom frame at the back station , the keel which extended from the bottom of the stem to the transom and the sheer clamps which ultimately become part of the upper rails of the boat's sides. Before I go on, a word about the lumber one needs for the boat itself. As mentioned, I was able to use cheap pine to construct the building platform. This was easy to get at Home Depot. However, the actual lumber that goes into the boat itself has to be better than pine, clear(free of knots), and carefully milled. This type of stuff was simply not available at Home Depot or any chain type hardware store. I was able to find what I needed at Siewer's, a specialty lumber company here in the Richmond area, and they were able to provide me with the necessary(and expensive!) wood that I needed. the list included 16 fir stringers(each 3/4"x3/4"x16ft), one 4"x3/4"x16ft fir boards for the keel, four 2"x3/4"x16ft fir boards for the sheer clamps, a 7"x1"x10ft fir board for the deadwood(keel under the boat). This gave me what I needed to start  framing the boat. Later I would need to order 6 sheets of marine grade okoume mahogany 1/4' thick plywood(Arch has a supplier for this that I used, as this was not available locally and had to be shipped to me). I also needed stainless steel screws of various sizes that I obtained by ordering online from West Marine. You cannot use just any type of
wood screw...they must be stainless or copper and, hence, rustproof..and these too, were pricey. Finally, a kit containing marine grade epoxy glue, clearcoat,  and special fillers from a company caled System Three. While these supplies cost me some money, I knew that if I was successful with this venture that my investment would pay off, as a new Penobscot 14 built by someone else, or  a similar wooden lapstrake boat would cost about $10,000! And newly built classic wooden boats are hard to come by in Virginia...just see if you can find one at your typical boat vendor.

         While I had fairly easily succeeded in building the building jig and installing and linking together the backbone of the boat(stem, false keel, and transom frame) I now faced the daunting task of installing my first stringers, the long 3/4' x 3/4" strips of fir that would become the frames of the boat, and the platforms for the planks. No matter how many times I read the book, watched the video, studied the plans, I could not get comfortable with the idea of installing the first set of stringers because it required so much precision and lots of bending and twisting of the wood and I feared failure in such a tricky process. In imagining how it would go I kept arriving at these images of the expensive wood stringers snapping into pieces or not adhering to the bulkheads and stem and that,  if I failed at this next step then the building a boat venture would be over all too soon. I felt like I had to jump into a pool of ice cold water and kept postponing, postponing.
             And then one day, feeling confident I went for it and, with much effort installed the first set of stringers, the hardest part of which was screwing and gluing the stringers to the stem, where the twist and forces of bending were tremendous. But I did it! And 2 days later I took off the clamps and found that the screws and marine epoxy were working and that the stringers were firmly in place and solidly adhering to the stem. And so, for the next several months I installed the remaining sets of stringers, 6 total, the last few sets being easier as there was much less twist towards the top of the boat.