Video of Shortcut as found on YouTube

Now Let's Start using our Boats

We now have three boats, one for crabbing in the Chesapeake, one for fishing in the susquehanna / upper chesapeake and one for upriver toward the Dam.

Below are our three boats:

the "Parker"

the original "Shortcut"

our upriver "Susky"

The second build night for the 14ft brockaway skiff turned out to be a total success even though only David Hart and Tony Steelman could attend.  Tim Hart had a good excuse as he was away on business travel. Jim Orndorff on the other hand gets a demerit badge for working late on an initial RFP .


So the first task at hand is to build the stem post which will start the bow of the boat. After using a sample 4x4 and some adjustments to the table saw the angles were easily achieved.  Dave is admiring his handy work.





















I think Dave is still in disbelief we made such a fine cut.

We laid out the sides of the boat that were created last week . Now the side are fully cured as the glue has had a week to cure. 

Taking both David and I  we attached the sides to the stem. They were glued and attached with 3 inch galvanized nails.

This angle shot from the front of the bow is now giving the first impression that a boat is being formed. 

The next step moved us to the transome. though the pics are not here  Tony cut out  2 

22x48 inch 3/4 inch pieces of plywood to form the transom. The two pieces were temporarily attached and the proper side angles and bevelled edges were cut.

After making those cuts.... we separated the two pieces and prepared for permanent attachment.

David below is applying the construction adhesive liberally across a transom panel.

David does not want this thing to ever come apart so has decided to finish off the whole tube.

Now that the first piece of the transom is glued..... we apply the second piece and David is installing all the screws.  Inspired by his father Bob..... he asked me a non detail guy to draw lines on the transom so all his screws could line up straight and look nice.

I have to admit ..... it did look nice!







And lastly for the evening.... we placed a beveled angle on our 16ft chine boards that we will work with next week.

The Guild is Back - Our New Boat Build Has Started

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Day 1 - February 28th 2018

Tony is nailing 2 pieces together that will form one side of the boat.

Jim and David are building the Frame that will be used

 when bending the side pieces to form the new boat.

Our first voyage - Glen Cove Marina, North of Conowingo Dam

We've completed alot of the final work since our last posting to this blog. The engine is running, the trailer is finished with the proper supports and the console/electronics are hooked up. In July, we proved the seaworthiness of the boat and now it's time to load up and put it in the water for a real run.

Pulling out of the Tony's barn on our way to Glen Cove Marina

The boat ran well in the water. Everything was very dry on our way up the Susquehanna river. The engine was very strong and Dave was a master driving the boat. 

Dave at the helm of SHO SCIFF

Tim was Dave's first mate

We really stretched the 60 HP motor out and everything in the boat shook. The steering console looked like it was bouncing off the floor and the floor was bouncing hard. We idled back to about half speed and decided that's the right speed for the boat. Much more smooth ride and everything went well on our trip up to Broad Creek. We drove the boat all they way up the creek into really shallow water. The boat rides very high and did a good job in the shallows ...

... AND THEN THE ENGINE STARTED SMOKING. No big deal but it was a bit of a scare for about five minutes. Mostly because we couldn't get it started again. Captain Chesapeake was able to start the motor up and we decided that the motor needed a tuneup since it hadn't been running for a long time. So we headed back.

We found a small leak towards the back of the boat. We're figure out how to fix this over the next week while the engine is in the shop. It will keep things interesting for a while.

Tony (aka Captain Chesapeake) enjoying our first day on the river

In the water at last

First fish caught on the skiff and it is a big one

David's fish, a little better than Tony's

July 13th 2016

Tony, AKA Captain Chesapeake is Aligning the Front of the trailer with the boat

Admiring the Skiff mounted on it's new wheels

The sleek look of the skiff

David has just completed the task of brushing on the finish to the bottom of the Skiff

Also, tonight the eye bolt in the front was mounted