Remember this boat? It was found in our net shed when we purchased the property. A double ender 14′ Davis boat built in Metlakatla. They built hundreds of these and they served in the fishing industry here in Alaska at the turn of the last century. They are worth restoring.

It had four sets of frames–I removed three keeping the best to hold the shape and filled the (approximately) 1000 holes in the hull from the old fasteners.

Here I’m bending a new frame into the boat. These are green (not kiln dried and therefore flexible) white oak frames which have been soaked overnight. On the Katahdin they are hand sawn frames 6″ X 6″ with 3″ planking–quite a difference! Today, vertical grain, air dried Douglas Fir old growth planking runs $14.00 per board foot (1″ X 12″ X 12″). Unbelievable–so I stick to small boats now.

Here I’m bracing the frames so I can fasten them with copper rivets and roves–all done by hand of course.

Here comes a visitor….

We’ve already had 6 or 7 sightings.

Here’s the boat all done up–and we named it after my uncle Ole….

It’s true–I really have an uncle Ole (actually a g-great uncle who immigrated from Norway).

Meanwhile, Merganzers launch their chicks–all 13 of them! Time to get moving and launch the Onkel Ole (note the ‘port’ and starboard’ oars):

Here another tug passes our house–the Paragon makes it’s way north out of the Wrangell Narrows into Frederick Sound on a beautiful June evening.