CLASSIC BOAT MAY 2015 9Above: Building
Papa 1, to the
instruction:
“Massage the hull
to go with a
schooner rig”;
Left: at anchoraspects above the waterline and he wanted to get it just
right. Ted Brewer was brought in to tutor him on all
elements from the deck up. “It was,” Steele explained,
“my education of designing a schooner rig.”
The project began in earnest in the spring of 2000
when an entire aircraft hanger located in Shearwater,
Nova Scotia, was salvaged for its 30,000 board feet of
old Douglas Fir, most of which went into Papa 1’s
planking and frames, perfect material for a wood and
epoxy composite. Steele, who had been using reclaimed
timber for other Covey Island Boatworks projects and
was always on the hunt for perfect timber, next spotted
an ad in the paper for clear hardwood; maple, ash and
oak. A knowing logger had sawn, stickered and stored
the wood for 10-15 years in barns; exemplary wood that
found its way into what is now a strikingly elegant
interior. Local Black Locust was chosen for the cockpit
and skylights. Clear pine, smuggled from Halifax
dockyards decades before went into the cabin soles.
Boatbuilding and fishing has long been a family affair
in Nova Scotia so in the true style of Papa 1’s birthplace,CB323 Papa1.indd 9 24/03/2015 13: