62 Professional BoatBuilderYARD PROFILE: Schooner Creekan East Coast company that didn’t
understand softwood veneers and ran
them out of business. The only place
now is in Idaho or Canada, and I can’t
go over and pick the flitches anymore.”
Rander is adamant that wood/epoxy
remains a viable method of yacht con-
struction, but notes that “no one pro-
motes it. Most of the ones we’ve built
are still going strong. “Rage and Magic
Carpet have raced competitively in
long-distance events for years, the latter
dating to 1980. Most of Rage’s interior
structure was ¼" [6.35mm], “not ½",
not ¾",” Rander notes. “It’s ¼" because
there’s other reinforcing, whether it’s
another bulkhead meeting it, or a
stringer. The only exceptions are some
of the transverse bulkheads, which are
carrying serious rigging loads. They
have some pretty heavy beefing up. The
berths are sailcloth or ¼" ply. The sole
is ¼" teak-and-holly ply. It’s got a foam
core and glass on the back of it to make
a sandwich. Saving weight is a case of
just thinking outside the box and ana-
lyzing the loads each time.”
For Rage, the deck was two layers of(^1) ⁄ 8 " ply with a foam core. There are no
deckbeams because, Rander explains,
“the boat’s hogged front to back
[reverse sheer] and with plenty of
camber port to starboard. It’s like put-
ting two cupped hands together. You
can’t flex it if you can’t bend it. Put
them the same way and they bend,
right? Frans Maas was the first person,
I think, who built boats hogged. If you
look at Rage carefully, there’s a definite
hog bow to stern.”
Use of Space
As every builder knows, it’s critical to
anticipate when and where hulls, decks,
and other parts must be moved to
accommodate work. Schooner Creek’s
building is 30,000 sq ft (2,790m^2 ),
including a mezzanine where the wood
shop is located, as well as a rigging area,
and a 10' x 35' (3m x 10.7m) flat stock
laminating table for laying up bulk-
heads, soles, and other panels. The
ground floor is divided into space for
new construction (presently to be filled
with the two 30' x 65' (9.1m x 19.8m)
Rander: “The economics have
changed, too. At the time, we were
buying^1 ⁄ 8 " [3.175mm] cedar-veneer
flitches for 38 cents a foot. Now it’s
pushing $2 or better a square foot. It’s
more and more cost prohibitive to do
wood-veneer boats. We used to have
the Dean Co. here in town that was the
major producer. They got bought by
switch from wood/epoxy to all com-
posites has been caused by consumer
demand. “Steve was known for wood
veneers over foam and epoxy,” says
Flanigan. “He did that with Rage,
Ocean Planet, and my Hana Mari.
Unfortunately, people aren’t ordering
boats like that anymore. And it’s
harder to get the wood products.”
Large
Scale
Additive
Manufacturing
http://www.thermwood.com
800-533-6901
thermwood
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