​The last century saw the introduction of two technologies destined to change wooden boatbuilding forever. The first was epoxy bonding. By making marine glue joints practical, epoxy bonding changed boat joinery as radically as electric-arc welding changed steel fabrication.
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The second new technology is computer aided drafting and cutting. From a numerical model of the subject vessel, the lofts man’s computer programs produce files depicting the true shapes of a boat’s parts--quickly, accurately and repeat-ably. Computer aided drafting replaces the painstaking approximations of traditional lofting. Computer-controlled cutting machines can use the files to automatically produce actual parts from planar materials, such as plywood, at little more than material cost.
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It is the message of Capt. Nat’s New Boat that although today’s boat builders have become familiar with epoxy and computerized lofting, these new technologies are far from fully exploited.
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Capt. Nat’s New Boat describes Sanford Boat Company’s nine innovations that will transform today’s cold molded hull into a stringer-built boat. Sanford’s stringer-built boat begins with the realization that the diagonal layers of a cold molded shell structurally replace traditional frames, leaving the builder free to shape the hull and stiffen its shell with easy to form stringers. The other eight proceed from there. The result is a boat offering the strength and beauty of traditional wood construction combining indefinite longevity with lower cost.
If you are a lover of wood boats or are thinking of buying one, read Capt. Nat’s New Boat to discover what you can look forward to. Or, if you are a boat builder, read it and surprise your competitors.
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Capt. Nat's New Boat discloses results of 45 years of using epoxy bonding to eliminate the drawbacks of wood cruising sail boats.
Believing that epoxy bonding and computerized lofting could be used to greater effect, Sanford Boat Co. developed nine innovations that transformed the cold molded wood boat into something new. We called it the stringer-built boat.
Those innovations are:
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--the stringer-built boat begins with the realization that the diagonal layers of a cold molded shell structurally replace traditional frames, leaving the builder free to shape the hull and stiffen its shell with easy to form stringers.
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Mortise and tenons—precisely cut by computer-controlled machinery allowing mold elements to be quickly assembled without measuring or aligning.
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Stringer landings—simply and precisely form the ends of the boat.
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Plywood beamshelf—joins hull to deck.
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Intermittent shear clamp--avoids the need for cutting a long, variable-angle bevel.
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Fiberglass taping—carries tensile loads around sharp corners.
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Frame directors—precisely form the upper topsides.
The superiority of the stringer-built boat lies in its greater longevity and lower cost, achieved without compromise to beauty or strength. The stringer-built boat begins to fulfill the dream of NGH--and most of the rest of us sailors as well.
The stringer-built boat, unproven at this point, presents a great opportunity to the small and medium sized boat shop. While there is much still to be done--no boat yet has been molded by a mortice and tenoned accommodation mold, nor built with a plywood beam shelf or discontinuous sheerclamp—the stringer-built boat, once mastered, will generate a disruptive competitor in the sailing marketplace. It will assure success for the builder and satisfaction for his customers.