I’m itching to tell you what happened next with our boat build in more ways than one. This series of articles is chronicling the construction of a Texas style Farley Boat at the Farley Boat Works in Port Aransas by my 17 year old son Joey with help from Shop Manager Darrell Lynn, myself and a team of local volunteers.

This has thus far been an enjoyable endeavor. But I am literally itching and scratching. In an earlier installment I warned about the use of epoxy. I must have gotten too much on my skin because I am having a reaction rash on my hands and forearms. Maybe it wasn’t the epoxy, maybe it was the fiber glassing the bottom of the boat? But that comes later in the series this installment is about Farley style. Some manufacturers of  "off the rack" boats give their customers a little leeway in personalizing their boat. But Farley style is unique.

Ok, here we go. There are two type of gunwales or hand rails, open or closed. Closed gunwales have a great beauty to them and are quicker to build. They are elegant. Two boat long mahogany rails sandwich each sideboard from stem to stern. Creating a boat length gap by raising the gunwales slightly above the sideboards allows a lighter colored wood to be placed inside the trough this technique creates.
By pre-drilling the gunwales with a countersink drill bit the screws can be installed below the surface of the gunwale. This creates a small round hole above the screw that allows a lighter colored wood plug to be inserted. The combination of dark mahogany with the lighter wood accents inserted along the top and sides of the gunwale are truly beautiful.
But that is not how we are building our gunwales. We have opted for open gunwales. Ancient boat builders chose these more for functionality than appearance. But yeah, they look great too.

We started with a mahogany outer rail anchored by epoxy and screws to the transom, front stem and side boards. Along the inside of each sideboard every 18 inches we placed small 3 inch mahogany spacer blocks. Denny Larkin and Joey used 5 minute epoxy to carefully and accurately place these in the proper position. The only one askew was the one I placed. Trust me when I say 5 minute epoxy sets in about half that time.

Between each of the spacer blocks there is now an open area formed by the inner and out gunwale. After consulting with 95 year old Bubba Milina we decided to take his advice to make the inner rail of the gunwale ¾ inch thick by 1 ½ inches wide. This rail however will be the last item installed so we have plenty of room for all the other parts to come like the floor and storage area for the anchor.

To prevent you from falling asleep let me remind you that I am scratching like a dog at the flea market as I write this. So, now that you just discovered an itch of your own let’s talk about the functionality of open gunwales …what’s that?  What function do they serve? Well there are several. They allow the boat to anchor at any position along either gunwale, forward, center, aft starboard or port. Fishing rod handles can be inserted into them and they can be used to tie off to docks rather than installing cleats.

Next up are the seats mid boat and aft. These are simple bench seats that go side to side and provide critical lateral stability to the boat. Captain chairs? Nope. Bucket seats? Nope. Simple wooden benches that will undoubtedly need a few of those seat cushions that double as floatation devices.
Jim Johnson of Aransas Pass by way of Iowa constructed the front breast plate. This connects the two gunwales at the forward position directly behind the front stem. Though decorative in nature it gives the inner rails of the open gunwales a termination slot to fit into.

The transom aft can be cut to suit the taste of the builder but first an 18 inch wide top center notch with sloped sides must be cut out to allow the mounting of an outboard motor. We opted to not cut down the overall height of the transom after cutting out the notch and it’s sloped sides.

Other Farley boats recently built have trimmed those sides several inches to give the transom smooth rounded corners. By keeping our transom corners uncut and upright the look is more angular. People visiting the shop have commented it has the appearance of an ancient craft because of the breast plate and the high back transom. This will cause a little wind resistance but we are not building a speed boat. This is a flat bottom boat for use in and around the bay’s shallow waters.

Visitors are a regular and important part of everyday operations. Families drop by to see what a boat building operation is all about. Shop Manager Darrell Lynn expends a great deal of time and energy making each and every group feel welcome. Regardless of the size of the group Darrell gives a short history lesson on the Farleys and explains the differences between the various boats being built or in the boat yard.

"Tina" is an original ocean going Farley boat on display. The  boat yard serves to highlight the differences between styles of construction.

Several times during the week various board members will drop by the shop for business or pleasure as will Farley boat owners. When a Farley boat owner drops by with his or her boat they do so not to show off but rather to show the possibilities and to welcome the newest boat builder to the group. One comment I recently heard was the boat shop was truly a community center in it’s own right.

One afternoon as I was sanding rough spots a family dropped by. While Darrell showed the parents the boats nearby their 12 year old son took up my Tom Sawyer-like offer to do a little sanding. Twenty minutes later as the dad watched his son diligently sand the wood properly with the grain he asked to find out more about his family building a boat. This is what it is all about at Farley Boat Works.