The 250 pound 20 foot length of mahogany arrived long after it was harvested somewhere in Africa. It came with an attitude that rivaled a mean drunk on his third day of sobriety. The table saw screamed in protest as the grain of the wood fought to be cut in a straight line. This is no ordinary table saw. It is of the type that will not cut off fingers, hands or other parts not meant to be detached from the human body.

My son Joey had returned to high school and so it was up to me to finish the few items on the boat he and I started this summer at Farley Boat Works in Port Aransas. But this piece of wood turned the air blue while spraying it’s deep brown saw dust into the nearby dust collector.

A common refrain from the staff and volunteers is that they do not build people boats but rather train and help them build their own boat. This piece of timber was going to do it’s best to keep from being built into anything. My job was to steady the wood as it came off the table saw.

Darrell Lynn, shop foreman, started out by raising the height of the table saw’s cutting fence which guides the wood as it is cut. He did this with a 2x4 cut to the length of the saw’s fence. He clamped the fence into place for the first cut and added a second clamp to make sure it held tight. Finally several lengths of plywood were added to the large mahogany board which when it entered the cutting zone would help keep it stable.

A bad cut on a large piece of wood can be expensive. Seeing the trouble this board was causing led someone near the door to ask why straight grain boards were not bought instead. Clearly this was the wrong question at the wrong time. I had never heard of straight grain lumber so all I’ll say is the question went unanswered.

When the wood was inspected after cutting it there were multiple amazing thick lengthwise wavy grains in it. With it’s twin still uncut Darrell agreed the boat would look great with two matching pieces. So it was back to the table saw and the growling length of lumber. For cutting those boards and for his invaluable leadership in building our boat I agreed to refer to Darrell, once, as Batman. Like the Mayor of Gotham City whenever I ran into trouble I called for help and he showed up. Thanks Batman.

These now absolutely gorgeous matching lengths of mahogany would be used for the inner rail of the boat. The rail is called the gunwale. Our boat would be the first from Farley Boat Works since it was reconstituted in 2011 to have open gunwales. These open gunwales will allow us to anchor at any point of the boat and for sticking fishing rods into them. With open gunwales you do not need cleats when tying off at docks either.

The mission of Farley Boat works is to return the lost art of wooden boat building to the Texas coast. The effort is in full swing. Our boat has transom number 17. Number 16 is in the process of being painted.

Taking on a challenge both Darrell Lynn and the shop’s visionary Rick Pratt began building boats 18 and 19. There was a small gap in the schedule before the next scheduled build  and both had repeatedly postponed their opportunity to builds.

Another individual who postponed his boat build was Pat Farley, grandson of the fellow who began his boat building career about 1916. Pat had started to construct a tarpon fishing boat this past summer but graciously placed the parts aside to give my son and myself shop space to build ours. Such is the nature of all we have experienced this summer.

Rick opted for a traditional skiff while Darrell went for a stitch and glue boat called the Wango Skiff. If Ted Nugent the outspoken outdoors man whose song Wango Tango hit the charts in back in 1980 had to choose a skiff to go hunting ducks in he would pick Rick’s. But if he wanted to live up to his reputation as the Motor City Madman he would jump in the Wango Skiff.

The differences in constructing these boats results in the Wango having a much lower weight for the same size boat. When dealing in hardwoods weight is also an expense in both materials, gas and the size motor required to reach the same speeds. The traditional skiff attaches solid lengthwise chines, splash rails and gunwales to a front stem to form the boat’s hull. With stitch and glue your cut the plywood parts, drill holes in them along the edges then insert plastic wire ties to bind the pieces to one another. There is no need for the chines or a front stem to attach the keel to. I haven’t read in the plans that the Wango Skiff has traditional gunwales either but that is because I have been busy putting the finishing touches on our boat.

Once these final items are completed we will embark on weeks of sanding after school in the evenings as we prepare the boat for painting. It has been a pleasure to deliver these stories to you as our boat build progressed. This is the 8th installment and the writing of a weekly update has given me a new respect for writers who meet deadlines. Thank you the reader as well as the publisher and editorial staff for making this possible.

Our next installment will be sometime in the future. In the mean time take a ride over to Port Aransas and check out what’s going on at Farley Boat Works. As for me I’ll be pointing out spots my son needs to sand smooth.