Patrick Project

Three things lead to the Patrick Project: My job in demolition where I get first pick of materials and detritus left by previous house and business owners, a love of old, make-do technology, and having read an account in National Geographic of Tim Severin’s epic voyage across the Atlantic in a 6^th century type, leather covered boat. . . . (continued below photos)

It was as we knocked down the White Rock elementary school that I pulled out the curtains for the stage, and had the idea- build a frame from the oak flooring and cover it in the large curtains, and seal with paint. I decided that a boat could be completely built from salvaged materials from this and other job sites.

The 1.5” x ¼” oak for the ribs and stringers came from flooring from a few houses, the planks for the seats, breasthooks, keel and stem, and the transom came from shelves in closets. The string would come from the window blinds. Every house we knock down has a fine selection of paints, brushes, thinner, oil finishes and such.

In the end I ran out of window blind string and had to purchase some sinew from Tandy Leather, and a few dozen screws were used, but at least they, and the rope for the skin, were purchased with the deposits I got for returning empties I found at the demo jobs. The curtain proved to be too small, and I was forced to purchase heavily discounted canvas from a place on Fraser Street and 39^th Ave in Vancouver. I suppose I could have resorted to bed sheets, as I used on a small coracle a few years back, but the purchase of the screws was a slippery slope and I lost my self discipline.

The steam box and steaming was a neat piece of science. I’d tried boiling water poured on a trial rag-bound piece, and it worked, but it took tons of hot water to bend a single piece in slow steps. So I went looking for materials, and found some unused sewage pipe, a “T” junction, charcoal in a shed, an old wheel rim for a fire pit, a rack from an oven, and a large cookie tin as a kettle, and a radiator hose in an old garage to feed the steam from the cookie tin to the steam box. The whole was wrapped in a found wool blanket to conserve heat, and bound with duct tape- the asbestos crew leaves rolls and rolls behind before we get in.

Of all things, a week before launch day, I found some old lifejackets in the garage of a house we did in Surrey!

I’ve called the boat “Patrick”, another famous Irish sea-going monk (but not by choice).

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Patrick Project