Senate Hills, of Hillsboro, Oregon, has been making things for as long as he can remember. His current project is a framed wooden shed with cedar-shake siding for his six trucks. Before this, he built two other sheds, one of which has a ramp and accommodates the wagon he uses for light hauling. For loading logs, he built a boom derrick operated by a steam donkey.Senate is 11 years old. His trucks and heavy equipment are all toys, most of which he has made. He started building things in cardboard, but when he was six or seven, he turned his hand to working more substantial materials. He and his dad, Jeff, were fixing a table when Senate spied a piece of plywood about 18″ long by 7″ wide, pointed at one end. He thought, “I could build a boat out of this. I screwed some boards to the sides, added a keel, which increased the draft from about 3⁄4″ to about 4″, attached a rudder, which I’d made out of a small hinge and a wooden board, and screwed a tiller to the top. I kept the boat from leaking by driving hemp twine into the cracks using a flat-head screwdriver and a hammer.” A young Senate tested his first wooden boat, DRIFTWOOD, on the Tualatin River.
Melissa Hills
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Senate, that is a beautiful Salt Bay Skiff! Congratulations to you, and your folks as well.
I’m about to launch my own Salt Bay Skiff, built over an excessively long number of months, thanks to all the things that come up in a retired adult’s family life that get in the way of boat building. I’m planning to row and sail it, so I’ve set it up for a boomless sprit sail rig that won’t be speedy, but should be safe for lake sailing here in northeast Oklahoma. Do some reading about how to sail, and you might want to set up your skiff for sailing too. Thanks for the photos and great article. Fair winds and calm seas to you!
Your tales about the Tualitin brought back fond memories of my boyhood. My dad and I used to fish the river, though not with a great deal of success. My dad built an 8′ skiff from a plan printed in How to Build 20 Boats, an annual magazine with boat plans. It’s sad that magazines no longer publish plans for home building. There used to be several, including The Rudder‘s Ideal series, Sports Afield‘s Boat Building Annual and various ones from Popular Mechanics and other publishers.
The design my dad built was called “Matey,” a little 8′ skiff. I learned some interesting things about little boats, such as the fact that a skiff should have its transom clear the water (a passenger in Matey would cause the transom to drag, making the boat a beast to row. It would lose way after every stroke of the oars. Another passenger in the bow would actually improve that aspect, though of course it was overloaded thus burdened)
After saving up strawberry-picking money, I bought a 1930s twin-cylinder Evinrude, allegedly 4 hp, from a colleague of my dad’s; I tried this out on the Tualatin with a classmate aboard; the little motor was cranky to start (no recoil starter; you had to wrap the starting rope around the flywheel for every attempt). When the motor finally caught, it was cocked over, making the boat spin in place, giving us a good scare.
I hope you will build more boats. I’d suggest some designs by Phil Bolger. You can build directly from the books (they would prefer you buy larger scale plans), and many of them are small and simple, and there are some good ones to learn sailing in
What a great project!!
I am envious of you getting started building boats at your age. One word of caution: It is addictive!!! ;o)
I would have loved to have someone to guide me along to build a boat at 11.
Great job!!
Wonderful story, wonderful boat! Congratulations Senate!!
Hey Senate,
What a beautiful vessel you built, and a fine crew behind you. We’re curious how your sounding project is going… are you charting as you go?
Looking forward to hearing more of your ongoing adventures!
Dave and Anke
Hi Senate,
It was great to read your story and learn more about how you came to be interested in boat building. I hope you do learn to sail and keep pursuing your interest in boating. You are showing the aptitude of someone destined to become an engineer!
Best wishes.
Ralph Cohen
RiversWest Newsletter Editor