Sea Chests, plans from Gary Larkins, WA
I have built 4 sea chests approximately to drawings I purchased from Gary Larkins in Washington State. I don't get into the shop as much as I'd like, sometimes because of the weather in New England, other times because of my day job. 44 angled pins and tails makes for a good bit of work.
I stumbled across an issue of Wooden Boat magazine that had Gary Larkins’ write-up of his experience drawing and building the sea chest, and figured it would be a pretty great first or fourth project to really dive into using hand tools and techniques. While a period sailor would probably build a chest from one wide remaindered board, I settled for big box pine to keep the costs down. Fitting 11 pins across at one time is tedious, to say the least.
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I have built 4 sea chests approximately to drawings I purchased from Gary Larkins in Washington State. I don't get into the shop as much as I'd like, sometimes because of the weather in New England, other times because of my day job. 44 angled pins and tails makes for a good bit of work.
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Most were given away as gifts; this one to my future father in law for his 60th. The plaque is a historic sea chanty called "The Mermaid", the chest is pine with teak becket cleats and lid cleats.
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The last chest went to a fellow in MA who wanted it left unfinished so that he could detail beckets and paint (traditional) the finished chest. Hopefully it will serve his purposes well!
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Here's a cleaner photo of the inside of the chest. Finish is water based stain followed by several coats of thined Epiphanes varnish. Being an active sailor myself, I'm pretty comfortable with varnish. This one ended up as a Christmas present for my dad.
Comments
Amazing!
My mother has a similar chest here in Finland. It has belonged to her great grandfather.
Kataria
Can someone tell which issue of wooden boat the sea chest plans is in ?
Thank you,
Saw this old comment (Sep 2007) from Gary on the Wooden Boat Forum:
http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?70189-Sea-chest-present-for-wedding
"How do I answer the question without sounding like I am promoting a commercial site? Well here goes: I am not promoting the site just providing an answer to the question so don't tar and feather me!!
I sell plans and CD based instruction manuals for building a classic sloping sided sea chest. I wrote the seven page September/October 2005 WoodenBoat magazine article on building a classic 19th century sea chest.
The chest would make a great wedding present but you better make two of them or there will be competition for it!!
Gary"
Gary's profile on the forum indicates no recent activity but you may be able to contact him through that forum.
Here is a reference to the WoodenBoat magazine article:
*edit* Sorry Gillean, that link was dead and kind of suspicious looking. Had to delete it. -Ben *edit*
Not sure what I originally posted. Sorry if it was a bad link. Is this one any better? https://www.woodenboatstore.com/collections/woodenboat-magazine/products/issue-186-sept-oct-2005-digital?variant=17247497977946
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