I thought you might be interested in seeing some photos of the pirate ship I built for our display for the Freeholders Fall Foliage Family Float Festival held on Sunday, October 15. The Burlington County, NJ Division of Parks, organizes the annual event. Among other activities the Division of Parks provides canoes and kayaks to the public to paddle Rancocas Creek between Smithville Mansion and Mount Holly, NJ. The 4-mile adventure winds along the meandering creek in a beautiful wooded setting. Many of residents along the creek decorate their docks in Halloween themes and give out treats to the children. This year about 3,000 people in 1,000 to 1,500 canoes and kayaks participated.

I decided to decorate my dock in a Pirates of the Caribbean theme.

I decided to decorate my dock in a Pirates of the Caribbean theme. The focal point of the display was a pirate ship sailing with a skeleton crew in front of the dock.

I started building the boat in June and finished at 6:00 PM the night before the event. The boat measures 10 feet long from the tip of the bowsprit to the stern, and about 9 feet to the top of the jack staff.

The boat measures 10 feet long from the tip of the bowsprit to the stern, and about 9 feet to the top of the jack staff.

The hull is a simple slab sided pram using chine log and bulkhead construction. It is 92” length on deck with a 40” beam. The dimensions were determined from the largest side panels I could get out of a single 4’ x 8’ sheet of ¼” AC exterior plywood. Both side panels can be cut from a single sheet, however one side will have the “C” facing outside and will likely require some filling.

The hull is a simple slab sided pram using chine log and bulkhead construction. It is 92” length on deck with a 40” beam.

I found PL Premium makes a very strong bond, but is a little messy to work with. It does not work well for fillets because it bubbles up when exposed to air and is difficult to sand. The hull joints were taped with fiberglass tape and epoxy to ensure watertight joints. The boat was painted with Rustoleum oil based flat enamel in a mixture of colors.

The boat was not meant to be a scale model, but many of the details were taken from photos of scale models of the Golden Hind and the Mayflower.

The boat was not meant to be a scale model, but many of the details were taken from photos of scale models of the Golden Hind and the Mayflower. All in all, I think it turned out to be a creditable caricature of a race built galleon of the seventeenth century. It seemed to be a big hit with the paddlers.