Frank Cashin, boatbuilder

I met Frank Cashin a few weeks ago through a mutual friend. (Maxwell Patten) and He gave us a tour of his boat shop in Mount Pearl. Frank is one of those craftsman who makes nearly as many tools as he buys. He's in the beginning stages of building his own wooden sailboat designed by Paul Cartside from BC. The plans are on the wall and he's laying out the lines and lofting the frames. Jessie is a 15ft long centerboard sloop with 2 layers of planking. It has beautiful lines and will be completely built in traditional fashion with belaying pins and cast brass fittings. He even plans to make "dead eyes" for the shrouds instead of turnbuckles.

The Ducks on the floor were cast by him and has adjustments on the ends for the hold down pins. As I said he makes as much as he buys.

We discussed at length the fun of building you own boat and what places he intends to visit once he's finished building. He fully plans to sleep aboard and have a boom tent to keep off the rain. It will be quite a site to see both our boats sailing into a small harbor for the night. I'd rather see a dozen but 2 will do for now.

I'll be dropping in on him from time to time and marvel at his progress. He's retired so it won't be long before he's got frames stacked in the corner of his shop.