Boat Construction - The Invisible Quality

Invisible Quality, Part 1 — Mold Process

Follow the Build Process in the first of a six series documentary, as Tom Schock reveals the Invisible Quality behind the production of W.D. Schock Sailboats.

What you see on the outside is important, especially where aesthetics are concerned, but it is what you don't see that makes the difference where quality is concerned.

The entire Harbor line is built using dozens of quality construction techniques that are invisible to the untrained eye and unique in today's production sailboats.

Invisible Quality, Part 2 — Deck Assembly

In this video, the second in a six part series, Tom Schock explains deck assembly, and shares W.D. Schock's invisible quality behind boat production.

There are no holes through the deck!

Wherever hardware is mounted over the interior living space, we install G-10 in place of the balsa core. The first photo to the left shows the G-10 on the cabin top under the winches, halyard clutch, and clam cleats for the halyards. The photo below shows these pieces of hardware mounted on the deck.

G-10 is a glass cloth laminate with an epoxy resin binder. It is an extremely strong, dense product that cannot be penetrated by water. We drill a hole, not clear through the deck, but into a piece of G-10. Then we tap the hole to receive the stainless steel machine screw that is used to mount the hardware.

The deck hardware on most boats is mounted by drilling a hole through the deck. The hole is filled with bedding compound, and a washer (or back up plate) and a nut is mounted on the underside of the deck. As the boat ages, the bedding compound breaks down, and the chance of a leak becomes very high. The water travels down the machine screw, and then the back up plate and nut rust. In some boats, the nuts are exposed, in other boats the nuts are hidden behind interior liners or headliner fabric. In this case, the damage goes unnoticed and can lead to big problems.

With G-10, the hole doesn't go all the way through the deck, so there are no unsightly nuts or access panels in the overhead. More importantly, there are no holes to allow water to leak into the cabin. And the G-10 is epoxy, so it can't rust. But if the deck fitting needs maintenance, it can be easily removed and then re-installed.

Why don't other builders use G-10? Because G-10 adds to the cost of materials, and the installation is time consuming. And whatever is time consuming is expensive.

Invisible Quality, Part 3 — The Build Process - Assembly

Watch as Tom Schock reveals the boat building process, our third video in a six-part documentary.

Seamless Interior

If you look closely at the interior of our entire Harbor line, the Harbor 20, 25, and now Harbor 30 DaysailerPlus, you will notice that there are no seams or joints at the corners of the interior components. We know our boat owners want to keep their boats looking as clean and brand new as possible. This seamless feature makes it much easier to keep it that way. With no seams to collect grit and dust, a simple wipe with a damp paper towel and your clean-up is done!

The interior is actually made of three individual modules:

• The forepeak/v-berth area.
• The head compartment.
• The main cabin.

These parts are molded by hand, and they incorporate every detail of that particular section of the boat.

Once all of the modules have been molded, they are fitted between the three bulkheads. And each module is bonded to the bulkheads. The forepeak goes in first, then the head compartment, and then the main saloon.

In our next video, Tom takes us behind the scenes to explore W.D. Schock's secrets behind rigging.

Invisible Quality, Part 4 — coming soon

Invisible Quality, Part 5 — Final Assembly

Watch how the handcrafted boats built at WD Schock are assembled as presented by Tom Schock.

Invisible Quality, Part 6 — Carpentry Boat Building at WD Schock

Watch how boat building at WD Schock uses time honored craftsmenship to create works of art as presented by Tom Schock.