O Noble Boat

Hello, Orie Noble, Here, I run a small one man shop out here in the woods of Holder Florida, I build traditional lapstrake boats, Lapstrake (overlapping plank) construction is one of the oldest wooden boat building methods, and one of the most beautiful. Many of the famous Peterborough canoes were built using this method, as were Viking long ships hundreds of years earlier. A lapstrake hull is built of overlapping planks, or strakes. The laps, particularly by the shadows they cast, accentuate the lines of the hull. Most of my boat plans are at least 100 years old and some go back as far as 400 years! Why the old boats? because these older craft were built for daily use and hull shapes back then were very important, could determine whether or not you got home at night. Well the sea and waters don't change so why not use the hull shapes that worked back then.            

 My intrest in new boat building started with a couple of jokes, me and my boatbuilding friend Jim Plunkett ( a northern man ) were doing a rebuilt on a 53 ft Christ Craft, owned by a stock broker from New York. The poor thing had been neglected for over 30 years, after months of tearing off the bad planking and still looking at the rotten deck planks, I made the comment, "It would be easier just to build a new one"  Well that was about 20 years ago and and although I have rebuilt several large wooden boats since, my main intrest is still the Small Craft designs of years gone by. I am probally one of very few people left with a Coast Guard License to build new wooden boats. If you have a boat design you are interested in or would like to discuss one of many I have collected over the years, you can get in touch with me here orienoble@aol.com  

Currently Building 15 foot double paddle lapstrake canoes. For more information see For Sale Page

One of the new 15 ft solo canoes ready to go in the van and to the river for water trials, good shot of the double paddle

And finally my favorite day, no grinding, no sanding, no sawdust, no rivits or screws, no epoxy runing down your arms, just wet feet and a big smile on your face, up to the Rainbow River and a slow drift back down. Was a beautiful day here in Florida and the birds were all out doing their thing along the water, the fish were jumping and the old Gaters were just laying out in the sun taking it all in. One thing you have to know about boatbuilders, " if you don't get it right the first time, you have to do it again " don't think I got the water trials right, left the canoe loaded in the van, think I'll do it over again this weekend.