Building a Stitch and Glue El Toro

This Winter Informational Sailing Seminar (WISS) Features:
Building a Stitch and Glue El Toro Presented by Carole & Mark Hamlin

Come learn from first time woodworkers about the experience of building a stitch and glue wooden boat! The El Toro is a popular 8 foot racing dinghy. While watching the Wednesday night dinghy races during last year’s harbor closure, Mark and Carole were inspired to build a plywood El Toro for their future junior sailor. The boat is traditionally built using a jig, where cross sectional frames are constructed and plywood is carefully test fit onto the surface. In a faster, more modern method of boat building known as stitch and glue, precisely cut panels are joined by epoxy and fiberglass tape to form the hull. Since no stitch and glue pattern was available, Mark and Carole used the one design hull measurements to construct their own plans and build a class legal hull.

Mark and Carole started the Santa Cruz High School sailing team together in 2006, and were named SCYC Junior Yachtsman and Junior Yachtswoman of the year in 2007. Carole went on to race for the University of Washington, while Mark studied Computer Science at UC Santa Barbara. In 2014, Mark and Carole got married at SCYC and soon after moved back to Santa Cruz.

The Santa Cruz Yacht Club hosts a variety of speakers on Wednesday evenings January through March.

Visit www.scyc.org for more information about upcoming speakers, seminars, and sailing events in Santa Cruz.