Lyman 23

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Even though I was fortunate enough to have a 40' x 30' dedicated boat barn/shop, I couldn't manage to get the Lyman in there for any real work, since I had another long-term boatbuilding project already underway there, and the second bay was filled with a variety of other boats, ranging from my own sailboat to a number of project boats for my business. (If only I'd built the barn bigger, like my wife said I should! Coulda, shoulda, woulda.)

Since I couldn't get the boat into the shop for the winter, I decided to do the next best thing: take advantage of an excellent southerly/westerly exposure on one side of the barn and build a temporary lean-to shelter there. The location had the added advantage of being directly connected to the barn with a large sliding door for easy access.

Since the first stages (at least) of the restoration project were to involve mostly paint and varnish stripping, along with other non-temperature sensitive work, it seemed the outdoor location--which would be substantially heated by passive solar gain--would be more than adequate for the first winter, at least.

Building a lean-to shelter would be rather straightforward, as I could install a header along the sidewall of the barn, just above the door track, and then run rafters from there out to a kneewall outside of the boat. With two temporary shelter experiences behind me, for two previous projects, I planned to use an opaque tarp (heavy duty green to conveniently match the barn trim) for the roof, and clear 6-mil plastic sheeting for the kneewall and gable ends. I had an old steel entry door kicking around that I planned to install in the front gable for additional access.

With the boat parked in the spot I wanted, I began my planning by mocking up a single rafter to not only determine how long the rafters would need to be, but also to determine a comfortable height for the outside kneewall. Using some scrap 2x4s that I had left over from my last temporary building, I determined that I would need 16' roof rafters and a 6' tall kneewall. I also measured straight out from the side of the building to determine the basic width of my shelter (about 13'), and also the overall length, allowing room inside to pass easily around the whole boat. I came up with an overall length of around 30', including the trailer, but decided to just build a 32' long structure to incorporate two lengths of 16' dimensional lumber for less cutting and measuring.

With the basic measurements and concept at hand, I drew up a basic sketch of the structure, mostly to aid in determining how much lumber I would have to buy. I planned to build the whole thing out of 2x4s and would need a number of 16-footers for the roof and gable ends, plus the bulk of my recycled pile in the woods for the kneewall. From my local lumberyard, I ordered 36, 16- 2x4s, and browsed through my now-rotting pile of old lumber to find 18 older boards that I could cut down to make the vertical studs in the kneewall.

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