A Boat in the Woodsvideo
Harvesting the First Tree for My Boat Didn’t Go to Plan - No. 36
25 April 2026 · 37 min · 107K views · Eastern Canada
Felled tree rests across forest floor, fresh cut gleaming
What this video covers
Joshua, a carpenter restoring a 1966 Japanese-built 32-foot wooden sailboat off-grid in eastern Canada, fells his first candidate timber tree on April 10, 2026, only to find the heartwood rotten.▶ 16:36 The tree, a larch roughly 95 years old, looked sound from the outside; a cut revealed rot at the heart and, after milling, red heartwood with mycelial growth — disqualifying it for boatbuilding by the larch color rule (green and yellow are acceptable, red is not).▶ 31:16 Before the tree even came down, a broken front brake line and a snapped leaf spring had sidelined the truck for weeks.▶ 6:50 After felling, Joshua used ratchet straps, wedges, and directional cuts to drop the tree precisely, then cut it into 14-foot lengths.▶ 19:55 A chainsaw overheating mid-mill traced to a clogged oiler port; cleaning it and flipping the bar finished the cut.▶ 35:24 A seized idler pulley later threatened the truck again but was swapped with help from Chad.▶ 37:09 Interior hull work continued with paint stripper covered in plastic wrap and a full-face respirator with OVP 100 cartridges.▶ 24:55 A Blue Eddy Apex 300 portable power station with expansion battery handled simultaneous table-saw and shop-vac loads without tripping breakers.▶ 8:43 Joshua plans to try one or two more trees before sourcing framing stock elsewhere.▶ 37:40
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