Boat builders' thread

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There are some very pretty canoe yawls I must admit. I'm a bit of a sucker for a Catboat aswell if I was going the direction of cruising.
 
This was the last boat I built, from bare mouldings from Colvic (Ardley laminated plastics) moored off a beach at Tean in the scillies. You can't see any of my work, the keel bolts, the rudder and its fixings. the keels main and bilge from 5" x 5" thick greenheart laminated to a max of 2 foot or so widem then shaped by hand. As were the engine beds and internal cross frames. Even the pulpit was home made. I wish I had her now but do hope to buy another when I can eventually return home to Cornwall.

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"A wise man learns from his mistakes: a genius learns from other peoples mistakes."...

I mentioned to a friend, Derek, a little while ago that I liked the idea of having a forge in the garden to play with. Next time he visited he said "I've got s'thing for you"... and he pulled a small home made forge from the back of his van. It uses a vacuum cleaner (blowing end) he picked up from the dump, as belows, with a simple valve he made on the forge. He said "I've been thinking about making one for ages and if I made one for you first and discover all the mistakes, I could make one for me that didn't have the mistakes." It works beautifully, I've made lots of stuff for myself, for friends and had quite a few friends come and 'have a go' who've never used a forge before! - Thanks Derek, you're a star!
 

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I was 15 when I built my first boat, a Mirror Dinghy, wooden kit manufactured by Bell Woodworking. I still have the wooden boat building bug some 48 years later. I really don't know why. My ancestors on both sides of our family were fishermen and one type of wooden fishing boat was built in the next road to my family home. I have built five boats during my life, all small canoes or dinghies. Space being the main factor in building decisions.
Apart from the Mirror all my later boats have been from plans. The most instructions given I recall was on a design where I had 9 bullet points on how to build.
My last boat is a Selway Fisher designed Motor canoe. It was initially intended to be 16 feet in length but mine is 12'6" due again to constraints on space in which to build.
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Mould stations on a strong back sitting in my garage, jus enough room to walk around.

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The start of the western red cedar strips glued together with Balcotan and stapled in place.
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An advantage of the shorter boat length was that I had 14ft strips any longer boat would have meant scarf jointing many of them. At this point in the build the strips coming up from the gunwale cannot bend and twist any further so you have to work from the keel outwards. The string is in order to pull out the staples.
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All planking complete the blocks hold strips in place and make the panel pins easier to remove. It's a tight squeeze at this point.

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After hours of sanding, first coat of epoxy resin on outside of hull. Second coat then covered with fibreglass tissue. Boat then turned over and the same process carried out on the inside. Gunwales, seats, decking all then added.
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Finished boat, some ten years later (it only took 6 months to build). I now make smaller items of furniture. But I would love to build a larger boat, for that I would need space I don't have.
I am currently sorting out the garage, where the boat sat in the roof space, to enable me to fit in more woodworking tools.
 
Thank you, Yes small outboard or two paddlers!
It's only suitable for flat water but will seat five adults.
 
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