Ever consider it? These are flat bottom plywood, but there is a company that makes the same hull-cabin in fiberglass.
They fit right in at the big tugboat roundup!
Ever consider it? These are flat bottom plywood, but there is a company that makes the same hull-cabin in fiberglass.
They fit right in at the big tugboat roundup!
Go big.
These guys even nade the lumber from like Trees!
like this? 
Pardon the blurriness, the light was coming in through the window just right and my camera was not happy to have the flash off. It's a Chesapeake Light Craft Expedition Wherry that I built from plans (not from their kit) and then substantially altered to suit my needs. It is in three pieces -bow, cockpit, and stern- that bolt together and I strip planked the deck. I have to finish the cockpit, build hatches, and then do lots of sanding before I can paint and varnish before using.
In reply to 914Driver :
I built a little outboard powered race boat in the hobby shop when I was in the Navy during aviation fundamentals training in Memphis. The most expensive part was shipping it home When I was finished and transferred to Pensacola.
For some reason, I really want to build one with the kids in a couple years. Use a predator engine for it and make a little "speed boat"
In reply to Thinkkker :
Do that! If you're here in Minneapolis I'll give you plenty of wood to do it with.
About a dozen of my home county's 4-Hers (including myself) all built plywood canoes back in early '00.
We all built 2 originally as a group, sold raffle tickets for them to raise money to buy supplies so we could each build our own. We used thin marine plywood ordered from somewhere in New England, and a lot of epoxy.
It was a fun project, but the canoes we built aren't real practical, they're a little small for 2 people, adequate for one person. For putting around a pond or small lake they're okay.
I think I still have the CD-Rom with the plans we used and several other different wood boat plans on it somewhere.
My cousin built an 8' hyrdo out of plywood and put a 9.9 on it. It was fun.
I have been SO interested in building a boat because no one makes what I want. Well, they kinda do, but its either outlandishly expensive, poor construction, or some combination of the two.
My problem is that one of the qualities I want in a boat is something I can build which means wood. Another quality is speed. Another one is ability to take a little chop. If I want to build, I probabaly have to choose two of those. It's easy to make a fiberglass boat do both speed and chop, but it requires compound curves that you can't get from wood.
You can get some curve out of plywood, but you need to get the expensive Okume or Sapale in a thin 4 or 6mm thickness to get it to twist and then double it up to get the strength. You could also strip plank, which is very easy to do.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
What size boat do you have in mind?
The PT Skiff might do it for you.
Also check out B&B Yacht designs Ocracoke or Marissa.
Thinkkker said:For some reason, I really want to build one with the kids .....
Look at a Pram sailboat. Plywood sheet, tons of entertainment! Ian had one at 6. Wife walks up "Where's Ian?" Oh, see that little white dot on the other side ....
OMG!
You're in an unsinkable bathtub.
these are fun.. and there are a lot of them at the "texas 200". I am planning on building one sometime soon.
T.J. said:In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
What size boat do you have in mind?
The PT Skiff might do it for you.
Also check out B&B Yacht designs Ocracoke or Marissa.
17-19'. My current boat will do 40 mph
But I'm thinking more like this:
Or this
When I say speed, I don't mean like how 110 hp feels "quick" in an NB Miata, I mean "don't smile or your cheeks will inflate and you might explode a lung." 90 mph is a good starting point with room to grow:
I've looked at building a sea flea like this for years.
But I recently bought a Yamato 80 (Japanese spec racing outboard motor) so instead I think I'll just buy a proper racing hydro and see if I can break 100kph (62mph).
1SlowVW said:I've looked at building a sea flea like this for years.
But I recently bought a Yamato 80 (Japanese spec racing outboard motor) so instead I think I'll just buy a proper racing hydro and see if I can break 100kph (62mph).
cocktail class racers are cheaper.
In reply to 1SlowVW :
That's what the one I built looks like
In reply to mad_machine (Forum Supporter) :
I think you could build a basic sea flea about as cheap as a cocktail class.
like any small boat I think a lot of project I think a lot of the cost depends on if you want the boat to last a couple years or for a lifetime.
Never built one, but I did engine swap one once.
Yeah, I like that build.
In reply to NOHOME :
Acorn to Arabella - I've been watching that series for about a year now. Very cool. Much of the wood in the boat was harvested from their own property in western MA.
I helped a friend build a Chesapeake Light Craft kayak kit back in the late 90's. Fun project. Eventually I want to build a kayak as well. If I ever complete my current stock of projects (ha!!!) then I'd love to build a barrel-back replica.
mad_machine (Forum Supporter) said:these are fun.. and there are a lot of them at the "texas 200". I am planning on building one sometime soon.
I think I'd rather build a 12foot long OzGoose
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
Hydrostreams are terrifying. When in full flight you are balanced on one prop blade and about 9 square inches of hull pad at the back of the boat. Today's OB engines will easily push one over 100 mph.
Peoples faces look funny in 100 mph wind-streams.
I agree that those speeds are terrifying. At 100mph hitting water is like running into concrete. Of course once you have hit it and stopped, then you get the additional worry of drowning.
... but so much fun :)
I was reading up on some stuff where some guys stop wearing helmets above 90 mph because at those speeds the additional force on the helmets when you hit the water just rips your head off. They were joking that 100 mph with a helmet will kill you, but not wearing a helmet would just crush every bone in your body... which you won't care about because you'll be paralyzed from the neck down anyway.
My boating needs don't actually include 100 mph but it is fun. I've had a boat that would do 65, and it was very stable because it was a 2500 lb I/O. The downside was I had to get those speeds with a 383 and destroy an outdrive before finding the right recipe to get them to hold together at 400 hp. I also limited the type of water I could realistically visit because it drafted 2' of water.
My next boat I'm shooting for a good solid 75 mph that doubles as something that can haul 6 people, has a low freeboard because of frequent shore stops with elderly folks, and doesn't punish me in the chop. I'm thinking fish n ski, which is basically a bass boat with a walk-through console. I can find plenty of wood designs to get me to 75 mph, but they are typically flat-bottom jets or a really shallow vee that will just suck in anything more than 3" waves.
I've been wanting to build a tunnel hull canoe out of carbon fiber or fiberglass. If I can get a 14 foot Native Ultimate kayak to use as a buck mold, I might just do it.
You'll need to log in to post.
