Boat-building
I can't remember when the idea first crept into my head to build a boat, but surely Jacques Merten's site must have contributed to my inspiration, especially his free D4 dinghy building plans and his Stitch & Glue Primer. Of course, being the cheapo I am, I refused to pay hard-earned money for plans, and after some fiddling around with models made from cardboard and scotchtape, came up with this very simple design:
It's made from a single sheet of 8' x 4' plywood (1/4" thickness). First I marked out 2 lines 12" in from both edge. Then you have to extend it inwards a bit (I used a flexible pipe, but you can use a batten or whatever). Then you cut off the edges as shown. The 2 ends are then stitched in place (bow and stern, I think you call 'em) then you stick a piece of wood in the centre to open up the beam. Then you turn it upside down, and place the remaining centre-piece on the bottom of the boat and trace out the outline. Then you cut that out and stitch it in place. Then you glue everything up, add two crossbars, a skeg and small pieces of plywood on the front and back (sorry - bow and stern) and viola! you have a boat like this:
Notice how impressed and awed my daughter is by her daddy's boat.
I'd have a better picture except that I left the boat in a stairwell and my condominium manager thought it was a piece of junk and actually threw my boat away. Any lawyers reading this?
Which reminds me, here is as good a place as any to put a legal disclaimer:
Legal disclaimer
The boat plan shown here is not professionally designed blah blah blah. If you sink or suffer mental anguish or whatever, don't come crying to me.
Launching the boat was an unforgettable experience. I'm only free on Sundays, which happens to be the day of the week that the beach is always crowded with a jillion people. Carried my boat to the beach steadfastly ignoring the stares of all the landlubbers (and their snide comments). The launching ceremony was simple; I'm a doctor and had some expiring drugs, so instead of using champagne, I taped three ampoules to the bow and smashed them:
1. Stemetil (an anti-emetic) to prevent seasickness
2. Adrenaline for all the excitement she was going to give me
3. Lasix (a diuretic) to hopefully make sure she would not ship too much water
As for dialog, I'm not too poetic, so just before I climbed into her, I intoned:
"What shall I say? I think
I'll pray that she won't sink!"
Unfortunately, she sunk. No, really. Her LOA was 7' and her beam 2'. She's pointed at both ends (no transom). I weigh about 200 lbs. And the surf was pretty rough. I capsized a few times in the waves until a couple of boys helped me steady the boat by anchoring the skeg into the sand. I climbed in, and they pushed me off. It was a bit difficult keeping my balance, but before I knew it, I was rowing out to sea! Hallelujah! Here's proof:
and here's a closeup just to prove it's me:
OK, I know, I know... there are clearer pictures of the Loch Ness monster. The reason there aren't more photos is that my wife was too embarrassed by my antics to acknowledge that she knew me (especially when I started floundering in the surf) and only took a few photos secretly when she thought nobody was watching.
For those who want to design their own Stitch & Glue boats I can only recommend Carene50 by Robert Laine. It's really easy and fun to use, and you can view the boat you've designed in 3-D with a VRML-enabled browser. It will produce drawings and tables for you to mark and cut out the plywood panels for stitching together. I have not built any boats designed by this software (yet), and so cannot vouch for the accuracy of the offsets generated, but hey, it's free.
Guess what? My condo manager did not throw the boat away after all (bless his soul). He had put it out of harm's way behind the power substation. I quickly rescued it and it's now rotting in my balcony instead. Here are a couple of pictures:
Nice boat, huh?
My aerodynamic recumbent fairing - just cut a hole in the top
Future projects
This will be my second boat. It's a pontoon boat, made from PVC pipes capped at each end with fibreglass/epoxy. I hesitate to call it a catamaran. In any case it should not capsize as easily as my first one (I hope). I stole the idea from Carl Olsen's Floatboat Site (the original site is now extinct, but here are a few pictures I dug up from my hard disk). I was rather stunned by the simplicity of his idea. Ah, the wonders of the World Wide Web! I got so excited that I ran out and bought the PVC pipes before I even finished my first boat.
I decided to use 10" diameter PVC piping instead of 6" because I would need a shorter length (10') to achieve the same draught and need not worry about joining two lengths of PVC pipe. It is also much more rigid. I'd hate to sit in a boat that flexes in the middle. That would give me a sinking feeling, which is not a good thing on a boat. Unfortunately, it's also heavier, but life is all about compromise, right?
The ends were done by blowing up a balloon to the appropriate size, stuffing it into the end of the PVC pipe and sticking epoxy-wetted fibreglass tape (can you say papier-mache?) all over the balloon. It becomes quite stiff and strong once it dries. I like the torpedo look. Maybe I'll paint shark's teeth on. It should probably be able to take anything except a direct puncture with an ice-pick. I used my wedding balloons. If you look carefully, you can see "Beng & Chris" below the fibreglass (cool, eh?):
The plywood cross-beams are not the final thing. I will probably chop off the ends and epoxy them on, then bolt square-section aluminium tubing cross-beams directly onto them, then bolt a plywood platform onto the aluminium beams. That way the boat's beam can be adjusted, depending on whether I take the boat out for fishing or sailing (no, I'm NOT kidding). Also, the whole thing can easily be diassembled and carried on top of my car, and bolted together at the beach.
I also have plans for building a third boat, a proper catamaran using tortured plywood construction. This will be a 12-14 footer (yes, I'm finally going to make a butt-joint!) and will also have an adjustable beam. I'll put up the plans once I've drawn them. Actually I usually work without drawn plans - everything's in my head.
Finally, here's where to go if you want a comprehensive resource on BoatBuilding.
If you just like boats, you can't beat this site.