I'm making good progress now - since my last post I have finished the deck beams (I added in five more than the plans had provision for), glued and nailed the deck and have been working on the 'interior' trim and seating. All is looking good and I'm within striking distance of making a start on the sanding and varnishing.

Work continues

Work continues - the topsides

Six coats of International system paint on the bottom and then its back onto the trailer for the fitting out of the inside and

decking. I rolled the paint - I know some people get really carried away and fill and fair and

have their boats professionally spray painted and so on, but I'm trying to do this on a budget and I reckon she looks just fine so far. I've also resisted the trend of fibreglassing everything- the bottom is 9mm thick and apart from some added abrasion resistance fibreglass would only have added to the weight. Call me silly if you like...

Now that she's turned over I'm epoxying and screwing the deck beams in, working out how the seating is going to work, laminating up some extra supports for the floorboards because these are only going to be 10mm thick (Fijian Kauri) and generally getting the inside cleaned up and ready for paint. I'm also trying to get an old cable steering arrangement I pulled out of an old boat up to working order to save me having to buy one.

Back underway!

Well, I'm back again - for the two watchers or friends out there who have had a wee look at what I'm up to - its been a busy 9 months, what with a family funeral, daughter's wedding, new job and a house move, so boat things have been pretty much on hold! However, I've recently started to make progress again so thought I'd better include a short account of what has happened.

Last year I did manage to to get the ply fitted to the sides and bottom. The sides are 6mm

Meranti ply (the original plans are 1/4 inch) and the bottom is 9mm (originally 3/8 inch). The bottom was a mission to say the least - the plans suggest soaking the sheets in hot water overnight to get the required bend, but with marine ply soaking seems to make no difference I guess because the glue layers are impervious to water. So I ended up giving up on trying to do the front half with the 9mm and instead put on two layers of 4.5mm, epoxied between. The 4.5mm bent up just fine and to be honest I reckon this is a better way to go about it as the 9mm was so tough to work with even on the gentle curve of the aft half of the bottom.

Having got the ply on, I then decided to get a trailer sorted - I bought an old boat on a trailer, on-sold the boat and then extended the trailer, ground it back to metal and repainted using POR-15, the best anti-rust paint in the world.

So now I'm back to the boat and am finishing the bottom so that I can then sit her on the trailer and work on the deck and insides over the coming months. It will be good to think that at least part of the boat is finished - even the part you can't really see! She's going to be varnished sides and deck with a green bottom and white stripe around the chine. Her she is undercoated and waiting for topcoat. You can see that in our house move last year I lost out big time - my old double garage with heaps of space is now a single width with only just enough room for this project - its a challenge getting around!

A new challenge - 13' Outboard Runabout

Well, 6 months on from completion of my Port Sorell, I have given in and started a new project. Actually, its been taking shape quitely for the last few months with the construction of the frames, but it has now all come out from behind the work bench for the first stages of the build.

I found this boat on the net of course - the plans are from 1949 and I got them free, but having constructed the frames two were significantly 'out' and needed rebuilidng, so I guess you get what you pay for. I hope I now have them right - its been a matter of eyeing up the lines and trimming and adjusting to get what looks like a good shape. The chine is quite thick stock, 20 x 50 mm and was proving a challenge to bend so I split it in two and then glued the two parts in seperately...it seemed to give a better shape and saved me having to build up a steam box.

Here's a photo of the image from the plans - its called an Arrow and you find it through Google, though most of the 'Arrow runabouts' found on the search are vintage cars!

This is where I'm up to so far - frames in place, chines and clamps glued in, transom framing attached. At the stern in this photo you can see the cowling of the 1974 Johnson 40hp I've bought to go on the boat - not yet running very well but will fit that around the build. I wanted an old looking motor to go with the boat but not quite a 1950's.

I'm fortunate at present to have a double garage for the build, though my wife is keen to get her car back in as soon as possible! The other half houses my Port Sorell.

Completion and Launching!

Here we are finally - some 10 months after the plans first arrived from Selway Fisher - a beautiful day in Auckland arrived just in time for the launch. I'm very happy with the finished product and really pleased with the way she goes. The first day was not uneventful - my two son's-in-law had some interesting times trying to get the two sets of oars working in synch and I managed to lose my little Seagull over the stern due to to slippage on the protective stern bracket I made (though I did manage to hang onto it and in true Seagull fashion she started even after being submerged, though it did take 17 pulls!).

However, she's really a rowing skiff and is such a pleasure to row that I think the Seagull will largely be left at home... So here's the evidence of the finished product:

Well, Hi there and Happy Christmas to anyone out there in cyberspace who happens to be following this little account of my boat building activities. More progress has been made over the last few weeks and the end of the build is now in sight - over the last two weeks I have re-built my trailer, finished thh interior work and have applied 6 coats of varnish to the inside, oars and floorboards. Can't show you any photos of the inside at this stage, but here are the oars to give a sneak preview...

She's now turned over and after a nice Boxing Day sanding (thanks to my son-in-law Thomas for the helping hand) I've got the first coat of primer on. I'm using the Epiglass single pot system and will be going for a traditional white... here she is with a grey primer coat on...

I've made some progress on the oars now so thought I'd update the process. I managed to buy a nice quarter-cut length of Douglas Fir to replace the useless plank that was intended for the job and I've now cut out the blanks for both sets of oars. Pete Culler recommends building spoon bladed oars from two lengths of 150 x 25 glued together, but I've had to go for 50 x 50 section gluing 'wings' to the ends of the main stock to form the blades. The main reason for this is that at present I don't have a bandsaw and so I'm having to cut the curves with a jigsaw and so am limited to the width I can cut through. Actually, I now have two jigsaws - its just that one has blown up doing this job and I've had to pop out today to buy a replacement ... unexpected costs in boat building! So the first photo shows the rough blanks of Kauri stock guied up and the second shows the two Douglas Fir oars taking shape - not finished yet but the lower of the two is starting to look the part and I'm pleased with the way they're taking shape...