Help on first plywood lapstrake project.

[catxin]

I want to build the Japanese Beach Cruiser I found in a book by a man with the first name Phil, though I forget what the book was called, I copied the plans. The plans show the dimensions from top view and side view of the completed boat, to the outsides of the laps. It is supposed to be made of 6mm plywood. I don't know much about boat construction, and I am wondering how I could make a frame to build this hull on, or If I just need to do a lot of math to figure it out. it has good drawings, but I need to be able to cut all of the boards to the right shape and size. I'm guessing you won't want to explain the entire boat building process to me, so if anyone knows of a book that would definitely cover this project, that would be good. And I am wondering if I should use thicker plywood, if I should be going anywhere else than the open sea. Thanks for the help. :?:

[PAR]

The book you want is by John Brooks called "How to Build Glued-Lapstrake Wooden Boats". It will hold your hand through the whole process.

[htom]

Probably Phil Bolger, in "Boats with an Open Mind". You should write to him and purchase a set of the complete plans, they'll make it much easier.

[catxin]

Thanks for the quick reply, I'll definitely do both of those. I can't wait to be sailing out of San Pablo bay across to San Francisco, although I do have some other things to finish up before I get started on this project. I'll catch up on my reading though. Whenever I start a new project it's in a completely different field from my last ones, so I am a bit slow at them. I wouldn't think it's neccessary to take a sailing class to learn to sail. Perhaps I'll have a friend teach me. Phil claims this boat is fairly un-flipable, so I don't think I'd do any harm sailing around San Pablo with the storm sail up.