T&G Skin

[alan white]

Body plan I think, but not sure. I moved a lot of stuff to redo living room.
When I get back to normal, I'll check and let you know, and thanks much for the offer to help.

[PAR]

The only body plan I have is on the "Lines and Offsets" page. I've had this file for quite while, so it's an old scan, with old scanner resolution. It's readable and could easily be redrawn, though I think you'd like RYD-14.11 better. She carries her transom clear instead of immersing it like Vagabond, her light air performance is better and I think the cabin profile looks better too.

[alan white]

Thanks Paul. I may build a boat of that size one of these days, but my interest right now is of the armchair variety. I agree your boat is pretty. You've got a good eye for sheerlines, which you don't see so much any more.
I can tell you've spent a lot of time studying the old designs.

[PAR]

Alan, I have a round bilge version of this hull too. It can be strip planked in a variety of ways, including my Lord/PAR method (a modified Lord method), molded veneer, molded plywood, Ashcroft and lastly, which would be very pretty on this hull, glued or traditional lapstrake. The Lord/PAR method would be lightest with the highest ballast/displacement ratio, plank on frame the heaviest. Strip planking (one of several methods) would be easiest, but has a fairly high "goo factor". Ashcroft would be fastest, glued lap the prettiest, Molded plywood the easiest of the molded versions and plank on frame the least amount of goo factor. It's a very shapely round bilge boat.

Give me a yell when you want that body plan.

[alan white]

Yubet. Thanks, Paul.

[FramerDan]

Wow, thank you for all the posts. I wish I'd gotten back on here sooner to read them as they came.

I have read a few boatbuilding books George Buehler's "Backyard Boatbuilding" is one of them I'm working on cover to cover. My questions were mainly from my pocketbook's perspective.

I was looking into VG fir and noted that $1.66 a foot isn't too expensive.
But $2.00 a 16' 2x4 would certainly be cheaper.

I'm building this boat to get an idea of what a more complicated plan can do to me, it's not of my design, just an old boat from the 40's.

Trouble for me is that everywhere you look in books is what you should do, they don't bother telling you what not to do. T/G confused me on that respect, I thought of the splitting out groove, but wasn't sure if it'd really do it since they're all the same wood type. It was attractive because I thought maybe T/G could offer a better seal through wet/dry transitions, without spending on skin as much.

Almost makes me want to spline it all with a harder wood

The real problem is that I'm going to be pulling it out of the water a lot. I live in Idaho.
"Why the hell do you want a sailboat in Idaho?"
let me worry about that.

I read somewhere that using thinner planking can be a better seal, since it doesn't expand and contract as much...or at least the expansion is spaced out over more seams. Would using 1.5" strips (cut VG strips off standard lumber) be worth the effort? Or would the extra seams just make for disaster?

I know I'm a rough carpenter by trade, but I do possess the patience to do this. I have the common sense, but not the experience. All in all I think this boat will turn out very well, for me.

What I needed to do was not post right before bed.

I'll look up some of those design oriented books/authors suggested, maybe my problem is that I'm reading construction books, while I need to know the reasoning behind all that, at least for my own satisfaction.

[PAR]

George Buehler's sail designs are fairly straight forward builds, but the net result is less then sparkling performance, lots of rustic charm, overly heavy (you have to trailer this thing remember) and you can directly relate the materials cost to build by the displacement or weight of the vessel (meaning it'll cost more then you think, because they're overly heavy designs).

You can still use the fur, just rip the groove and tongue off on a table saw and move onto the next issue.

In the big picture, for a home built, trailer boat, it's very hard to beat plywood. Even the God awful expensive marine panels will be cheaper when you factor in the number of square feet of uninterrupted surface (32 per full sheet) are you can apply, with no seams to worry about. Particularly if building a modern design, which relies of the inherent strengths of plywood and it's ability to accept glues and sheathing.

If you want a bigger boat then trailer sailor, the George's stuff could interest you, but you'll be disappointed with their performance, unless rig changes are made.

Keep reading, but eventually you'll have to settle on a design. Select a modern design, so you don't have material and method conflicts with things done and available today, instead of using a half a century ago thinking.

Start gathering materials as you stumble on them. Old building being torn down is a great place to find stock that can be resawn into boat building lumber. Swap meets, boat shows, etc. A boat builder is a resourceful son of a gun if they're anything.