My new baby! 6.8 Meter fiber over wood fishing boat !

Forget about deatils.

Find out if the materials mentioned several posts ago are available at reasonable rates.

It does not make any sense to go deeper into methods and materials before we know what we can use in the end.

Regards
Richard

 

Righto some quick phone calls to a friend and he told me the following:

Mahogany and beach pine are available (pine range is from $800 - $1500 m3). Cedar isnt available and is very expensive and hard to find.
Im looking for prices as we speak but ship yards wount allow me to get my wood (as ill be taking their profit) so ill have to get a quote from the yard itself.

Plywood is not a natural wood (made right?) that is also available خَشَبٌ رَقَائِقِيّ is the Arabic name - if i got the translation right -

The wood on the boat (planks in the first post) is called white wood (arabic literal translation) and is extremely cheap and the most popular (goes with out saying!)

Epoxy brands are available both local and imported .... ill visit an area when i get back to Cairo that specializes in epoxy brands.

 

The local will be much cheaper and we can live with it!!!

Forget about building that boat!*** Import Pine from Turkey and get a superyacht done in Holland after two years!

I assume drug dealing is not a better profit! And there are no big custom duties between "brother nations" as far as I know!?!

Regards
Richard

 

Well it would probably be easier to import drugs than to get wood out of customs, i have to go through health inspection, quality inspection, customs etc... .... (and after paying them .... they reach the lovely price i mentioned if not more!!!!)
So i need to buy wood from turkey build the boat in the US and sail it to Egypt ....

So yah .... that was a rough estimate but i will worry about the wood prices ... ill find a good deal ...

So what is my next step ? (Providing i dont have to turn to drug dealing or wood trafficking mastermind ...)

 

ok deleted post by mistake *sigh*

Father in law will build a shoteya, he has good experience in boat building and i did mention the concerns raised by our boat experts in this forum.

He is traveling to the Yard to inspect the hull so its a great opportunity for me to tag alone, take a lot of pictures and learn as much as i can ! (i got a free learning ride )

Ill keep every one posted!

wish me luck !

 

If the boat would fit inside a shipping container when complete I can think of some interesting options - namely a container full of wood going one way and a completed boat coming back the other.

Please do take a lot of photos of the build process, don't be like other build project posters and only post a few here and there - try to document everything if you can. I'll even set up a web gallery for you to post them to if you want.

I'm guessing most of us have never seen an Egyptian boat being built by traditional methods in a local shipyard - I'd like to see as much of it as possible from an anthropological standpoint as well as a boat design / construction one. I'd be interested to see if any of the ancient techniques are still used in any form today. (Sadly I know more about ancient Egyptian boat building than the modern equivalent).

I've noticed that quite a few modern day trades in the region still use ancient techniques combined with modern tools and sometimes modern copies of ancient tools.

I hope your Father will at least have them modify the hull braces to be a bit more substantial. The original ones look like they could be loosened with a well placed, accidental kick or a hard landing coming off a high wave. Be sure to install some method of pumping water out of her, ideally with a backup. If she does pop a seam you're going to need it to stand any chance of reaching shore.

 

Yah he said the exact same thing!
He increased the frame width all around the boat, made the keel (bottom part bigger -ribs-) larger in height (to allow space for bilge pump and to create a water pathway so the water gathers at the lowest area where he will fit the bilge pump). The hull braces should be stronger and he will also added storage areas under them for stronger support (and closed storage space).
He said he might also close the open deck by another meter for added strength.
He also decreased the keel v angle to get a more stable boat.

I will ensure i take pics of every single stage, including epoxy (but it will be for other boats as we are going to inspect the hull the trip is 7 hrs so we ill see!)

I am very happy you find this interesting and i will make sure i have some insight from this particular yard.
I am planning to do a more extensive tour around other yards and other building methods for myself and to share it as well

 

I am looking forward to seeing this boat built.

 

Well yesterday i visited a shipyards where a friend had built his boat (22 meters) and wow ... a whole new ball game.
They focus on wood only and i was pretty impressed (for my experience) by the quality. They even had a boat being built for Holland!

The craftsmen ship and knowledge are a much better than the first yard i visited (although each focuses on a different method).
I have asked them to quote me for a 7 meter wooden open deck boat. Their hull design is quite different from the shoteya, but they didn't have any being built so i couldn't take pictures.

I would love some help with creating a web gallery but for the mean time, here are some pics for ancient kayaker. Im sure you will find those very interesting !!!

There are a lot more .... but just a quick preview !! (Teaser so to speak )

 

Right im traveling tomorrow to see my inlaws shooteya (another yard).
I will check with them all the hull designs they have, the wood prices and construction method in details (fiber over wood).

Yes i am nuts and i took a vacation from work to peruse this project, what can i say im addicted to boats now and its all the forums fault! if i get fired i know who im blaming (hint hint)....

And for every one checking on my posts, here are some lovely pictures of Alexandria, Egypt

 

Thanks for the photos so far. If you want that web gallery send me a PM and I'll get you set up. (We are partners in a hosting company, I have several servers for my own use so there's no expense).

Do the shipyards import all the wood they use or is there a local supply of suitable types?

I'm curious what the cost would be for a large boat from that yard vs. one in Europe or the US? Something tells me it might be possible to get a very nice wooden boat built for a very good price. The logistics would be "involved" but it might be worth exploring....

 

Well the one covered in the pic (english style building) is around 200,000 L.E (35,000 $) But the cost is mostly wood type (High grade) and construction method.

The attached photo is a conventional hull design and good grade wood. It would cost around 18,500 $ (2 years old, recently deployed from dry docks 140 HP yamaha turbo engine kitchen, bathroom etc...)

Yah if you have a design, just send it to me and i can take it to the ship yard and get a quote .....

 

Well it was an exhausting trip .... !!!

As apex said, this time i saw the problems with quality regarding the construction and material used.

Below are some of the pics i took of the hull (which i am not happy with)

I talked to the yard and here is what i understood:
1- The hull is left in 45 degree sun for a couple of days, the wood dries shrinking the frame and closing the gaps.
2- The hull is then nailed again to close any remaining gaps.
3- The hull is sanded and filled to make it ready for fiber glass.
4- Fiber glassing begins.

The reason they use the white wood for planking, is that it accepts fiber glass easily and sticks very well to it. However i know this wood roots easily, expands with water and is week.
So in other words should the fiber glass break at any point and the wood is exposed, the boat will deteriorate extremely rapidly which is why we will take another trip to see the boat right before fiber glassing (hopefully it should be in much better shape!!) and ensure that the fiber glass is sound.

 

Attached are the stages of construction, i took step by step pics as to make it clear for viewing.

 

Continued ....