Newbie to boat design and building wants to make own boat

[bigisland]

Aloha,

I am a current student at the Marine Education and Training Center in Honolulu Hawaii. I have the basic skills of glassing and woodworking and I have done some hand drafted line drawings of sailboats. The reason I am writing is because I was thinking of trying to design and build my own 16' radon like fishing boat. Do you think it is possible for me actually do it? I have been devouring books from the Gougeon Brothers to basic boat repairs just so I can get more info. on how to do it. Where do I start? anyways if anyone could help I would greatly appreciate it. Mahalo.

[longliner45]

Mahalo,go do it

[Loveofsea]

A 16 footers would be a perfect size to start. My first skiff was a 16 footer (15' 10") and i put 35,000nm on her before is built a 19 footer. The great thing about a 16 footer is you can fab it from common sized sheets of plywood. i'm talking about a seaworthy flatbottom design.

You could bolt a 40-50hp outbd tiller on a 16 foot flatbottom skiff and own the sea around you for 40 miles in any direction. (pick your days of course...)

The first thing to do is to draw a sketch of your perfect boat. Then make a model from cardboard and scotch tape. Make a few models untill you have a good one...

From there it is just a matter of plane geometry, woodworking, time and dedication....