Need advice on boat plans

[determined_ange]

Would it work if I used plywood as a butt block and attached it with wood instead of these bulky blocks I'm using

[VKRUE]

I agree with Tpucker...
The scarf joint would have been the way to go but, we live & learn. Good to see you making progress though and, taking pictures too.

I am lagging behind in everything that I'm doing, especially my boat.

What kind of plywood are you using ? Is it marine grade ? How many plies ?

I'm guessing that your not spending a lot of $$$ on marine grade for your first boat... (good thinking) however, 4x16' plywood can be had. Have you tried your local Menards store... they've told me that they can custom order special plywood to my preferences ??? Just a thought.

For someone who wants to spend the $$$ a fella can buy 4' x 16'... 18' or even 5' x 20' sheets from Boulter http://www.boulterplywood.com/ if he wants to.

The reason that I asked about the # of plies in your plywood is that plywood that has fewer plies tends to be more difficult to bend because each individual ply is thicker whereas plywood that has more plies is more supple because each ply is thinner. The plywood that I used to repaire the hole I cut into my boats hull (to replace a section of the damaged keel) was 3/8" but it had 7 plies and I was actually able to achieve a slight compound bend with it. Bending plywood in two oposite directions (compound bending) is not easy with most plywood. I used dry heat though by laying these patch boards on my shops furnace before applying the epoxy and attaching them to the boat. http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger...ipart57500.jpg It's not exactly easy to see the compound bending in the photo but like I said... it's slight. I noticed to that there is a slight twist in it too.

[determined_ange]

The scarf joint would have surley been a better joint but, as you have stated before, I'm at a shortage of tools. So making a scarf joint was almost impossible.

As for the plywood, it is not marine and only consists of 3 plies but is still somewhat susceptible to bend. Your right I'm not investing a lot of money because of the fact that this is my first boat and is just a fun and expirimental project. This boat is just to learn and gives me an opportunity to make as many mistakes as possible because the more mistakes I make the more I learn and the more wiser I am.

I am planning on building a second boat that hopefully will come out way better. This time I know what is needed, how much time I need to take out of my day in order to finish at a reasonable time, and the money involved in all this. So I hope that I can use my new found knowlegde to build a top quality boat that will last me for years to come!

[Geoh]

Check out this free site... updated const technique that probably was not around when those plans were first drawn http://bateau2.com/content/view/46/28/

Geoh

[Geoh]

http://boatbuildercentral.com/help/Stitch_and_glue.htm