Newbie Boat Builder

[RobMarks]

Can anyone help me with videos and books on boat building please

Cheers Rob

[sean-nós]

Hi rob what type of boat are you thinking of building. You can see some links to my builds below they are Glen-L boats and there books "boat building with plywood" and "inboard motor installations" are very good.

[RobMarks]

Wooden with ply mate, just a simple boat with an outboard

[rwatson]

I can recommend looking at

http://www.devlinboat.com/stitchandglue.php

and I found his book and video to be a good starting point

[Ike]

look at Bateau.com or Glen-L at http://www.glen-l.com/

[RobMarks]

Cheers Guys, I have found some plans and redesigned them to fit my needs.

One Question tho how can i draw/mark out the curvature to the boat ? is there some kind of nack to it

[hoytedow]

Welcome to the forum, Rob.

Lofting

[rwatson]

Originally Posted by RobMarks

Cheers Guys, I have found some plans and redesigned them to fit my needs.

One Question tho how can i draw/mark out the curvature to the boat ? is there some kind of nack to it

This is always an exciting time - either marking the ply, or building the framework.

It depends on the building method.

Worst case, you have to calculate out a dozen points, and then try and get a smooth line to join them all up. For this, a length of straight, smooth timber that is thin enough to bend around the 'dots', will give you a great curve.

Best case, you take a disk down to your local cnc guy, and get them to cut out the wood.

What do you plans require ?

The overriding principle is that there will always be a bit of a discrepancy between the plans and what you cut yourself. The trick is just to make sure the discrepancy is the same for both sides of the boat.

[Ike]

Instead of using a long thin piece of wood for a batten (or spline) to draw smooth curves, I use a 10 foot piece of 1/2 inch PVC tubing. It's cheap, bends around most anything and has a smooth edge (side, top, bottom?). It works very well and you can get them in the plumbing section at Home Depot or any other hardware or home improvement store, and they come in varying lengths. However, any batten will take on a set if you don't store it somewhere where it can lay straight. So be careful where you store it.

[rwatson]

Originally Posted by Ike

Instead of using a long thin piece of wood for a batten (or spline) to draw smooth curves, I use a 10 foot piece of 1/2 inch PVC tubing. .....

The problem I found with that is that being round, when you draw a line, the pencil wanders over the curved edge. You really need a flat edge to hold a pencil vertical.

Fibreglass Sail battens are good if you can drive nails into the flat wood and lean the batten against them.

[Ike]

The pencil wanders over the curved edge

Initially I had the same problem but I just got used to making sure the pencil was straight up and down all the time.

[Dirteater]

Hi Rob,
I used Door trim and a carpenters pencil,
and a black felt sharpy before lofting.

[PAR]

I too have switched to man made batten stock, though I still have some nice long fir and mahogany pieces I use from time to time. I use flat extruded stock, rather then pipe, which eliminates pen wander as you scribe a line. This can be commonly had in 20' lengths.

[ancient kayaker]

Originally Posted by RobMarks

Cheers Guys, I have found some plans and redesigned them to fit my needs . . .

How much of a redesign? As a self-confessed newbie is this a good idea? I admit that I also change designs to suit myself but I didn’t start doing that until I had a few boats under my belt first.

Originally Posted by RobMarks

. . . One Question tho how can i draw/mark out the curvature to the boat ? is there some kind of nack to it

I’m wondering what kind of plans you have. There are plans that need a professional or experienced amateur builder to understand, and plans for newbies that have comprehensive instructions. If you have good newbie-oriented plans you shouldn’t need to ask these kinds of questions.

[chriscrafter54]

Go to Youtube and check out brandotown
Townsendboatworks. great vidios