Old plans new boat

My friend email me some plans for an ols sailboat. Its 27ft long with an 8ft beam. Its an all wood boat. Some of the design has to be change because the design it close to 50 years old COOOOL.
What is should be the minumum thickness of the hull. I was thinking 1/2in think with fiberglass inside and out. Or what if I used pine planking or even oak think 3/4in would be thick enough. Oh it does have a cabin and is a weekend cruiser wouldn't take it any father then a half day out.
As I build I am sure I will come up with many many more quesions

 

All that information is in the plans. Why do you want to change them?

 

can you post the plans or the design of the boat you want to build? It would save you a lot of money and trouble to just buy some more modern boat plans, there are reasons that they do not make boats that way anymore.

 

Sorry can't post thed [lan due to copy write. Thanks Though guess I wi;; stick to what the plans say

 

Not enough info for anyone to help, if you cant post the plans you can tell who the designer is and what the name of the design is if it has one. What is the construction method? at only 50 yrs old it could be carvel, cold molded, strip planked or even plywood. There is no reason not to change the construction if it makes sense to do so, ie, a change from carvel to strip planked, and there is no reason not to use an old design if you like it.

Steve.

 

Rot factory

You do NOT want to encapsulate the wood on both sides as if you get any water into the laminate it won't be able to escape (dry out) and you will have created a rot factory!

 

Encapsulated wood is a tried and proven method. It has been around for decades with great success. It is not true that water will migrate across the grain of the planking and evaporate.

 

Which works fine until there's water ingress into the wood. Reference all the boats that have balsa or even marine plywood as cores and which were badly damaged, sometimes even ruined when water entered the cores.

Cold molded hulls will most often have the fiberglass (preferably set with epoxy rather then regular resin) only on the outside. These boats don't show the same symptoms.

 

Most hulls are laminated on both sides. If you have water intrusion, not being laminated on one side makes little or no difference. Also, if there is water intrusion, there is a problem either structural, on the installation or lack of maintenance. All the boats that have balsa or plywood and rotted was because the deck hardware was not re-bedded on a regular schedule. The holes were not waterproofed with resin before installing the fasteners. And finally, because there was structural damage and the laminate cracked.

 

what is the name of the boat, size and the designer? do you have any pictures of it?

 

Dreamsailoring, you can post any image you want. If you're concerned about copyright, just post the appropriate credit(s). In fact, it's highly unlikely that a half a century old design, has any copyright protection all. They'd have run out long ago (decades). Deviating from the suggested scantlings wouldn't be a wise idea, without preforming the necessary math or conversion process. Considering your questions, you obviously don't have a strong grasp on the fundamentals in this regard, so as mentioned by others, sticking to the scantlings on the plans is the right way, unless you seek some professional assistance, like a build method conversion, etc.

Navatech, I'm not sure of your experience level, but clearly you haven't a lot of with truly encapsulated epoxy structures. You comments are accurate with attempts at this in polyester, but not with epoxy. Your assessment of molded boat sheathing methods, is also incorrect. Of course, a core can be ruined, with neglect, but this isn't the fault of the technique, but the owner for not maintaining the sheathing and/or coatings. This is true of any core, wood or otherwise and has no valid bearing, on the material used.

 

Thanks all
The boat is a starlite cruise don't know where you can get a copy of them but my friend told he found them for me on the web. (Sorry I didn't know). We are new to building and don't have alot of extra money doing it mainly for fun.
We are curently working on a small ten foot sailboat already. Epoxied and fiberglass on both sides. JUST LIKE I BUILD A CANOE.
Just so you know there is no rot in it.

 

the Starlite 27' 6" sailboat plans are available for free download from a number of sites, it was first published in Mechanix Illustrated magazine. I have a set of these plans from the old magazine.



it is not a bad boat and fairly inexpensive to build using hardware store supplies, but it is a rather poor performer by today's standards. There are actually a few that have built them, I found one forum that had a guy that lived on board one for a number of years. I like the boat, but if I was going to build a boat from scratch I would buy some plans for a more modern design.

 

Thanks for the web site. I am not building for preformance but mainly for the experience. I have plans to build something big later but I want to gain experience cheaply over time. Want to make sure I can do it and like it before I spend tons of money on something I want to cruise in. Pluse I want something to teach the kids in that we can play on in the lake.

 

If you want to gain experience, build a smaller boat first of all and preferably, in the building method you'll use on the bigger boat. Often this is the tender to the mothership. Starlite is a bit of pig as a sailor, though it's predictable in it's manners. It's not a boat a first time builder should consider, for several reasons, as it's not a small nor inexpensive project

Stay under 18', preferably under 16' for your first build. The Starlite has long been in the public domain. The plans available for her, are just adequate for a builder with some experience, but not very novice friendly. There are a lot of plans available that offer a lot more in regard to detail, options and material choices, not to mention a better performance envelop and a more cost effective build method with modern materials. I love it when a person says they're not interested in performance. You will be, particularly after you get crushed by a boat half your size and can't keep up with friends and acquaintances, with more modern sailors.