Can someone point me in the right direction? where do i start?

Can someone give me pointers on where i can learn to build molds and what goes into the process of building boats. Im looking into what it takes to build a nice 26-29' open fisherman that can take waves and is a dry runner. I am also looking to build a flats boat as well.

What goes into the process from start to finish, design, mold building and then the manufacturing process. I just found this forum and hope to gain knowledge here.


Thanks

 

Your question seems extremely broad to me asking about the whole design and building process in one huge question

Are you looking to build a one-off for your own use, or as it sounds to me, to produce boats for sale? What's your current level of experience with boats? Usually even for a one-off the advice is to start small and build a dingy first

 

Well i am very experienced with boats. Born and raised in florida on the water, I currently own a crappy welcraft 23'. its a very wet boat and all around a horrible design IMO.

I am looking to find out how to build something i would like as well as possibly sell locally to start. What i really want to know is the process of building an open fisherman style craft that is around say 29'.

How does one learn to build a boat?

 

Get some books on the subject

 

Jeff gave you some very good advice. If you have never built a boat or worked with fiberglass before, your best bet is to start out with something small. My advice would be to acquire a small mold, such as a dinghy or canoe and start laying up glass. It is a lot cheaper to do it this way then to lay out a lot of dough building a plug, mold and a boat only to find out that you hate the smell of stryrene.

There are plenty of used molds available. Check out www.boatmoldtrader.com.

Also, there are a number of books out there that tell you how to work with glass.

 

Can i get some specific book names? I have worked with glass previously in the car audio business building molded speaker enclosures, so i do have some understanding of it. I was looking on that www.boatmoldtrader.com site but half of the links to the picures seem to be broken. I tried to email a question about one of the molds but it was broken so i wasnt sure if the site was still operational. Also i just picked up a few Professional boat builder magazines to thumb through also as a starting point.

If i could get a few names of good books that deal with glassing and building that would be great.

 

Check out the books at Amazon.com. There are a lot there to choose from. Also, check out what they have at the library.

If you have already started working with fiberglass, then you have a head start. I was lucky in that there was a fiberglass shop near me, and they would let me hang out and watch. I learned a tremendous amount that way. Learning the basics of fiberglass is fairly simple. The tough part is constructing the boat once the parts have been laid up, especially the size of boat you want to build.

I am not one to discourage anyone, but you should be aware of the magnitude in both time and money for the project you want to complete. To build the plug and molds for that size boat will probably cost you somewhere in the six figures.

I have a few molds listed on the boatmoldtrader website. Which ones were you interested in?

 

Well i am thinking of trying my luck with a small canoe or something first but would like to upgrade to a flats boat like the 20' you have on that site. Im not looking to have my own design cnc'd out right now since i am sure that would cost an arm and a leg, however, something to get me started locally until i could work towards something larger is what i am thinking about doing,.

 

The flats boat molds are not mine. They do look pretty good though. Starting with a canoe is a good idea. Being that you are in Tampa, there should be a few boat builders near you. You should approach them and see if they will let you see how things are done. You could also find someone experienced in fiberglass and have him help you build a few canoes. The price you would pay him would be a lot less than what it would cost in lost raw materials.

 

I have been doing searches on the internet for books on boat building but most seem to be for yachts, and that is not what i want to take on lol. I wish someonecould give me a few titles that i can look up and purchase to get me started.

 

Say if i had a mold, and it was prep'd, what goes into starting the process? What is the first thing you apply to the mold and so on until it is ready to be pulled out of the mold?

 

There are a lot of books out there. One book that I read was "From a bare hull" by Ferenc Mate. He was building a sailboat, but a lot of what he discusses will apply to all boats.

In regards in what to do if you have a mold that is "prepped", the first thing you want to make sure of is that it has been waxed. If not, you will have a fiberglass part that may not come out of the mold. The next step is apply the gel coat. This can be done either by spraying it on or painting it on. Spraying is the easiest and fastest way, but you will also have more of an odor as well as overspray to contend with. In addition, gel coat has to be applied so that a thickness of approximately 20 mils is achieved. If you apply too much gel coat, it can crack, too little, and you will get some serious imperfections. We generally spray on the gel coat in three passes so that it allows the gel coat to outgas. After the gel coat has been applied, it needs to cure to a point where it becomes tacky. Once that has been achieved, you apply your first layer of glass, the skin coat, with a glass called "mat" which are short lengths of glass fibre randomly oriented and held together by a binder. The mat is placed over the gel coat and saturated with resin. You then need to work out all of the airbubbles by using a special metal roller. After the skin coat has been applied, you can then start applying other fiberglass such as woven roving or knitted fabrics to the desired thickness. As each layer is applied, it is necessary to remove all airbubbles.
This is a very basic description of what takes place. Do as much reading as possible, but the best way to learn is to watch someone and then do it yourself. This is not rocket science, but there are many things that you will need to learn.

 

Thank you for giving me some insite to what i am looking for. Now just to get started

 

You could also buy a plywood / epoxy kit and build that to start have a look at http://boatplans-online.com/index.php, they have plans and kits available

 

Here's one that I find very usefull...
http://www.boatdesigns.com/prodinfo.asp?number=12-435
It's from this section...
http://www.boatdesigns.com/products.asp?dept=34
Of this site...
http://www.boatdesigns.com/
Sam