anyone built from any of Glen L plans or Classic Wooden Boat Plans?

[proto]

Hi,
I have recently become obsessed with building an older looking wooden boat but I cant afford one of the originals. So I began looking for kits and plans and have found two websites with boats I like, Glen L and Classic Wooden Boat plans. Glen L looks quite a bit more established then the latter but the bootlegger boat from their site is gorgeous. Any ways has anyone built a boat from Glen L , or Classic Wooden Boat Plans? and how are the instructions and everything to do with interacting with the companies? I am still quite uninformed on this topic.
Thanks

 

[proto]

bump

 

[mojounwin]

I built the Flying Saucer from Glen L.
Instructions and plans are easy enough to follow and the Glen L forum is very helpful for any questions along the way

 

[Ike]

I haven't built anything from Glen L or Classic Wooden boats. (I did build a boat from Bateau.com.) But Glen L has been around forever. I don't know the exact date they were established but I used to look at Glen L plans when I was a teenager. I'm 73 so that was quite some time ago. Their web site says they have been around 60 years.

 

[Yellowjacket]

It depends a good bit on what design you select. Some of the Glen-L plans are quite old and you wouldn't make them the same way today given more modern materials and techniques. While very beautiful, designs like the CWL "Baby Bootlegger" are very labor intensive. If you're willing to put in the work they can be done, but you're going to spend a good number of years and a good bit of money to do it. Note that it takes a lot more time to build from a set of plans that are supplied on a CD as opposed to full scale paper plans that you can put on the wood, mark and then cut out. If you have CD-ROM plans you have to take the dimensions for each frame and draw them out on the wood (carefully) and then cut them out. That takes a lot more time than unrolling a paper template and converting that to wood and then cutting it out. Older plans didn't expect to use epoxy/glass as a final surface, and this increases the strength as well as the weight.

Finally remember that many of these boats shown in the pictures are built by very experienced and talented wood workers. If you're not in that category you can do it, but just expect that it will take you a lot longer and you'll throw away a good number of pieces of wood that aren't cut perfectly in the process. A boat that is made of cold molded plywood (like the Bootlegger) is a lot more work than a boat that is made from sheets of plywood. Those tend to be an order of magnitude less work than cold molding, but you generally don't get the rounded lines that you get from cold molding.

I don't want to discourage you, but you need to be realistic in your expectations and an assessment of your skills. If you're willing to put in the labor and not take shortcuts, that is, take the time to do it right and make it look like the boats in the pictures, you'll have something that is very special and worth your time. If you don't you're likely to end up with something that isn't worth very much and you'll have spent a lot of time and money with not a lot to show for it.