Boatbuilding Tips and Tricks

THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2009

Framed Boat Plywood Cutout Guide

I've just added a new guide to my web site entitled: Framed Boat Plywood Cutout Guide. You should check it out if you've ever wondered why boat designers never seen to tell you what size and shape you're supposed to cut out the plywood planking. You will be surprised, I promise!

Framed Boat Plywood Cutout Guide.

Let me know what you think.

SUNDAY, MARCH 15, 2009

Boat Building Epoxy Source

I often get e-mails from people asking about what kind of epoxy is best to use for building my boats. I've used an online supplier, John Greer, in the past and find his products excellent quality and very well priced. He ships quickly, answers questions promptly and also stocks thickening agents like cab-o-sil and microspheres, and also carries fiberglass cloth and tape, also at excellent prices. Check out his web site: http://www.jgreer.com/. The "Green" product is ideal for both gluing and wetting fiberglass cloth on my boats.

SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 2009

Blogging Building a 19' Alaskan Grand Banks Dory

My customer who is building the 19' Alaskan Grand Banks Dory below is blogging about his experience. He's collected a great series of posts about the actual experience of building a boat. It's worth a read. Remember that blogs are organized backwards, that it the latest posts are first. The best way to read them is from the oldest forward, so it makes sense. Stop by and take a look. It really captures the day by day experiences of what building a boat is all about. Here's his blog: http://build-a-dory.blogspot.com/.

THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2009

Alaskan 19' Grand Banks Dory Coming Together

This is the second of my designs, this customer has built. His other was an Oysterman Carolina Dory. He's doing a great job on it and it's been skinned already. It won't be long until he'll be out having a blast in his new home built boat. The Alaskan is a very capable, rugged dory suitable for river, lake, near coastal and even offshore use.

I'll keep you posted on the progress and post pictures once it's complete.

- Jeff

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2009

Innovative Clamping Technique for Boat Building

I'm sure you've seen photos of huge arrays of wood clamps when people are building boats and though, "Wow, I couldn't afford all of those clamps if I ever wanted to build a boat!" Well, don't worry. there are ways around this. This Huntington Harbor kayak builder scrounged all of the materials to build his kayak, mostly from the dump, and were he lives (the Canadian Arctic) there are no inexpensive tool stores or swap meets to pick up a bunch of inexpensive clamps, so he made due with scrounged materials. Here you can see he used simple polypropylene rope tied around the chine log, then with short sticks, he twisted the rope pulling the frame elements into place. This is commonly called a "Spanish Windlass."

So, see you don't have to have lots of fancy tools to do a great job on easy to build boat plans like those available at Spira International. Inc. Here's how his boat came out:

TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2009

New Fishing Boat Building Article

I wrote this new article and uploaded it to my site recently about building fishing boats. It takes a look at the special needs of fisherman and offers information about which easy to build boats are most suited to the kind of fishing you do. Check it out at: http://spirainternational.com/a_fishingboat.html/. You can also download a pdf version of the article to print out and read at your leisure.

- Jeff

MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2009

Wooden Boat Building - The Perfect Winter Project

What have you been doing this winter? Watching TV and working on building up that spare tire around your middle? Not this guy. One of my customers in the Midwest has been spending some spare time in his garage building this beautiful easy to build 18 Carolinian Carolina Dory. He almost there now and when spring arrives, guess what he's going to be doing come spring? You guessed it, fishing in one of the most economical, light, safe and fun boats you could ever own. You can build it for a couple hundred dollars in 100 hours or so. What are YOU waiting for?