Nicely chosen music for your video. And though I haven't any pets right now I like seeing them in people's build videos. The animals don't seem to mind what you are doing. They just like being with their people. Looks like non- marine grade ply? That's what I'd do too. I love occumé ply when I can get it & how it planes but shipping it to me costs as much as the plywood!
Nice build! I'm thinking of building something like this. Do you know where I could get the plans for it or did you design it yourself? Have you sailed it yet?
I built this boat with stitch and tape construction. The plans call for frame and chine log construction. I don't see any real advantage to the way I did it. In the end I don't see any real advantage to the way I built it, it is just the construction method I am used to. I think chine logs and frame construction is potentially stronger and probably quicker. I also added a bunch of cosmetic embellishments, that are not on the plans.
Did you use standard plywood or marine grade? I've heard good and bad things about standard plywood. On a scale of 1 to don't waste your time and just buy a boat, how easy/difficult is it to build?
I have also heard pros and cons to both. It was really difficult for me to source Marine grade ply in my area. After all the work that I did put into this boat, I wish I had spent the time and effort to get marine grade. I did however use Exterior grade 1/4 inch from my local builders mart. You have to deal with some voids that will need to be filled, and you will certainly need to paint every thing ply. But if its your first boat, you will need to paint anyway, because you are not going to yield one of those beautiful Goats you see on the RU-vids all varnished out. This is actually the third boat I have built. I can not stress enough how amazing the feeling is when a sailboat you have built takes to the wind and begins to trot along! I will always recommend build over buy for a daysailer. But there are lots of plan options out there and some are easier to build than others. I certainly went overboard on the embellishments for this boat and it is certainly not completely to plans. It took me a long time to build this boat, yet my father banged his out in a matter of weeks. And it is every bit the boat mine is. If you are half way handy, you should give it a try. I built a kayak for my first boat, and was hooked ever since. I then built a Bolger Nymph, which turned out to be an amazing little boat. So in summation... Build a boat, for goodness sakes! Life is short. It is an awesome adventure, with an awesome pay off. Go marine grade, if you can, but don't let it stop you if you can't find it, or it it's cost is a deal breaker. Do the research, and find plans for the boat that is right for you.
Thank you. I am looking to buy a set of canoe plans (Quick Canoe from Storer Boats) just to get my feet wet, so to speak. I can get marine grade plywood locally (Tampa) and there are several boat supply stores where I can get the epoxy and fiberglass cloth and hopefully have some questions answered. I'd like to build a Goat Island skiff after that because I would like to have a small sailboat for Tampa Bay. Who knows, I might eventually build something bigger that can handle the Gulf of Mexico.
Reuben Hubert ....I have a bit of boat building experience and would offer this advice, wisely given to me by my father, a very talented woodworker/boatbuilder. If you are building a boat that is intended to last for more than a few years, you should use the best materials possible. Yes, they do cost more, but when you figure out the total cost of building the boat, and the time you put into it, the cost of the wood is small cost of the overall project. When it’s all said and done, skimping on plywood to save $300 on the entire build isn’t the best idea, and is often false economy as cheaper plywood is often heavier, harder to work with, and needs more yearly maintenance or epoxy (all expensive) in order to work for boat building. Also, regardless of the wood you use, it takes the same amount of time to build the boat. Actually, it might take longer to use cheap wood, as you have to fill voids, deal with tear out from planing, etc. Now, that said, if you are totally new to boat building, and want to see if you like it, use the inexpensive stuff. You are going to make some errors and probably won’t be building a complex vessel to start with. Some exterior grade construction ply will be fine. Heck, I’ve even built a small rowing skiff out of underlayment. Completely saturated with epoxy it works okay (for a small rowboat...would never use it for a larger sailboat). But if you graduate from a small rowboat to something like a Goat Island Skiff, try to at least spring for the Meranti. It’s only like $20/sheet more than exterior fir ply. So that’s like a savings of $120 for the entire boat. When you find out how nice Meranti is to work with compared to fir ply, you won’t miss that extra $120 at all. That’s my .$02. Hope that helps, or is at least insightful.
