@@appinwood my father was an old school boat builder and built a beautiful 16' sailing dinghy, but when us kids came around, my mom said no more boat because it was too small. So naturally, my dad went out to the shop and literally cut his beautiful boat in half, Built another 4 foot section, and I learned to sail on that 20' "dinghy"
This is just beautiful. First attempt? You are obviously a pretty accomplished woodworker. I saw a small sailboat a couple years ago and just fell in love. When I inquired about the design it was of this type construction. So here I am learning all I can about it. I'm probably crazy with my abilities. But I would sure like to try. You must be very proud. Very nice little boat! Thanks for posting.
Thank you so much for your comment. It is my first attempt and was my Christmas project a few years ago. I would encourage you to have a go at making one. The things that I would recommend that you need are, patience, good plans, instructions books and the best marine plywood you can find. I started using inferior plywood and regretted it. Iain Oughtred's plans are very detailed and very high quality. The Little Auk may also be built as a sailboat.
Great work! I am about to take on this design (I have the plans in the closet right now). I'm curious what type of lumber you used for the backbone and transom. It appears to be fir for the backbone? I'm considering lengthening the frames out to get the longer, 8'10" as it will be used as our dinghy from our cruising boat but avoiding the need to re-loft is making me second guess.
Glad to hear that you are going to make one of these boats. Apart from the plywood used for the hull, all of the other wood was timber that I repurposed from pews from an old church. They were used as garden benches and after about 20 years they began to rot. I rescued what I could and used the recovered wood on this boat. Judging by the appearance and the smell of the wood, I think that it is pitch pine. I made the oars from new Douglas fir. Good luck with your project.
John, thank you for your comment. I put the stringers on just to make sure that the overall shape was just right and that I hadn't messed up in cutting the moulds. I did wander about showing them as I immediately removed them once I was satisfied that shape was correct. Well spotted.
Thank you. I didn't coat it with epoxy but used Owatrol Deks Olje D1 Wood Oil. This is an oil finish intended for marine applications. It is easy to apply and looks great.
Thank you very much. The boat is based on a design by Iain Oughtred from the Isle of Skye here in Scotland. This is the Auklet which is the smallest one that he sells. The plans are very comprehensive. He has published an instruction book that really helps. The boat is about 2.2m (7ft 2inches) long and 23kg (50lbs) in weight. The plan also contains the option to make it a sail boat.
What's the estimated price on building this boat? I want to build a small clinker very similar to this and am trying to get an idea of cost. Also how many hours did you get to enjoy building this?
Thank you for your interest in my boat. It is very difficult to estimate the price of building a boat of this type. Wood prices have been quite volatile. If I were to build another one of these I think that I would be budgeting about £400 (UK prices). If you decide to use plywood for the hull, use the best that you can find. Look for plywood with equal thickness layers. I started using marine ply from a builders' merchant, it delaminated and the outer layers of ply were incredibly thin. I finished the boat with Deks Olje D1 which was a pleasure to use. It took me about 3 months to build from start to finish. Some of this was me going through a learning process. Much of the time was spend waiting for epoxy to cure meaning that I could only do two strips per day. I suspect that I spent maybe 150 hours spread over the three months. Good luck with your boat build.
I used 4mm thick marine plywood. It is very important that you use the best plywood you can get you hands on. I got mine from a specialist marine timber supplier. Try to find plywood with veneers of equal thickness. Avoid plywood that has very thin decorative veneers on the outer layers and inferior wood on the inside.
What’s the point of buying marine plywood just to cut it into strips?! When you could just use pre-cut solid wood strips for a fraction of the cost & effort!? Plus wouldn’t it look the same & still be building a wood plank boat yourself?
Thank you for your question. The answer lies in strength and weight. The plywood used is only 4mm thick but still very strong. It is also relatively easy to bent into shape. In order to get similar strength in solid wood the strips would have to be three or four times thicker and hence much heavier. You would then have to steam bend to get them into shape as they would be quite stiff. Finally you have to take account of wood movement using solid wood. Traditionally this means nailing the planks together when dry and soaking them so that they expand and provide a seal. This clinker built tradition goes back a very long time and is something I would like to try some day.
