PLYWOOD BOAT CONSTRUCTION
Due to the long search for suitable steel to construct my Cavalier landing gear from, I decided it might be fun to restore an old King Billy Pine dingy which had been lying around for a while.  After much stripping and scraping etc to see what the underlying timber was like, I found that some of the stringers were split and suffering from sitting in fresh water for a long time (I think that the boat might have been used as a cattle trough sometime).  Anyway, I could barely face the thought of re-riveting new stringers in place despite advice that an epoxy pouring session would probably fix the problems.  So after a bit of research into stitch and glue boat construction, I thought that I could use the old boat as a mould to construct a new boat complete with some extra buoyancy.  I did some measurements (about 50 times!!) and plugged the results into Gregg Carlson's Hulls program to see if my idea might work.  And so the building of another driveway ornament began...
Construction Photos
Mask the "frame" and glue some plywood together
Side view of boat sides
looking aft
looking forward
Laminated stem with sides attached using particle board screws for clamps
The hog strip meets other bits at the pointy end
Hog strip joined to get 10 or so feet
10mm ply scarfed and ready for joining to make the bottom
A closer look at the prepared plywood
Bottom glued and held in place with special hi-tech clamps
Another view of the bottom being attached
Yet another view of the same thing
Apparently I must have masked in the right places because the two boats separated OK
Thinking about using the new boat as garden mulch!
Seats loosely fitted and other internal structure glued in place
A bit of strengthening against the stern
Looks like I slipped with the router and made a hole right through the bottom
Artists impression of a centreboard case
Sides trimmed to a slightly better shape
The instructions said to make lots of mess by filleting and fibre-glassing the seams
More fibre-glassing and seam taping
Some of my clamp collection on display while gluing the rubbing strips
Clamps shown from a different direction
The hard to hold (especially when covered in epoxy) bits were secured using some long screws
I thought that a small deck might look OK
Spare 6mm plywood used to make the deck
Laminated rowlock blocks
The inside has been coated with epoxy
The TIF or Trial Introductory Float
A bit worried about all that water - especially that on the inside of the boat
Seems to row OK but it definitely needs a skeg to keep everything going in the same direction
Doesn't seem like I'm going to fall out or sink
Maybe I can tip this guy out - now hang on!
Testing with ballast still intact
Home again and all the salt water washed off
Hardwood laminated together for the mast
Fixture on the yard arm to retain the halyard
Sailing down the driveway (good thing there's a bit of a slope!)
Note the home-made high-tech poly tarp sail
Come about and go the other way ARRRRR!
My interpretation of a kick-up rudder, gudgeons, pintles etc




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sab@keypoint.com.au