Cutting out the Parts

Tracing full size patterns

The plans came with full size patterns for some of the pieces. I used carbon paper bought from the local art shop to trace the full size patterns onto the ply. To do this, I pinned the patterns to the ply, then progressively placed sheets of paper under the lines. After the paper was in place, I pinned the rest of the pattern down and then traced over the lines.

The bow traced onto the plywood

Lofting

The larger pieces had to be lofted from the blueprints onto the plywood panels. Lofting is the process of duplicating curved lines from the blueprints onto the full size panels. To do this, the plywood panels are laid lengthwise and temporarily fastened to prevent movement. A chalk box was used to draw a straight line through the middle of the panels. This line is the base along which the measurements for lofting are taken.

The panels are butted together and the chalk line is marked

Specific points were marked perpendicular to the chalk line, according to the blueprints. Nails were driven into each of these points, then a flexible piece of wood (a spline) was fastened to each of these nails, making a smooth curve.

The spline is clamped to each of the lofted points on the plywood

A closeup of the spline clamped to the plywood

A pencil was run along the inside of the wood to create a smooth, even curve.

Cutting out the parts

To cut the straight edges, it was helpful to clamp a piece of wood parallel to the lines, and use it to guide the jigsaw.

The bow

As most of the panels are duplicates, it’s best to roughly cut the two halves and tack them together before cutting along the drawn line. This ensures that both panels are identical. It also makes drilling stitching holes easier, as they will line up.

The bottom front panels have been tacked together and cut

Some of the pieces laid out for epoxy encapsulation (I'll cover this in another post)

Drilling the stitch holes

To ensure that the stitching holes were straight and evenly spaced, I drilled stitching holes 3” (75 mm) apart in a length of hardwood. I attached another piece of hardwood to this to form a lip.

The stitch hole apparatus. The lip is the lighter piece of wood on the top of the picture.

The lip was lined up with the edges of the plywood, so that the holes were the correct distance from the edge of the ply.

The aft side panel with stitching holes drilled

Making a Miniature Model

My plywood supplier, who has decades of boat building experience, suggested that I build a scale model of my boat in order to visualize the process. I took his advice, and picked up some balsa wood from the local model shop. Since the blueprints are all to scale, it wasn't hard to build a replica.

The first step was to trace and cut the pieces from the blueprints. To do this, I placed carbon paper between the blueprint and the balsa wood, allowing me to transfer the dimensions onto the panels. A razor blade easily sliced through the balsa wood.

Side and bottom panels laid on top of the blueprints

All the pieces to form the hull

Once all the pieces were cut out, I followed the directions that came with the plans to form the hull.

The bottom panels laid flat with the middle form positioned, ready for the stitches

I used a needle and thread to stitch the panels, progressively tightening the thread to pull the panels into shape. Once the bottom panels were positioned, I attached the side panels, transom and bow.

All the pieces are positioned

Then I used glue to hold the shape. The middle form is a temporary member which is used to hold the hull in shape while the plywood panels are joined. The laminations were slid beneath the spaces in the bottom of the middle form.

The temporary middle form positioned, with the laminations laid for the keel and battens

The motorboard is notched to fit over the laminations, and the knee is then fitted on the bottom and the transom.

The motorboard and knee are attached to the transom

This took me an evening to assemble, but it'll pay off when it comes to the actual construction.

The complete hull

Purchasing the Materials

As I don’t have the funds to buy everything I’ll need in one go, I've had to purchase the materials in parts. This is yet another post that I'll need to update as I go.

The Bill of Materials (BoM) is a list of all the materials needed to construct the boat. The BoM for my boat can be found here.

Plywood

The BoM called for 8 sheets of 3/8” (9.5mm) marine grade plywood, 1 sheet of 3/4" (19mm) marine grade ply and 4 sheets of 5/8” (16mm) exterior ply.

After reviewing the plans, I picked up 9 sheets of the 3/8” ply, as I don't think the BoM was correct. I haven’t gotten far enough into the build yet to tell whether or not I was right.

For the locals, I purchased my plywood from Ian Johnston of Plywood Plus in Howden. He’s got tons of knowledge and offered lots of helpful advice. I was initially going to purchase hoop pine for all of my panels, as the Australian Standard marine ply is superior to the British Standard marine ply. However, after speaking to Ian, I ended up buying the gabboon ply for the outside panels, and the hoop pine for the 19mm panel that was going to make up the transom. Ian suggested that because I was going to fully encapsulate the ply and fiberglass over it, it did not make much sense to spend the extra money on the hoop pine. The hoop pine is also significantly heavier than the gabboon, which means that the boat will be a lot lighter.

Stitching

The plans called for 50 feet of copper wire to be used for stitching. However, after a little research, I decided to go with zip ties (also known as cable ties). They are obviously not as strong as copper wire, but are heaps cheaper and much easier to tighten. The other benefit is that they can be clipped down once the filleting has been completed, eliminating the need to remove the stitching wires. I purchased a 200-pack of strengthened zip ties, and should have plenty to spare.

Fasteners

The bill of materials called for a variety of screws, nails and bolts. There are two grades of stainless steel - 304 and 316. 316 is the marine grade of stainless steel. I bought my screws from Bolts Nuts Screws Online and The Stainless Store, and got the nails from Boatcraft Pacific.

Epoxy

Epoxy resin is a big part of building a stitch-and-glue boat. The BoM calls for 16 litres (4 gallons, 1 quart) of epoxy resin. It is used to make fillets to join the panels, as well as to lay the fibreglass. I purchased R180 from The Fibreglass Shop. The guys there were really helpful.

The R180 comes in two containers, and is mixed at a 5:1 ratio. I picked up a bunch of disposable measuring containers that had the 5:1 ratio marked on them, making it much easier to mix the two parts.

To make the fillets and glue, I bought an 8 litre premixed bag of West System 411 Microsphere Blend.

I also purchased a big tin of acetone for cleaning, a paint tray with disposable inserts, and various size rollers for application.

Fibreglass

Watch this space.

Paint

Watch this space.

Tools of the Trade

There are a few tools that the boatbuilder needs.

The essentials: Jigsaw, Sander, Drill, Clamps

Jigsaw. It was important to ensure that the base of the jigsaw could be rotated, as the transom required cuts angled at of 10 and 15 degrees. To be certain that the angles for my cuts were precise, I purchased a cheap protractor. (Hint: when buying a protractor, choose the one that has 0 degrees as close to the bottom of the plastic as possible. It’s much easier to measure the angle that way.)

Orbital Sander.

Clamps. These are a MUST HAVE.

Power drill.

Safety gear. Must-haves include safety glasses, a respirator and rubber gloves. I highly recommend spending the extra money to get a high quality gas/vapour and particulate respirator.

This list is by no means comprehensive; as I get further into the build, I'm sure that I'll need a few more items.

Definitions

Following are a few terms that I've picked up along the way. I'll continually update this post as I learn new words.

Aft - towards the rear (stern).

Athwartship - across the boat. If you are on the port side, the starboard side is athwartship. If you are at the stern, the bow is athwartship.

Beam - the width of the boat, generally the widest part of the boat.

Bow - the front end of the boat.

Chine – the line that is the junction of the bottom panels and the side panels.

Fillet - A fillet is a mixture of epoxy and filler that is used to join the plywood panels on the inside of the boat. The mixture has a putty consistency, and is applied over the stitches that pull the panels together.

Hull - the outer, watertight body of the boat.

Keel – the centre line on the bottom of the boat that is the junction of the two bottom panels.

Knee - a reinforcement that joins two panels, typically joining the transom to the bottom.

Port - the left side of the boat. (To remember the difference between port and starboard, just remember that the word "left" is shorter than "right", just as "port" is shorter than "starboard").

Starboard - the right side of the boat.

Stern - the rear of the boat.

Transom - the back panel of the boat. The outboard motor is attached to the transom.

Inital Research and Purchasing the Plans

There are two basic building processes that I considered. The first is the sheet plywood planking method, which involves building the frame for the boat, then cutting and attaching the plywood panels. There is a lot of fairing and measuring to ensure that panels join perfectly.

The second is the stitch-and-glue method. This method is much simpler, and involves cutting the hull shapes out of plywood panels. Copper wire or cable ties are used to ‘stitch’ the panels to each other, pulling the hull into shape (similar to making a garment out of fabric). The panels are then glued together with epoxy fillets, then everything is covered with fibreglass. Since the panels are connected by epoxy fillets, the joins don't have to be perfect.

Because of my limited experience, I chose the stitch-and-glue method.

During my research phase, Glen-L continually turned up as one of the best places to get plans. The forums on this website are quite active, and the members seem happy to answer even the simplest questions. A good Australian website for plans is Bowdidge Marine Designs.

In Australia, there are regulations around registering a newly built boat. For all boats built after 1 July 2006 (in Tasmania), the builder will have to affix an Australian Builder's Plate (ABP). In Tasmania, there is currently no requirement to have a Hull Identification Number (HIN) on the ABP.

I wanted a boat that I could use for trout fishing in the Highlands and for fishing along the Derwent River. I ended up buying the plans for the “Dragonfly” from Glen-L. It's a flat-bottom boat with a shallow V, excellent for lake and river fishing. I ordered the plans for the boat, a set of trailer plans, a stitch-and-glue DVD and a fibreglassing DVD. It only took a week for the plans to arrive - that's fast for mail from the US!

The boat plans consisted of 5 pages of blueprints and one sheet of full-size patterns to cut out various parts of the boat (specifically: the transom, motorboard, middle frame, foredeck beam, bow, and knee - which reinforces the junction of the transom and the bottom).

I was a little overwhelmed when I first got the plans. It's not that the instructions were bad; I just didn't understand a lot of the terms and processes that the plans talked about. It’s a high learning curve for a first time builder, but all it takes is patience. I spent the first couple weeks re-reading the plans and instructions, Googling terms that I didn’t understand, watching Youtube videos for some of the processes, and reading other boatbuilding blogs.

Introduction

This is a catalogue of my attempts to build a 17’6” (5.33 m) garvey hull bass boat.

Here’s a picture of the finished product built by Bob Gordon in Idaho USA:

I can only hope mine will look this good!

I have no previous boat-building experience. I have limited woodworking experience, and no experience with fibreglassing. There's a lot to learn, but I'm looking forward to the challenge.

I live in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.