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.