Plans are extremely detailed; no experience is assumed in the manual and every step is illustrated in detail. A lot more detail than I needed, but I'm sorta experienced, so I'm not the best judge of what others may need. Plain or fancy is up to you; you make the choices that dictate the fit and finish of the build. The manual tells you how to do it shipshape and Bristol fashion. Fast, easy build. Russell is available by phone or e-mail throughout your build.
Fair winds and following seas,
Jim Waldron
Seems like good advise so far. You may want to go to YouTube and search for Tips from a Shipright. He is currently building a skiff. I don't know if plans are available, but gives good tips.
The actual selection really is based on your personal taste, intended use & funds as you have already mentioned. However, some thoughts:
- You mentioned this would be a "first effort". Based on that I might suggest keeping your expenditures in line with your budget as you most likely will want to "expand" the scope of your future boating. It's a sickness that none of us can escape. This will allow you to develop your boat building skills & better prepare you for the next boat you may want to build.
- Along this line it might be beneficial for you if you could visit a boat yard that builds similar boats and inquire about some boat building tips.
- This design would be very stable, yet you should still consider the waves you might encounter. Waves on a flat bottom boat make for a very, bumpy, uncomfortable ride. If you will be having friends or children aboard, that might not be a pleasant experience for them.
- Frankly, I think a 12' boat is too small to adequately & safely hold you/wife/kids (how many?)/friends. Despite the size of the lake, weather can come up unexpectedly AND there are always those who, for whatever reason, pass too close leaving a large wake to contend with.
- I would consider a less expensive boat to build and start with a 14' minimum, preferably 16' boat considering the number of people you might have on board.
- Additionally, you’ll' need a significant amount of storage space for life jackets, anchor, horn, bow & stern lights.
- How would you store & transport this boat, in your garage & on a trailer, or on the back of a pickup? What is its weight? These tend to run heavier than other boats of the same size.
- Are you prepared for the routine/annual maintenance a wooden boat requires, the liability insurance, registration, et al?
- All in all this would be a great project, actual one with a lot of family interest & anticipation, with a great deal of satisfaction. However, if you plan on building future boats you might want to consider building them as your skill sets develop over time. Rushing in unprepared into a highly skilled project could cause some concerns as you proceed on your project.
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Great advise I really appreciate it. I think I’ve settled on the LYS or the Devlin Candlefish 16.
Wooden Boat Magazine has published plans for a rather attractive and easy to build dory, which looked very seaworthy.
Also I find this boat particularly attractive, if not easy to build.
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"Anything seems possible when you don't know what you're doing."
Zach, check out the LYS I built a little further down in this forum. Walter Baron’s plans are fairly detailed and the choice you have is putting a top deck on along the sides (which is nicer and is what I did) or leaving it open and more plain. You can also build a pulpit to steer with or not. I enjoyed building it. It’s a good project. It turns heads! As for the boat itself — it’s handling, etc. — it’s sturdy and more substantial than you’d think. It’s not good in a chop being flat bottomed but handles nicely in small swells on Cape Cod Bay and up rivers and inlets and across Pleasant Bay on Cape Cod. Good luck.
Okay, I've ordered the Lumberyard Skiff plans. Things are about to get extremely crowded in my garage
Sharing my lesson learned.....
The LYS plans mention using MDO plywood for painted boats. I wish I would have listened to that advice. I used marine pine plywood and now that I am painting it glossy dark blue I can see all the little waves in the plywood. They aren’t real deep but the dark glossy color really makes them noticeable. My neighbors all tell me I’m being too critical and that it looks good. My plan is to get it in the water and if it still bothers me after that I’ll address it this winter.
Awesome, I had planned to use MDO and this confirms it. How did you finish it out? Did you epoxy and cloth both the inside and out?
I wavered for quite a while on epoxy and cloth. My original goal was cheap and fast build. In the end I epoxied the outside (no glass) and painted with Rust-Oleum marine paint. If the plywood didn’t have waves I think it would have turned out pretty good for the time and money spent. I may regret not putting fiberglass cloth on the outside at some point but honestly if the boat lasts 10 years it will exceed my expectations and I’ll build something else. But next time I’ll start in the winter so I don’t have to rush.
One thing that kept me from using MDO is I didn’t know if epoxy and or fiberglass would stick to the MDO. It might, I just didn’t want to chance it and I hadn’t decided at that point whether I was glassing it or not so I went with marine plywood.
I've read so many threads from different forums on this topic and there exists a ton of contradictory info. Some people only fair and paint. Others epoxy tape the seams. Others completely saturate in epoxy and cloth inside and out. Is there a standard practice for finishing this style of boat? I've read where fully encapsulating doesn't allow the wood to breath causing premature rot. Is fairly confusing. I want the boat to last for as cheaply as possible. How do I do that?
Complete encapsulation preserves the wood and prevents rot.
"Anything seems possible when you don't know what you're doing."
Should I encapsulate with epoxy and cloth or can I get away with only epoxy. My plan was to cloth the outside but only epoxy (no cloth) the inside. Is this wrong?