I’m considering building a skin of frame canoe or kayak. It would get used occasionally, like once or twice a month and be stored in my garage at other times. I know that everything always tells you to use marine plywood, but it’s fairly expensive and hard to justify for me at this point. For the amount of use and exposure I’m expecting, do you think I can get by with some other plywood and seal the edges of it somehow? By “get by” I mean: will it last more than like 3 years before falling apart?

Any thoughts or suggestions on this are welcome.

I live on the Big Island of Hawaii and I want to build a boat that can sail to the other side of the island. I in the middle of trying to decide what boat I should build so I'm gonna ask, how long would it take to build a 15-16 foot sailboat and what type of boat would be good for the trip, and should I do a v-shape hull or something else?

Hello there,

My family used to have a boat but no longer have. I am working a lot in my spare time and might be able to put money aside and thought I could invest in a boat to restore.

I am already restoring a vintage car and believe I could take on the same task with a boat.
The boat would be small enough to be on a trailer.

Two additional things:

• I work in an association that see a lot of international students and many would love to go in the islands near my town but can't. I was thinking I could show them around those islands for a fee, and make some money to help upgrade the boat.

• I am much more used to car engine, and would like to engine swap the boat with a BMW V8 diesel engine (3.9L M67D40) and its manual transmission.

The sea next to my town is the Mediterranean sea. It'd like to have the engine inside the boat and not outside like most boats. Additionally, I'd like a cabin. Can you guys give me advices? Is it a terrible idea? Am I delusional?

I'm reading Elements of Yacht Design by Norman Skene, and he uses a lot of terms I am unfamiliar with. Is there a dictionary or book, that covers architectural terminology for naval vessels?

First timer here redoing a '95 spectrum avenger 16sc. I have the floor pulled and am at the point I can start replacing it.(wood has been ordered) I'm going to rivet it like it was from factory but I am just stuck on what size rivets to get.

the wood is 5/8ths thick and the aluminum is 1/8th thick. I'm thinking I need a3/16ths x 1inch large flange. Is this correct?

I am trying to find a simple watertight hatch to build, but I know very little on the subject, should I clamp the hatch onto the seal, or put the seal on the hatch and clamp that onto the deck?

This vessel would be about the size of a Stevenson weekender, look almost the same above water, however below the water would be 2 more feet of hull with a slightly round bottom, with ballest. (Will draw 2’6”), and there will be a foot and a half 5 blade prop down there. Engine will be 5-10hp with a forward/neutral/reverse gear. Fuel would be about 20 gallons. No side benches in the cockpit just a seat for the driver, where the helm would be (helm is not aft, but more forward on the left side of the cockpit, entrance to cuddly is on the right. Hull would be built of cedar strips vs full plywood (keel is ply).

Tl:DR, a weekender like boat that is really a motor displacement with a 2’6 draft instead of a shallow flat bottom sailboat like the weekender.

Hello, has anyone problems with leakages, especially after transporting it on a Trailer? Thanks all

Hi,

A bit of a newbie to boat building (planning, at least), though I am an experienced woodworker with sufficient tools.

I happened upon a stash of some amazing, old growth, vertical grained Western Red cedar a year ago and have been sitting on it waiting to find the right project.

My brain went to wanting to do a strip canoe/kayak, but I have vertical grain planks, roughly 1x7s, that are all around 6-7 feet long. I know I can joint them for longer lengths and resaw or plane them too.

Are there any construction methods (ie, stitch and glue-- though all those I see are plywood) and plans available that would allow me to use them as wider planks, not cut down into strips? Maybe lapstrake?

Also, being picky..... I'd love to build a tandem kayak or canoe, suitable for light loaded touring on Puget Sound....

thanks!!

https://youtube.com/shorts/6ZIzZZ1mbl4?si=sDUlxv8T5BUHnHK4

Can the waterjet outlet be shaped like this? Would it still generate the same thrust as a standard flat outlet?

I'm reading the plans for Chuck Merrell's Apple Pie dinghy (free). You can find them here. This looks like a sweet, little pram. What totally surprised me is in the building notes Chuck says you should always sheathe a plywood boat, and that his favorite sheathing cloth is polypropylene fabric, i.e. Sunbrella or Olefin. I assume he means saturate the fabric with epoxy, and adhere it to the plywood, as one normally does with fiberglass. Has anyone done this?

This is the relevant part from Merrell's plans:

https://preview.redd.it/muy1qtxwa0td1.png?width=1182&format=png&auto=webp&s=52a80045026a09ea3de7a498dc0e504b4cdfa7a5

I just glued a earth wired from steel keel to shaft tube onto the aft stem. I was about to cover it in sikaflex, but then I thought: "Hey, does this glue need oxygen to cure?"

This isn’t boat related, but there doesn’t seem to be a fiberglass subreddit and the boat guys always seem to know the answers to anything fab question I have…

I’d like to take the existing hardtop roof from an old Wrangler, add features to it, and recast it in thicker fiberglass. Rather than start over from scratch, I’m thinking about taking the current top and adding body filler on shaped foam. To me, this doesn’t seem to be all that different to how many plugs are made.

This should work, right? Is this type of design called something? I can’t seem to find any resources by searching.