Weekend boat

[BarnacleGrim]

By weekend boat I mean the sort of a boat project that runs over just a couple of weekends and consists of epoxying one or two sheets of plywood together into a crude water craft. You know, to get the kids hooked and craving for more.

What about combining traditional planking with the weekend boat? I suppose one could make a simple "carvel-planked" feed trough and punt it across the manure pond, but what is the most convincing boat one could make using only solid wood and fasteners over a course of a few weekends?

[SBrookman]

For simplicity and a real "weekend" boat that will get kids on the water quickly take a look at the Peace Canoe (http://www.woodenboat.com/wbstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=82&products_id=393&zenid=9o5h289i1k9cl4k2mjb6l1gd84) which was featured in one of the early WB Getting Started in Boats series. I built one as a warm up and it went together fairly easily and turns out to be a very stable boat, if somewhat heavy.
http://otterwater.com/Sharpie/Peace%20Canoe/Launched3.jpg

[perldog007]

Gavin Atkin's Doris the Dory?

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/03/r/designs/gavin/doris/dory.htm
(http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/03/r/designs/gavin/doris/dory.htm)
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/03/r/designs/gavin/doris/launchingjim.jpg

And of course I love to show off my horrible models, the dory is the one in the middle:

http://i726.photobucket.com/albums/ww264/perldog007/IMGP0934.jpg

Three sheets, stitch and glue.....

For glue and screw? Maybe Bolger's Junebug?

http://www.akzeigers.com/Images/stability02.jpg

http://www.akzeigers.com/Images/jblaunch01.jpg

http://www.instantboats.com/junebug.htm (http://www.instantboats.com/junebug.htm)

[Alan H]

How about this basic skiff?

http://www.vintageprojects.com/boats/plywood-row.html

Free plans and 'intruction manual"...of sorts, anyway.

Or maybe this simple dory, which you can tart up a bit if you want. Blackberry 14...plans are free.

http://www.mindspring.com/~jmbell/blackberry_14.htm

[Woxbox]

Plank on frame? Sounds like a dory to me. Or the WB lumberyard skiff, done quick and dirty.

[BarnacleGrim]

These are all plywood and epoxy designs.

What kind of weekend boats did people build before those became household items?

[Alan H]

Problem is, getting 12 foot + long clear planking in, say 1/2 inch thickness is not so easy any more. Lots of places stock 1x lumber, but that's going to be awfully heavy for a kids boat and I think....though I'm no expert.... you'll have to steam it to bend it. I think you'll have to go to kind of a specialty store to get thinner stuff and then you'll pay a lot. I'm guessing that's not what you had in mind for your quick and dirty boat.

You could take relatively inexpensive 1-inch lumber and rip it into strips and plank with that, but again, that's a lot of work.

Honestly, WERE there "weekend boats" in the days before plywood?

[Dave Wright]

OK, you want traditional, and really, traditional means no plywood, no plans, no lofting, very simple, and the boat can be uniquely yours.

WoodenBoat No. 145, Nov/Dec 1998, pp. 76 -83

Check out "Build a One Station Skiff" Complete instructions and material list provided therein.

[perldog007]

These are all plywood and epoxy designs.

What kind of weekend boats did people build before those became household items?
Hmmmmm.... According to my initial perusal of John Gardner's excellent book on small craft....



I suppose one could make a simple "carvel-planked" feed trough and punt it across the manure pond

Edit - Alan, I like that Blackberry, nice find.

[Dave Wright]

Here's the first page to whet your appetite:

http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww58/Siberian11/Skiff.jpg

[Woxbox]

Back to the dory -- when they knocked those things together for the fishing industry, they'd turn them out like short-order cooks flipping pancakes.

I saw numbers once, but can't recall exactly what they were. But it wasn't more than a few hours per boat.

[perldog007]

Back to the dory -- when they knocked those things together for the fishing industry, they'd turn them out like short-order cooks flipping pancakes.

I saw numbers once, but can't recall exactly what they were. But it wasn't more than a few hours per boat.

I am really getting a dose of how inferior i am to those guys reading Gardner's "Building Classic Small Craft"

That one station skiff looks like it fits the bill nicely.

[James McMullen]

A skin-on-frame kayak is awfully cheap and awfully quick to build. That's probably what I would recommend. A Tom Yost design like this one is a remarkably good return on your investment, and materially cheaper than two sheets of ply and a gallon of epoxy.

http://www.yostwerks.com/SeaBeeFrameA1.jpg