First Boat

[fishing fool]

My wife gave me a set of plans for a 12ft drift boat. It will be the first vessel that I will attempt. It is a stitch and glue design. It is difficult to get marine grade plywood here and the plans call for 6mm for the hull and 4mm for the sides. Everything is glassed over afterwards.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I was thinking of using 3/8 fir for the hull and 1/4 fir for the sides. I know that this is thicker than required but will I be wrong in doing so? :confused:

[Nicholas Carey]

Originally posted by fishing fool:
...I was thinking of using 3/8 fir for the hull and 1/4 fir for the sides. I know that this is thicker than required but will I be wrong in doing so? :confused: Well...the boat will be considerably heavier. An inch is 25.4mm, so your 1/4 inch ply is 6.35mm in thickness (as opposed to 4mm) and your 3/8 inch ply is 9.52mm in thickness (as opposed to 6mm), so the weight of the plywood in the hull will be more than 50% heavier than if you built to the designed scantlings. Your boat won't sit on its marks either; it will be below them.

One other thing, too...if you use good marine plywood, you'l be very pleased with its working qualities compared to fir plywood. The veneers themselves, the lack of voids, the number of plys all contribute. It's kind of the difference between driving a Trabant and a Mercedes.

[ 01-01-2004, 12:25 PM: Message edited by: Nicholas Carey ]

[siberianswampdonkey]

What's a trabant?

He's right though. There are several places online where you can get okoume marine ply shipped. Look around.

[TimH]

a trabant, or "trabi", is a small nasty little 2-stroke engined car that the east germans used to cause accidents on the autobahn after re-unification. :D

[siberianswampdonkey]

haha 2 stroke car thats hilarious. I'm from texas usa. I was in chile last summer though and it cracked me up to find the average size engine in a car over there is 1.4liters.

[fishing fool]

Thanks for your help gentleman
I will see what I can find here although
getting hardwood plywood into British Columbia will be very expensive.

[Steve Paskey]

Might not be as tough as you think. Noah's Marine Supply has operations in both Canada and the U.S., and their website indicates that they have a warehouse in Ladysmith, B.C., where they stock, among other things, marine plywood.

Even if the warehouse doesn't have what you need, it's likely that anything you might want to buy from Noah's could be shipped to the warehouse for pickup.

Here's the link to the Canadian side of their site, with prices in Canadian dollars:

http://www.noahsmarine.com/Canada/canada.html

[ 01-01-2004, 07:58 PM: Message edited by: Steve Paskey ]

[fishing fool]

Thanks I will talk to them and see what would be best. I checked out the locationand they are only two hours from my place.

Thank you :D

[RonW]

I have a 17&1/2 ft. driftboat I built, it is plywood on frame. The 12 footer is the smallest of the driftboat family and is a 1 or 2 person boat period.There are plenty of driftboat sites on the internet with pictures and information.
Do your self a favor and positively use a marine grade plywood or you may check out mdo or hdo plywood, but do not fall prey to the exterior plywood deal.Exterior in that thickness will probably be only 3 ply and filled with voids and knots.It is not designed for marine use. The plywood is the boat.You will have at least 75 hours on this project from start to fish.Take your time and enjoy it,as well as use proper materials and you will have a boat that you will have a blast with. Good luck......

[Meerkat]

Originally posted by siberianswampdonkey:
haha 2 stroke car thats hilarious. I'm from texas usa. I was in chile last summer though and it cracked me up to find the average size engine in a car over there is 1.4liters.Swampie; Don't go to Japan then - you might die laughing - .75 litres is a popular size over there for small cars. Their resemblence to motorcycle engines is not coicidental! :D

[Aramas]

haha 2 stroke car thats hilarious. I'm from texas usa. I was in chile last summer though and it cracked me up to find the average size engine in a car over there is 1.4liters.
On the up side they probably don't need to annex middle eastern countries in order to keep their tanks full smile.gif

[Lucky Luke]

Originally posted by Aramas:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr /> haha 2 stroke car thats hilarious. I'm from texas usa. I was in chile last summer though and it cracked me up to find the average size engine in a car over there is 1.4liters.
On the up side they probably don't need to annex middle eastern countries in order to keep their tanks full smile.gif </font>[/QUOTE]Bang! Nice shot Aramas!
;) Here, the average is 100cc. motorbike smile.gif :cool: tongue.gif

[ 01-02-2004, 03:02 AM: Message edited by: Lucky Luke ]

[Meerkat]

:D

Saw a nice show on Vietnam this evening - turning out to be a very prosperous and productive country. 5th in rice exports and the #2 coffee producer in the world. Bon Chance!

[robaato]

Originally posted by Meerkat:
Don't go to Japan then - you might die laughing - .75 litres is a popular size over there for small cars.[/QB]The big insurance/licensing/road-tax price break is at 660cc. It's not much displacement, but the cars are very light, and thus reasonably peppy. Of course you try not to think what'll happen if you crash...

[fishing fool]

It is really interesting how the topic of the plywood for my drift boat became the dicussion on the size of a bike engine! :mad:

I will use the best materials that I can afford. I certainly won't skimp on my self as I will be the one using this vessel. The plans do say that the boat can be lengthened and the amount of freeboard can be increased by raising the sides as well. I am thinking about adding a couple of more feet in length.

I have also seen the plans for some other drift boats and the completed projects and I am going to incorporate some other ideas. I will be utilizing it primarily in the smaller mountain lakes so for stability and for tracking I will be installing a pair of small strake keels.

I have a bunch of ancillary gear picked out already. I am still looking for a couple of oars. But then again aren't we all? ;)

[Paul H]

Definately use marine plywood, but don't increase thickness over the designers plans. You'll simply add weight and expense and achieve no benefits.

It is easy to convince yourself that marine ply is too expensive, and to just use exterior grade ply, don't fall into that trap.

Building a boat, no matter how small, will require alot of your time and effort. The time and effort to build will be the same whether you use inferiour raw materials, or the proper materials. If you put in the effort to build a boat you'll be happy with, it would be a pitty if you did it with materials that won't provide many years of good memories. I also find that I tend to be more thoughtful when building with good materials then just slapping something together with the cheapest things I can get my hands on.

For a small boat, the difference in price between marine ply and ACX is negligable anyhow.

[JimD]

Ff, there's a marine wood supplier in Victoria, darned if I can remember the name. I'll have another look for the web site.

[JimD]

...found it. Its West Wind Hardwood Inc in Sydney. Another BC forumite a while back related that she had a very positive experience with them.

[Steve Paskey]

JACKPOT! The Glen-L site has a list of lumber and plywood suppliers organized by state, including a Canadian section.

West Wind is listed, along with several other suppliers in B.C., several of which are on Vancouver Island.

http://www.glen-l.com/resources/lumber-suppliers.html

[ 01-02-2004, 09:36 PM: Message edited by: Steve Paskey ]

[Steve Paskey]

And here's the web site for West Wind:

http://www.westwindhardwood.com/

In addition to hardwoods, they sell BS 1088 marine Occume and Meranti.

[fishing fool]

Thanks everyone for the assistance. I found a supplier in Ladysmith. I will get copper roves and nails from Lee Valley. I would like to get some Brass screws as well.

Does anyone know of the name of the company in Coombs that builds oars and paddles? I would like 7 1/2 footers with curved blades.

[Donn]

This is a good place for oars in your part of the world:

Barkley Sound (http://barkleysoundoar.com/)

[RonW]

Hate to tell you this, but you had better refigure those oars, 7 & 1/2 foot oars will be a waste of money.I have 10 footers on mine. Most driftboats are 24 or 27 inch deep and have a beam from 6ft. to 6 ft 10 inch on the high sided ones.Popular oars for driftboats due to abbuse from river use are carlisles. N.R.S. carry them, www.nrsweb.com (http://www.nrsweb.com) they also carry oarlocks, but you have to use a drilled block with them because they are 5/8 diameter shaft. You can get 1/2 inch locks and 4 screw sockets from shaw and tenney in bronze they are $40.The oars will be $200. and do buy counter weights for another $50. they fit on the oars just below the handgrip and balance the oars out making them a lot lighter. Total package $300.You can buy 1 ft. exstensions for the carlise oars also. Shaw and tenney website has a formula for oar lenght, 7/25 or 2/7. Divide the beam in half,that is the length of your oar inboard then divide that by 2 and multiple by 7 that is your oar langth and it will seem long, that is why i say you can add 1 ft. exstensions if you wanted to start with a 9 footer.$300 may seem rough, but remember this is your form of compulsion and it will be appreciated once you start rowing.Don't use brass screws- use bronze or stainless.You also want flat bladed oars.

[Donn]

If you're going with composite oars, check out Sawyer Polecats. They're the same shaft diameter as Carlisles, but are substantially stronger, and more economical, fiberglass shafts. They come with a 5 1/2" x 30", aluminum cored, fiberglass filled, polypropylene Sawyer Synthetic blade. The PoleCat grip is smooth laminated Douglas fir.

Also...test the counter-weight theory before buying weights. I have 10' Polecats, and I tried SWMBO's ankle-weights as counter-balances. I found I didn't like them. I bought oar-stops for the shafts, and encased the horns of my Davis locks with rubber garden hose, instead of putting leathers on the oars. Works great on a 16'x6', very heavy, fiberglass dory.

[fishing fool]

If I had not mentioned it it I will now. I am planning on utilizing this boat just in the smaller lakes here on Vancouver Island so GREAT BIG OARS for stability in a current will not be of a concern.
thank you for the formula I am sure it will be of asssistance to others as well.