12ft skiff question.

[jclays]

Building the 12ft frugal skiff from shoestring shipyard. Plywood flat bottom skiff row design and ok to outboard power design. The boat is designed with a raised keel aprox 3inches high and extending forward about 3ft from the transom. My question is since this boat will be outboard powered and not rowed is the raised keel necessary? Can I omitt the keel? I sent Paul Bennet the designer a tech support question (actually 2 different ones) on his Q&A section of his web site but my question gets removed and goes un-answered. Any thoughts on this keel/skeg?
Thanks in advance
Jim

[Cuyahoga Chuck]

If the boat is designed to be rowed it has a rockered bottom and should have a skeg. It won't hurt anything when under power and, on the off chance that you have to row, the skeg will be a definite benefit. It may even improve control when under power.

[Thorne]

Build to the plan, man....

[Woxbox]

...and if you put it on a trailer, the skeg will support the back end properly.

[jclays]

Thanks
I will build to plan.

[Jacktar9417]

The builder's question was indeed received and answered by the designer - the original reply was sent to the builder via private email - it was not answered in the FAQ's section of the web site as it was not a frequently asked question. A different question that was deemed to be a common one by the same builder was in fact posted on the FAQ's page. The question above was received once again by this builder and this time it was in fact answered again and posted on the FAQ page as the designer suspected the builder's email address may have been incorrect as given. The page where this question and answer can be found is: http://blog.shoestringshipyard.com/?p=13#comments

[jclays]

Thanks,
The question did eventually get answered by the designer on his FAQ's page. The Email may have gotten lost in cyber zone and never got to me. I appreaciate the answer.

[jclays]

The skiff calls for 3/4 inch plywood for the transom. I have 3/4 inch solid doug fir stock. Can I laminate these to create my transom or does it need to be plywood.
Thanks
Jim

[Canoeyawl]

The skiff calls for 3/4 inch plywood for the transom. I have 3/4 inch solid doug fir stock. Can I laminate these to create my transom or does it need to be plywood.
Thanks
Jim

Solid stock will expand and contract with moisture content and shrink with age.
Plywood, not so much.
Eventually the solid fir transom will split or check because the ply planking did not shrink.

[jclays]

I hope you mean edge glue?

I looked at the photos on site and don't see any thing
that requires the transom to be ply.

I am building a similar boat and the plans called for
ply and I planked mine with cedar. The planks are not
glued together. I coated the edges with several coats
of varnish before putting them together, putting a wet
coat on as I installed them.

I put a temp piece of ply on the transom frame to
keep it square will doing the frame. Then cut and
fitted the planking. Then a coat of sealer until time
to do the final varnishing.

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/4416/83502060.jpg

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/184/99102040.jpg

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/9543/51681039.jpg
Im new to this so im not following you on the varnish as you assemble the pieces.
The boat plans im building calls for 3/4 inch plywood for the transom. Rather than purchasing a sheet of 3/4 marine ply I was thinking of gluing with thicken epoxy 4-1x8 doug fir stock to get me roughly 30"x 48" in which to cut the transom out of. If not a good idea I will purchase a sheet of 3/4 marine ply. I forgot to mention this boat will have a 5hp outboard hanging off the transom.

[jclays]

By the way..your boat looks great.

[Woxbox]

Looks sharp. Tell us about that mast step arrangement -- does the mast just have a slot in the foot? What kind of rig?

[jclays]

Still my question. Plywood or laminated solid stock?