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I used Douglas-fir for my oars too, couldn't afford Sitka Spruce, the D-f is very strong and the looms can be planed down very slim, as Ian says an oval section gets the weight down but retains the...

I bored a hole into the handles of my oars (from the end) and inserted cast lead slugs to balance them, then plugged the end, they should balance with your forearm rested on the oar. If you balance...

Dan, unfortunately using one of my existing saws isn't an option, the smaller one (a nice older Metabo benchtop) doesn't have the guts, it's used for small precision work only.
And to use the bigger...

You know I've been thinking this over all afternoon, and the more I think about it the more inclined I am to do the job with a circular saw instead of a table saw.
Several things I like, it takes up...

Thanx for the replies, I've looked at ads for Grizzly tools and they look like good value, but afaik the brand isn't sold in the UK so it's not an option.
The Delta that I'm looking at is a...

Anyone have any opinions on Delta brand power tools, specifically a 10" table saw?
I need to buy a portable table saw to cut around 3/4 mile of WRC strip, after which I'll probably have little use...

After some experiment with different rigs I'm using a standing lug (boomless) on my Acorn and it's by far the best. I tried it with a boom and found it awkward, it's a small boat and the boom is a...

What about one of those propulsion systems that Hobie make, can't think of the name but it's like two fins that stick out under the boat, and when you pedal they "flap" from side to side propelling...

The way I always do stuff like this is to mark the screw positions, then drill oversize blind holes and fill them with epoxy resin, when the resin has cured drill a pilot hole in the middle of each...

Andrew correctly points out the flag of St George was, and still is, used by the racist far right, and so was the Union Flag, more so I would have thought.
When I see newsreels from the '70s and...

I'd be careful with the Pitch Pine, in theory it's a great timber for this purpose, but I have some at work which would be virtually useless.
It should be a moderately hard and dense (for a...

Those look like currach oars, is that right? I saw some on a currach at the Henley Traditional Boat Rally last year, the owner had built the boat and oars in a week. The oars barely have a blade at...

OK, I know the film but haven't seen it yet, it looks pretty good. I didn't know there were boating scenes in it.
The spoon blade oars would be absolutely correct for a skiff, but probably a bit...

I have Edwardian (1901-1910) photo postcards showing traditional Thames rowing skiffs with curved blade oars, and Victorian prints showing identical oars at least 20 years earlier.

This one is...

Lacanau is good too, we stay at the campsite "Le Tedey" and camp right on the lakeside, I think I may go there later this summer and take my new Acorn Skiff.
Sorry this probably doesn't help much...

I'm interested to know where this lake is? I thought the biggest lake in France was the Lac du Bourget near Aix-les-Bains, but that's in the mountains and nowhere near the sea or the Garonne, and...

I agree, spile each successive plank from the previous fitted one, cutting them all in advance and expecting them to fit could be a very expensive mistake and offers no great advantages.
I made...

I'm very happy with my Selway Fisher Prospector, it's stable but manoeuverable, easy to handle single handed or two up, and has plenty of space for a third adult passenger or a couple of kids....

High pressure pipe is exactly what my friend has used, I guess it must be about 4-5mm wall thickness and quite rigid. His intention is to slide the bronze tube when he gets it inside the plastic one,...

Here http://www.gartsideboats.com/sterntubes.php is an article on the pros and cons of bronze and fibreglass stern tubes, and instructions on how to make a fibreglass one.
A friend who is building...

I agree with Bob about the PU adhesive, much as I love the stuff (I use Balcotan, specially formulated for boatbuilding) I wouldn't use it for gluing the laps, as it requires more pressure than can...

Mine has two thwarts and a stern seat.

I faired the laps for a good fit, there were no gaps to speak of, 2mm sounds like too much.

The crash unfortunately occurred in front of Civil Aviation Authority officials, invited to the model flying event to see how safely they run things, oops!
The cause was pilot error, under pressure...

Having just built an Iain Oughtred boat (Acorn 13) myself, I'll second Thorne's comments. Many hundreds of Iain's designs have been built this way, laps glued with epoxy, no rivets or other...

No question it's a B17, Norden bomb sight, .50 cal MG on port side, it can't be anything else. Some models did have a frameless plexiglass nose, like this one...

I wasted a lot of time playing around with jigs, for power plane, router, and circular saw, in the end I found I could do just as well with a sharp jack plane and a sanding block, and quicker too....

OK I get it, looks pretty straightforward. It's a miserable rainy day today so I won't be out rowing, I think I'll have a go at this instead, thanx.

Yes I have, you have to be really careful with this stuff as it has a tendency to shrink slightly after it has expanded, if the structure isn't up to it it will pull the sides in and give a "starved...

Can someone direct me to a (preferably pictorial) how-to for making and fitting Turk's Head buttons?
I have rubber ones on my new oars at the moment in case I needed to move them, I don't so I now...

I recently did this on my Acorn 13, I think the actual position of the scarfs is less important than they be staggered on the innner and outer pieces, that way any tendency for the joint to create a...

Certainly an idyllic lifestyle, but not as easy as the article makes it sound. Secure residential moorings in London are rare as hens teeth, and consequently very expensive if you can find one....

Not sure what your rubber stuff is Mike, but interested to know how a 100 year old Thames Skiff made its way to Finland?
My neighbour has a 26 footer built in 1890, a beautiful boat and wonderful to...

The Daniels & Tucker book comes up from time to time on eBay, the last one I saw was a couple of months ago and went for around £60 (USD$105), current high price on abebooks.com is a colossal £293.20...

Plenty of free plans HERE and HERE

Interesting formula Brian, I just laid my arm on the desk and measured as you describe, measuring from my elbow to the centre of the palm (I assume that's what's meant by the middle of the hand?)...

FWIW I didn't ask anyone to vacate the thread, just to stop the personal slanging match which wasn't contributing anything to the discussion.

Im seriously considering the double fore and aft...

We have a fun raft race on the river here every summer, the simplest ones I've seen are a slab of polyfoam with a bamboo mast and square polytarp sail.
One guy turned up with an old GRP bath which...

I went with 11" for my Acorn Skiff, which is what's shown on the plan. But surely this must be partly down to the type of boat and the size of the rower, and maybe some other factors too? There can't...

I thought I'd started an interesting thread here and was hoping to learn something, if you guys just want to have an argument can you please start your own thread and take it there?

Just like to add yet another permutation to the strip planking debate, take a look at THIS 22' steam launch built by Paul Gartside, it's double planked with both layers running fore and aft with the...

All structural questions aside, seeing as there is apparently no definitive answer on which everyone can agree, IMO strip planked hulls look awful!
OK maybe canoes and other small boats look OK...

In a further email from Paul Fisher he makes a couple of recommendations. Firstly that the initial strip planking shouldn't be too thin, he suggests 10mm, otherwise intermediate moulds need to be...

Absolutely Jim, and I put the question to the designer via the SFD forum and got this reply...

So it seems he thinks it's OK with a few provisions.

Thanx for that Steve. I've built a few boats now but not a strip planked one (unless you count models!), the logic of Paul Gartside's argument is apparent even to me though and it does seem that a...

I'm gradually gearing up to commence work on a Selway Fisher Edwardian 21 later this year, intending to strip plank the hull in Douglas-fir as suggested by the designer.
But I've just been reading...

I get quite a few cheques from the US, or used to, as I understand it pretty much any bank or post office can issue them, it may take a few days to order but they should be able to do it. The problem...

My fridge pump was a brand new unit we had lying around at work, I have no idea where it came from, left over from some job or other.
I've never put oil in it and it's been used on and off for at...

It's true, I've done it and it works very well, take a look at THIS
If you do a Google search you'll find more info on how to do it, I found a website owned by a guy who was making his own...

What kind of currency problems are you having, anything that someone in the UK could help with?

Very nice, wish I had a wife who could do stuff like that!