Romax - a two sheet rowboat

[flo-mo]

These are the lines of the hull. (Lines of the model and lines of the hull match in a satisfactory way).

[aldebaran]

Thanks for the update Flo-Mo.
She sure looks very nice. Of all your designs, this is the one I like the most. And I think it´ll be a VERY nice rower. (I like the little guide a lot as well. Its just to small What about a 1,5 sheet beefyer version???)

Yes Impetu goes up and down. And very often it follows the weather. My boat building impetu is low these days as well. To cold. So I prefer to go into my guitarbuilding workshop which is heated and with a controlled humidity. If I do that enough, then I can allow myself to concentrate some more on boats when it gets warmer and the boat impetu starts growing.

Besides, I like this one as well (Is it your own house?)


And this one etc.

[flo-mo]

Romax offsets (mm):

[gstanfield]

Awsome, thanks for sharing the offsets!

George

[aldebaran]

Yes, thanks. Offsets are downloaded and are in the future builds folder.

I´m looking forward to seeing the building of the prototype. I hope Impetu will will join you when Austrian spring comes within a couple of month.

[kyky]

oh i do hope this build progresses soon, its so damned good! really well done Flo-mo

[aldebaran]

ku-ku
anyone here

[flo-mo]

Hi Anders,
Congratulations to the build of your Thames rowing skiff.

I made very little progress - too little to talk about it.

The next job would be glassing the hull which I do not like at all. There is always an excuse for not doing this job - first it has been too cold then it is too hot, time for holidays, too much work - and so the months go by. I was hoping for a Spring-launch ....then Summer .....now Autum has come - but most likely it will be Spring 2012.

[aldebaran]

"The next job would be glassing the hull which I do not like at all."

Yeah, I understand this one. And therefor I really prefer working with clinker plywood. More woodwork and less goo. So maybe you should consider designing something that doesnt need glassing. Your designs are very nice but they rely on full sheet glassing both sides.

[Clinton B Chase]

Actually, only the chines need glassing on Flo mo's boats. You might glass inside at the garboards however.

Clinker plywood is great but there is more time and materials (molds) into a clinker boat.

Fiberglassing is pretty easy when you have the routine down and the right epoxy. Too thick, the glass wets out too slowly. The trick to keeping the boat light is not putting too much epoxy on to fill the weave.

[Alan H]

I just passed the link to this thread to a buddy who was pretty jazzed about rowing my skerry at the launch. He's an engineer and handy with tools. We shall see.

[Alan H]

It' summer of 2012....flo-mo did you ever finish Romax? I would LOVE to see pictures of the finished boat. ...really like this whole concept.

[Alan H]

It' summer of 2012....flo-mo did you ever finish Romax? I would LOVE to see pictures of the finished boat. ...really like this whole concept.

BUMP..

One last try, hoping for a look at the finished boat...

[Cuyahoga Chuck]

He's designed and built numerous other boats over the last 3 years. Maybe Romax was superceded by them.

[southpier]

would there be any advantage to turn end-for-end the panels and avoid all joints in a row? and are the panels (longer than the sheets) scarfed or simply butted?

thanks

[Cuyahoga Chuck]

would there be any advantage to turn end-for-end the panels and avoid all joints in a row? and are the panels (longer than the sheets) scarfed or simply butted?

thanks

The purpose of this design is to get the most boat possible from two sheets of ply.
Since all planks use the full length of the plywood panel I think the butt joints will always end up exactly in the middle or so close to the middle that any offset would be minor.
The butts are held together with fiberglass tape. Most of these designs get an outer layer of epoxy/fiberglass. Whether that overcomes the problem of having all the butt joints in a row I don't know.

[flo-mo]

I am embarrassed to be in a stalemate with this project.

I still intend to finish the build but I have no idea when.

The glass reinforced butt joints all in a line worry me too. That's why I put on an additional glass tape along the joints in the middle (inside and outside) before the hull will be sheathed.

[Bram V]

How about a piece of ply behind it to strengthen the joint?

[Lewisboater]

I've done those (just the way it worked out) with no major problems. You could back the joint with a 3mm butt if you are majorly concerned.

[robm]

Pygmy Boats aligns their butt joints that way. 2 layers of glass on each side, plus a layer overall. They seem to hold up just fine.

[Cuyahoga Chuck]

Pygmy Boats aligns their butt joints that way. 2 layers of glass on each side, plus a layer overall. They seem to hold up just fine.

The problem with the hull in question is all the butt joints line up shoulder to shoulder.
Once you get away from a length of 15' 10" or so it's possible to easily offset the butts by moving parts around on the nesting.
For a volume kit maker like Pygmy it should be quite easy to make planks that scatter the butts all over the hull so that every butt is bordered on both sides with one-piece planks.

[rowerwet]

I'm currently building a two sheet sculling boat http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...5358212&type=3 that uses a plain old butt joint, the designer recomends a reinforcing panel, but I just used a Payson joint http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...5358212&type=3 after I cut all the panels for the hull I took more than one of the long narrow scrap pieces and broke it after testing the bending limits of my plywood, out of six or seven pieces none of them broke in the payson joint, the plywood gave way every time. Only putting one end of the joint in the vise and applying serious force to the other could even make the joint fail, and even then it tore the plywood, the fiberglass and epoxy was still stronger.
I can't imagine the stress that could cause your payson type joint to fail, the rest of the hull would fail first

[skuthorp]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZGUIpdc0i4

0.28

(Tati's films are all gems, but this one is special.)

[flo-mo]

So over 7 years passed and there is nothing new to report on my build. In summer 2019 I moved to a new shop and all my boats, finished or unfinished, had to move as well.



I started the build of my Romax over 10 years ago and still don't know, when I will finish it. There are even three more builds waiting for completion and I am already contemplating building several other of my designs.


Luckily other builders are way more prolific than I am. An extrem example is Andreas, currently living in Turkey, who built a catamaran which he sometimes also uses as a workshop. He also built several of my designs and variations of them.

A couple of them are Romax rowboats, so it seems he is pleased with the design.

I collected his photos from his facebook page and a Russian boatbuilding forum here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1dhCUkZwAYJ6nz678 so I can share them on the forum.

All photos by courtesy of Andreas.


Andreas' catamaran with some boats attached: Three variations on my Flywood one sheet canoe and one Romax



Two Romax rowboats used as tender for the catamaran

[cstevens]

Nice boats. Thanks for the update!

[flo-mo]

Jeremy took a different approach when he built his Romax. He contacted me via instagram and was kind enough to share his impression of the boat:

It really is a great boat. I built one using the cut sheet from the wooden boat forum. I added ribs and large decks, both add considerably to the overall weight but I am partial to the look. I love this boat and use it a lot for fishing. It is a stable enough platform to stand in and cast from. There are pictures of the finished boat on my Instagram.

Jeremy's insta and facebook page from where I got the photos:

https://www.instagram.com/tailwateroutdoors/
https://www.facebook.com/TailwaterOutdoors/