Cheapskate design challenge!

[OconeePirate]

I'm taking part in a "float" on the river Monday. Tidal waterway, pretty damn flat water, most participants just use inner tubes or such.

I've got it in my head to build something goofy for it, but don't want to spend money. I do have some supplies though.

I have a fair amount of epoxy, about a sheet and a half worth of plywood. A few yards of nylon, random other cloth. LIke upholstery type stuff.

The boat doesn't really need to last more than five hours on the water, but I don't want to waste materials on something that goes in the dumpster at the end either.

I have today and tomorrow off, I work weekends, so I have to be able it build it pretty much today and tomorrow. Maybe some early morning, late night finishing up over the weekend.

I have a back up plan, a big inflatable thing, so this isn't too critical. I had initially planned on using the Wa'apa for Monday but don't have an outrigger together. Looking over what I have available I can't conceive a decent outrigger I can throw together that quickly. I just woke up feeling super ADD with my mind running a thousand directions at once thinking of goofy ideas for this event.

Any fun suggestions?

[Paul Pless]

coracle. . .

[keyhavenpotterer]

Little Guide. One sheet canoe. You've got all the materials.

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?117707-Little-Guide-a-one-sheet-canoe

[OconeePirate]

A coracle was actually my first choice! I just decided I wanted something with a vague chance of self rescue.

Upon further inspection I realized I didn't really have a sheet and a half of ply. I had a 8'x3' panel with lots of waves and oddness in it, along with the two smaller bits that are fine. Constricted my design options even more. I cut what I could out of the big panel, avoiding the areas with serious delamination.

I now have two 7.5 inch tall sides, cut straight, that are ten feet long on bottom and eleven on top, symmetric. I can't decid whether they're going to be a quickie outrigger or a stumpy duck boat/ pirogue sort of thing. Either way they'll have a ply bottom and fabric decks.

[OconeePirate]

http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/95607927@N00/7748609156/sizes/m/

This is what I have now. I hope that works, I'm trying off the iPod.

[OconeePirate]

In case anyone is interested I decided to go with the duck boat sort of shape. I figure I can build that into something that will (maybe) last a few seasons at least. I'll post pics tomorrow, too dark on the porch right now to get a good photo.

I'm interested in seeing how my upholstery fabric reinforced seams work. I want to save the fiberglass I have left for the wa'apa float. I can tell you that using drier lint to thicken epoxy soaks up a whole lot of epoxy. Switched to wheat flour instead since I ran out of wood flour.

After getting the bottom on I'm thinking I may have enough to do ply decks instead of fabric. I'll see in the morning after I cut the excess from the bottom.

[Bram V]

Ply decks add a lot of stiffness to a hull. I can't see the photo, but a duck punt can soon become a sailboat with a little effort if you don't mind the performance loss.

[OconeePirate]

http://s1119.photobucket.com/albums/...rent=photo.jpg

See if that works. This morning's state. Waiting for some epoxy to set enough for me to flip it and deal with the bottom.

[Dan Lyke]

This look (my web page) at the 2011 Bodega Bay Fish Fest Wooden Boat Challenge has a number of competitors on it, but the "Wood Ducks 2" team is one I was on. That design took a sheet and change of cheap-ass 3/8" ply, took 3 hours to build (with hand tools), and is still paddle-able.