Pilothouse Lumberyard Skiff
New member here, but old boatbuilder trying to stay active. I am currently building a highly-modified lumberyard skiff, based somewhat on Walter Baron's design concept. BTW, I highly reccommend buying Walter's booklet, even if you are just thinking about building a wooden skiff. It is well worth it. Since my summer home is in Downeast Maine, I wanted to build a small, coastal skiff that I could use to explore the many beautiful coves and islands around here. After my first chilling boat ride on Moosabec Reach a few summers ago on an open skiff, I realized that my aging body would prefer some form of wind-chill protection (in the form of a small pilothouse) as opposed to an open center-console. Limited by the size of my cottage's small garage (14 ft. x 20 ft) I designed an 18 ft LOA, 7 ft. beam lumberyard-type skiff with a small lobsterboat-style pilothouse. I have had very positive experience using high-quality MDO plywood in previous builds, but only as interior joinery, so for this project I decided to use it for the hull construction (1/2" topsides, 3/4" for the bottom). Rather than using the simpler (and far quicker) butt-blocks, I scarfed all the plywood joints, and used high-quality CVG Douglas Fir for all structural framing, and bonded everything with epoxy. I used xynol/epoxy to sheath the entire hull (sheer-to-sheer), and am now in the final fairing stage before painting & flipping the hull. I am happy to report that I am now a believer in xynole, as I always hated itching with glass fibers. Xynole drapes sooo easily, and wets out fine (just buy plenty of extra epoxy). I have attached a simple study drawing of my design, and a couple of construction photos of my progress. I welcome any and all comments (pro & con), and will be happy to answer any question. I'm just an old fart still enjoying learning the art of boatbuilding! Cheers!Attachment 115973
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Originally Posted by gray duck
