Ply and timber dinghy?
Hello there,
I am a carpenter/forester/timber framer/furniture maker. I have always had a fascination with wooden boats, but living quite far from the sea, it has always been a fairly abstract fascination. (Although living quite far from the sea in the UK would probably be classed as living by the sea is the US).
My fascination has slowly built into a mania and I fear that I am close to taking the unprofitable and time consuming leap into building one!
Much of my carpentry work revolves around using naturally curved timber and I have access to a range of species of standing timber as well as a sawmill, plenty of good hand tools and woodworking machines. So in this respect I am well set up for building a traditional wooden boat.
However, after doing lots of reading, I have finally accepted that the kind of boat that would suit my situation is not clinker built using real wood.... It would need to be a vessel that could be taken in and out of the water and dry stored. It will likely be used mostly on rivers, and sometimes launched where there is no proper slipway. So for weight and resilience it seems like ply and epoxy is the way I must go.
The boat would mostly be used for rowing on the river (quite shallow in places), but I would also like to learn to sail on her (so needs to hold 2 people in this configuration) and it would be nice to have the possibility of attaching an electric outboard.
I am leaning towards a clinker ply pram dinghy around 10-12ft, something like the Francois Vivier Laita or CLC passagemaker, although I am not set on the pram style. BUT, as I am approaching this from the angle of firstly wanting to build a wooden boat, and being that I have always tried to avoid sheet materials and glues in my work, I do not feel that enthusiastic about building a 100% plywood boat. It is not simplicity and speed of build that I am after. I want something that has beauty and curves and uses some of the fantastic properties of wood!
I notice that some of the Vivier Ilurs combine plywood with actual wood, and am interested in whether I could do something like this with a smaller dinghy, perhaps buying the fullsize Laita plans and the study plans for the classic Ilurs, to see how the timber elements are included.
A there any many other small boats out there with ply hulls and timber frames, knees etc. And is it actually a practical design or is it just aesthetic window dressing on something that would function better without?
Any tips, pointers or pictures of pretty boats would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers
Reply With Quote
The interior of my Caledonia Yawl is mostly solid wood, as are the spars, sticks, oars, foils, etc.
Originally Posted by Peat
