Not really HATE … but something like.
Every minute that keeps me away from the finished boat is a wasted minute.
So here are some resources that might be useful to you and certainly inform my designwork.
This is the big secret behind my design philosophy.
And I’m going to overstate it to make the point.
I hate building boats. I find it intriguing, I might find it an intellectual puzzle, I often enjoy using the skills and working out the best and simplest way to achieve a particular result – but in the end I am really glad that it is over and I can go sailing or rowing or paddling – to get out in the environment.
I live for the moment that the boat is there in front of me – complete – or complete enough to use.
So my commitment is getting the boat in the water.
This works very well for my design work too – I try to be a specialist in cutting down the labour content of my designs.
A really important aspect of what I do is that despite cutting down on the necessarily labour I want the boats I design to look beautiful and row, sail or motor rings around most of the opposition.
So these are my thoughts on building boats quickly:-
Plywood – the potential is to “Think Big”
(and not be caught up in trivial detail for either design or repair)
What makes a boat float is its skin Plywood is easily the fastest way to put together the necessary surface area to make a boat. This is a Beth Sailing Canoe. More information
As an example, here is what would be a massive repair in materials other than plywood … done overnight.
Here is the link with details … last week a chap posted that a ply boat had rot in a few places and it was difficult to track.
Think BIG! Remove the whole bottom or side or whatever. Here are the steps of such a quick repair.
Messing around with the bits takes so much time, but set the router to the ply thickness and get rid of the lot.
I was taught this method by my Uni sailing friend Alan Downes who built immaculate plywood moth dinghies.
Boat is like new overnight.
This is the potential of plywood in building as well as repair.
Instead of fiddling around with little bits, make plywood carry all the loads and work out minimal ways to get the load into the plywood.
Number of parts and simplicity of parts.
If is the job of the designer to reduce the number of parts involved in the boat. Every piece eliminated is another piece that doesn’t have to be paid for, cut to length, shaped.
There is no need to buy epoxy, varnish or paint for parts that are eliminated from the structure – not only reducing labour, but cutting costs.
But it also needs to be beautiful. So many boats look very similar. Finding another way is rewarding for both the designer and the owners.
The drawing of the Goat Island Skiff components and assembly shows how there are only 10 plywood components required to make up the hull structure. There is little additional framing apart from the timber that is required to join up the panels into a stiff light but strong structure that shows no flex under sailing loads.
Do a search on SUP boards, their internal structure is not a trivial design problem. Foot loading is really hard to design to. Most are overly complicated.
See how the internals of ours compare with the overly complicated internals of many others. This understanding of structure comes from race boats where there is a learning curve of try, fail, try succeed. Which sets a new standard for lightweight for the next cycle.
But they also need to look good and have a different idea from everything else in the market. This board has stability and speed – fine lines as the water sees a narrow stern pintail until the board tilts, then it becomes a wide flat board for stability. This is the Taal Stand UP Paddleboard, SUP.
Lightweight
We play with light weight all the time. From prototypes, to progressive evaluations of existing boats.
This was a mad project. How light is is possible to build a canoe … 12lbs.
Try balancing a 12lb boat on a windy day by Mt Barker Lake :).
How long does it last? Years with care.
What did we learn?
- Glass doesn’t need to be high weight to be effective, it can be very light and still offer very significant protection
- Only put glass where you need it – it is much more dense than timber and then you have to add resin as well. People who say “it doesn’t add much weight” haven’t picked up two boats side by side and thought which one they want to lug 50 yards :)
- Don’t reduce the thickness of the core material
Reducing weight also reduces the cost of the boat – every pound of the boat requires that dollars be spent. Lighter weights also result in better performance or better fuel economy or better carrying capacity. For example the Goat Island Skiff built of 6mm Gaboon plywood weighs in at 126lbs – lighter for its length than almost any other sailing dinghy including supposedly lightweight racing boats.
One built by my friend Bruce in Maitland, Oz was framed with Paulownia for a hullweight of 105lbs … we are well into hi tech composites with those sorts of weights for a near 16ft boat. Here’s a pic.
I had some doubts about the paulownia (links) standing up, but the boat is around 7 years old now and with its third owner. Join the Goat group on facebook to follow other developments.
We have lots of fun with lightweighting as do our clients.
Here is a 36lb Eureka canoe built with thinner ply and paulownia timber trim. Around 10 years ago. We are often ahead of the curve. In this case two serious canoeists wondered what they could do. They brought lots of different techniques to the table, but were interested to follow our suggestions of Paulownia, thin ply and much less glass.
Sensible Assembly procedure
Finish the boat BEFORE it is assembled.
It is the Quick Canoe which has been built in as little as four hours. I took two weekends which seems about average.
We do something different with the temporary assembly before filleting or glassing specifically for the Quick canoe, but also for the Oz Goose and OzRacer RV.
It is a funny shaped lump despite the labour savings. … until it is pushed into shape – Next photo!
For those who love boatbuilding for itself
Now I do understand that some people love boatbuilding – there is nothing wrong with this – they are just as entitled to their natural response as I am.
I’ve helped with that approach too over the years. My first question for someone who says “I want to build a boat” is “do you want to get on the water or is boatbuilding and the skillset one of the attractions?”.
Photo from my teaching days in Adelaide. We would leave the builders up to their own devices, but answer questions and sort out problems when they occurred.
The second group also needs their needs to be met.
It’s always fun talking with people who love what they are doing – even if it’s not something that I get excited about. If the person in really into it I can almost – ALMOST – feel excited about the boatbuilding process. But really I simply have a higher level of excitement about the prospect of a finished boat.
Current Project and how it is informed by the above
Over the past couple of years I have been involved in a design and build project – to make the cheap, fast and capacious Oz Goose into a boat for modest income people in the Philippines and other developing nations.
We have a banner that they can build a family boat for less than the price of an iPhone.
There has been iteration after iteration to make the boats simpler to build each time. Things we have found to be more than strong enough can be reduced and minor breakages mean the plan is updated with fixes. We have removed about 20 pieces of timber. Unless you want to fillet the whole thing … then there is very little timber in the boat.
You could also use paulownia for framing to pull quite a lot of weight out of the boat. Existing learning applies to every project.
Anyway, the boats are in the water and are exceeding all expectations – though they sail fastest (up to 15 knots with common speeds in the 8 to 12 range when the wind is right with one adult aboard they also have excellent response and acceleration to gusts in light winds with three adults aboard.
And stability for Africa.
Perfect for teaching. Which is another part of what we do.
Summarizing
Because I have more of a commitment to the use of the boat rather than the building – I am careful to make sure the boat is built strongly and also take steps to minimise maintenance – but I don’t care a lot about fine finishing.
I have years of industry experience of painting and finishing. So I leverage that for the visible parts of my own boats. They will look factory finished, but pry around and you might see a few things under decks or inside buoyancy tanks. The building aspect is meticulous, because that’s where the function of the boat comes from.
As a designer, I (we) have to grapple with this set of equations. How much simplification is worth it. What can we take away from learnings from raceboats to cruising boats.
But …
… if I could find some way of having a boat immediately – If I could just think of a boat design and snap my fingers then I would.
There is a companion article to this about fun vs perfectionism and the important philosophy of coping with mistakes – some hints on finding one’s own style for building boats
Link – Boat Building Style and the place of Fun/Perfectionism/Mistakes
Our Boat Plans
Our sailing canoe designs are here.
Our sailing dinghy designs are here.
