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Home Up Boatbuilding Instruction Project Stories Tools and Materials

Project Stories

Some firsthand accounts of projects

bulletWelcome to my boatbuilding and cheap polytarp sail homepage The site is about my homebuilt sailing dinghy and fast and cheap sailmaking (taping) from polytarp and carpet tape.  A German site with English translation
bulletDaveCarnell's Boatbuilding -   Dave  is a retired chemical engineer who shares lots of good info.
bulletBill Grumbine's Personal Space I've come here many times to check out what is going on in the boat building cyberworld. Now it's my turn to contribute. Bill
bulletBuilding Tennessee Chuck Leinweber built one of Phil Bolgers "state" boats, and cruises it on the gulf coast
bulletFRAM- means "forward" in Norwegian.  This is a site about homebuilding an F-39 in The Netherlands in a town called Hilversum, about 20 miles ESE of Amsterdam.
bulletProject JustRite - Building the Vagabond + Trailer sailor The Vagabond Plus is a 20 foot plywood/glass/epoxy composite stitch and glue trailerable sailboat. My web page shows step by step pictures of the boat under construction. The boat was designed by Jacques Mertens.
bulletHerb's Boat Pages Herb now reviews the following boats that he has built: Jim Michalak's 15' camp/cruiser sharpie AF3 (first built) Don Moor's 17' kayak Lightning Ken Brown's Lark Ken Swan's Little Gem Plans and building instructions for my design of a one sheet of plywood skiff American Plywod Association One Man Dinghy and Reuel Parker's 19' Ohio Sharpie.
bulletBuilding RUTU, a 45' Performance Sailboat-This is a 45' performance cutter designed by John Fox in strip/composite. This site goes into a lot of detail on the gathering of material, construction, financing and psychology of building a large boat by yourself.
bulletKayak, stitch and glue A detailed journal by George McQuade on building a Nick Schade designed, plywood, sea kayak. Includes photos, plans, and drawings of construction details.
bulletKayaks using aerospace composites Professional adventurer, Ray Jardine, provides a wealth of information concerning the construction of kayaks to his own designs using modern materials. A very good resource for those comtemplating the ultimate super-light boat.
bulletKevin's Wooden Boat Page   I just uploaded this first update of building Chesapeake Lght Craft's new 18' Sharpie. Please stop by.
bulletKayak, West Greenland style Jim Coburn provides lots of information about building a canvas covered, wood frame kayak in the style of the West Greenland boats.
bulletA multihull formula 20'.
 
bulletSwampscott Dory -
bulletCLC Mill Creek Double -
bulletMy Boat Project - Building the Greenland Kayak -
 
bulletInternational Fireball The Fireball is a one-design class high performance 16' two person racing dinghy. Class rules still allow home construction in plywood.
bulletMicro John Morrice tells of building the Phil Bolger Micro. Great photos and a light hearted look at the project.
bulletOS-44, 44' Steel Yawl Bruce Gennette is building a yawl to a design by Bruce Roberts. These pages also contain insight on the decisions taken into account when choosing a design, the cost of building, selecting a workspace, and other generally useful information.
bulletCindy Lou the A-Scow
bulletKayak Builders of So Cal
bulletBoy Scout Kayaks -
bulletCANDU-EZ A.K.A. The Mini-Tugboat Page. Information concerning construction of the Berkley Engineering designed CANDU-EZ. Site maintained by Alan Locke.
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bulletChebacco 20 A newsletter by Bill Samson for builders of the Phil Bolger designed Chebaco 20. Lots of good pics and information.
bulletCherub, 12' The Cherub is a 12', 2-person, racing dinghy with spinnaker and trapeze. The Cherub is a development class (as opposed to a one-design class) so the budding go-fast designer can have fun too.
bulletClassic Moth The official web site for the Classic Moth Boat Association. "Classic Moth Boats are a class of small single-handed racing sailboats that originated in the US in 1929. Classic Moths are a development class with an eleven foot over-all length, a maximum beam of 60 inches, a minimum hull weight of 75 pounds and very few other restrictions As such the Classic Moth Boat is an ideal class for amateur designers builders and tinkerers."
 
bulletCutter, 17' A 17' cutter, Toad Hall, designed by W.P. Stephens is being built by David Goodchild in the Philadelphia area. David is using many innovative ideas in the construction of this boat that he intends to use in the North Sea.
bulletCutter, 38' The history and restoration of the gaff cutter Aorere. She was launched in 1898 having been built to an A.L. Scott design by E.G. Phillips.
bulletCutter, 50' Welded Steel The cutter Tavake was designed for builder/owner Peter Kinsey by Laurent Giles Ltd. She is now operated as charter vessel in the Pacific Ocean.
bulletDinghy, 7' The adventures of a doctor in Singapore(?) that has the boatbuilding bug. Photos and anecdotes of his first project, a 7'x2' dinghy, as well as information about the current project to build a catamaran from PVC pipe
bulletDory, 17' Swampscott Very nice set of pages put up by Hugh McLean detailing his construction of a Swampscott Dory from lines obtained from Mystic Seaport Museum. Traditional construction used
bulletDory, 34' junk-rigged Roger Derby (Dallas/Ft. Worth area of Texas) is still in the design phase on his dory. These pages contain photos of a design model and limited commentary regarding the design. Roger also has photos of his work on a Danny Greene designed Chameleon dinghy that will be used as a tender for the dory.
bulletFerrocement Sailing Cruiser, 57' The Wood family in England offers a terrific series of photos and comments about the construction of their sailing cruiser. Lots of photos starting with building the armature and ending with a shot of the boat rigged and in the water.
bulletGlastron, 1959 ski boat While not about new construction, David Erwin of Austin, Texas has put together a wonderful Web site about the restoration of a fiberglass ski boat that has been in his family since it was new.
bulletGloucester Light Gull Photos and comments on building the famous Phil Bolger design. Builder not known, located on Cape Cod.
bulletHaven 12 1/2 Don McConnell is doing a terrific job on building this Joel White design. Nice pages in the "builders log" style.
bulletInternational Contender This is a page within the International Contender Class Association site. The Contender was designed by Bob Miller and Ben Lexcen and class rules still allow "home builders". Photos of boat apparently built by Joachim Harpprecht.
bulletInternational Thunderbird The Thunderbird class sailboat was designed in 1958 by Seattle, Washington naval architect Ben Seaborn, in response to a request from the Douglas Fir Plywood Association (now APA - The Engineered Wood Association) of Tacoma, Washington for design proposals for a sailboat that would "... be both a racing and cruising boat; provide sleeping accomodations for four crew; be capable of being built by reasonably skilled amateurs; provide auxiliary power by an outboard motor that could be easily removed and stowed; and out-perform other sailboats in its class."
 
bulletKayak, Aleut-style Aluminum frame, fabric covered kayaks (ala Dyson) being built by Hiro Hayashida of Japan. Pages are a mixture of English and Japanese, so they are a challenge to decipher at this point. Nice photos.
bulletKayak, 17' canvas covered Matthew Bastian has photos of a nice looking kayak that he built from plans that date back to the 1930's. He says his wife was initially skeptical but she became a kayak convert after the first paddle!.
bulletKayak, cedar strip Charles Patterson of Vancouver, Canada, has put up informative pages about his experiences building a cedar strip kayak.
bulletKayak, 17'6" Inuit-style Doug Garmon has plans, construction photos, and commentary on his plywood, Inuit-style kayak
bulletKayak, Mill Creek Double David Gulick has photos of the Chesapeake Light Craft design that he built from one of their kits.
bulletPram, 7' 9" Nymph Joe McWilliams has a very complete page about the construction of his Bolger designed sailing pram.
bulletPram, 7' Plywood Vee-bottom NEW Rick Nelson of Huntsville, Alabama has a couple of photos of his pram under construction. The designer isn't given but it may be a Bolger Nymph.
bulletRaft, 5' A small raft, River Rat, constructed by Michael Welch using blue foam, fiberglass, and plywood. Designed to fit in the back of an '87 Nissan Pathfinder.
bulletSteamboat Stuff "Steamboat Ed" Haas publishes Steamboat Notes and other stuff about steam powered boats, steam engines, boilers, metal work, and several other topics. An eclectic site that is fun to browse.
bulletSteam Launch Bart Smaalder has put up a couple of photos of a nifty 19' Steam Launch. This is a wood hull (designer not given) with an engine made from an old refrigeration compressor!
bulletSteam Launch, 21.5' A 21.5'x6.5' cedar strip planked steam launch built by Alfred E. Dunlop of New Jersey. Alfred has put up a series of photos that illustrate the building process. Looks like she will be powered by a Semple 3"x4" engine using an owner fabricated boiler.
bulletSteam Launch, 23' A 23' fiberglass hull steam launch built by John A. Duffy and family. The Lady Anne is powered by a 1904 Stanley Steam Car engine and based in Fenwick Island, Deleware. Nice photos of a good looking boat.
bulletSteam Tug, 14 meters Renovation of the S/S Robert a steam tug built in Bergsund (Sweden?) in 1866. These pages are available in English or Swedish.
bulletTiki 21 An up to date account of Dave Mills' progress on the Wharram Tiki 21 he is building in Tasmania. Many links to other Wharram resources on the Net
bulletTiki 21 The Wharram designed Tiki 21 Vaitea under construction in Austria by David Wagner. At least I think that is what is going on. The pages are in German.
bulletTiki 26 A Wharram Tiki 26 being built in New York by Andy Preston. Also, photos of a Shell Boats Lief 7.
bulletTitmouse Entertaining page about Mike Eisenstadts' experience building the Sam Rabl designed Titmouse inside his house in Austin, Texas. A little taste of life in Austin for folks that haven't been here. Nifty watery background and a little Javascript thrown in too!
bulletVarious - Osram VII Tony Bigras appears to be a computer technician that is into recreational boat building in a big way. Check out the 100 lb. dory-style dinghy in 3/32" aluminum. The current project is Osram VII, a 48' catamaran in aluminum. Impressive work!
bulletTug, 40' Steel Welded steel tugboat built by Stewart and Lela Marshall. Main power is provided by a 60hp Atlas Imperial diesel engine. Stewart has information on parts and repair for Atlas engines as well as information about home building a foundry cupola.
bulletVarious The Griffin family in Alaska has built a Bolger Nymph and a Glen-L designed Sherwood Queen. There is also an essay on building your own boat vs. buying a boat.
bulletVarious Tom Raidna is developing The Home Boat Builders Page: The WWW page for small boat home builders. There is info on a number of different projects.
bulletVarious: 6.5 meter cutter, sailing dinghy L.J.A. Koster is currently building a 6.5 meter cutter to his own design in Holland. Also has photos of a sailing dinghy built with his father. Outstanding craftmanship!
bulletVarious traditional designs Ron Ginger has built a number of fine boats over the years. Seems to be doing more metal work than boat building these days though. Photos of a 'glass hulled steam launch that he and a partner finished out that runs an engine that Ron built. Incredible work.
bulletWherry, 14' Cosine A nice little strip-planked rowing boat built by Tim Lowe using the book Rip, Strip, and Row!.
bulletWindmill Class association page for the Clark Mills designed 15 1/2 foot Windmill 2-person racing dinghy. Intended for amateur builders and wood boats are competitive with the 'glass boats.
bulletWindsprint John Bell has done an outstanding job of building Phil Bolgers' 16' Windsprint design. The boat is named "Mejor que Nada" and the site has photos, a sail plan drawing, and a builders log.
bulletWindsprint Photos of "Cool Change", a Bolger Windsprint built by Robert Berger. Also, info on a 15' catamaran runabout design project.
bulletJim Millington builds a stitch and tape canoe in the UK.
bulletStella Blue - an old Landfall 38 is rescued from the boneyard and remade in style- great site, lots of pics and well written
bulletHome Boat Building-  moral support from a man who's done it
 

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date last edited-12/02/14

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