Questions Answered

A few questions emerged here and in e-mail over the weekend. Here they are

IceCycle asks:

It appears in the picture that there is a buildup of the sides just before the stem. Is this more for cosmetics? Could the sides be built using cedar? It suprised me that cedar was a bit cheaper than the white pine. Also the cedar is 1x12" so I do not believe to buildup would be needed.

Answer: There is, indeed, a short piece of pine glued to the edge of one of the sideboard in order to make up the needed plank width at the stem. This detail shows clearly in the booklet, Getting Started in Boats. If you can find side planks slightly wider than 10", you can do away with this short additional piece.

White pine will hold fastenings better than cedar will. That's why it's specified for the sides. We do not recommend that you substitute cedar. If you do, you should install chine logs. (Chine logs are, essentially, longitudinal cleats that reinforce the corner joint between the bottom and sides. The drawings for this boat do not show them.)

Rick Pinto asks these three questions:

1) The instructions call for bunging the screw holes on the
bottom.  What does that mean?

Answer: Bungs are wooden plugs that cover the heads of countersunk screws. You make them on a drill press, using a bung cutter (aka plug cutter) that is sold as a matched set with a countersink, The set made by Fuller is most popular. You can also purchase already-made bungs if you don’t want to spend the money on tools. But if you plan to keep building, you'll want a countersink and a plug cutter.

2) I want a rustic unpainted look for the boat.  What
stain/urethane should I use? 

Answer: We recommend painting this boat. If you want a natural look you could varnish it or urethane it, but we think that's overkill and high-maintenance. You could oil it witn boiled linseed oil and, perhaps, a slug of pine tar… but that concoction will turn black and will get all over your clothes. Paint it.

3)Should I paint the bottom or leave
it raw because the instructions say the cedar will swell when it gets
wet, and if I seal it with paint will it then not work? 

Paint the bottom. Use bottom paint (antifouling) if the boat is to live in the water. Don’t worry about the bottom not swelling because the wood is painted. It'll swell.

4) I could not find thick oak and was wondering if it is ok if I
glued together three boards of oak with waterproof glue and carved
that for the stem.

You could, but oak is known to not glue well. Your stem might come apart if you do this. It depends on the quality of your gluing procedure. Try to find some Douglas fir, instead. Or, better,  search for some oak on E-bay. This is a relatively small piece of wood. It should travel through UPS or Postal Service. We recommend that you avoid a glueup here. It adds unnecessary complication.

Comments

[Dick]

Thanks all. I liked the idea of a simple boat to get started in the boat build process, so bought the mag at B&N Sat. I live in Texas and there are not a lot of small boats build from the natve woods found here, (Pinion, Mesquite, Pecan, etc), but I'm sure I'll find the equivalent of the required white pine. I do wood for a living (cabinets, custom trim, etc) so have the required tools and my shop is bigger than my house (did I mention I live in Texas) I think the instructions are adequate, and I'll fill in the blanks as I go along. I'll keep ya'll (already mentioned Texas hungh)posted on progress.

[Mario]

Great propject

Hope can find the materiel
needed.

The main used for this project (Skiff) will be
with a small electrique motor ( no sailing ).

So, is it necessary to cut a curve of about 9 inches tword the back, on the sideboards or can we live it total lenght.

Thanks

[brownwood]

I am having a hard time finding the wood - the wood at the big box store is expensive and only 8 feet long. One lumber dealer that I talked to could only sell me 14 foot length. Is it possible to scarf two 9 foot sections together or would that weaken the boat?

[Jim Kirkpatrick]

Reminds me of the 'boat' I used on the creek that Dad?made for me--had pine sides and sheet metal bottom! Was about 6 ft long. Used paddle wheels on each side for motion.

[Talmadge]

I note several stages where screws are used temporarily during assembly, but no mention of filling the resulting holes?? Will this be covered during the "painting" session or some other stage? Seems like a potential problem to my novice eye.

[IceCycle]

I have started on this project today. I have my side pieces glued and are drying as I type this. I have cut my stem from Preasure treated pine. Are there alternative methods to shave down the stem. A spoke shave is mentioned but I was curious if there are other ways of acheiving this?

[Frank]

I love the simplicity of the construction of this skiff. I own a 40ft 1962 Wheeler Playmate (of course it wood), which I live on, and have been looking to build a simple skiff/dingy for it. The previous owner had a davit with winch installed to launch and retrive his small sail boat. As nice as this is at 14 ft long, can it be modtified to be shorter lets say up to 10 ft? It's the right design to go with the Wheeler. What a great idea this is, thanks.

[Mike]

I am having a really hard time finding white pine in the needed lengths. Would it be possible to substitute Sugar or Ponderosa pine (or any other type of wood) for the side? Or, if anybody has suggestions of lumber dealers in the Northwest (Central Oregon specifically) that may have the white pine, please let me know! Thanks.

Mike

[Kevin]

HI, the LY skiff looks like the project I was looking for. This will be my first "boat project". I was wandering for the side boards if I could use jack pine instead of regular pine. We have alot of that up here. I'm planning of milling the wood from logs to get the desirer stock. And could I use it for the bottom too? Can you help?

[Shane Mason]

Hi all. I really liked the plans, and intend to get at it as soon as I have some free time. Thanks, WB, for this easy to build first boat. Curious, though, the plan booklet stated that I could find additional plans and instructions on this site for transforming the rower into a sailing dinghy, such as the center board trunk, mast-step, skeg, and spars. I don't see any of that here. What up? Thanks.

[Shane Mason]

Hi all. I really liked the plans, and intend to get at it as soon as I have some free time. Thanks, WB, for this easy to build first boat. Curious, though, the plan booklet stated that I could find additional plans and instructions on this site for transforming the rower into a sailing dinghy, such as the center board trunk, mast-step, skeg, and spars. I don't see any of that here. What up? Thanks.

[Shane Mason]

Hi all. I really liked the plans, and intend to get at it as soon as I have some free time. Thanks, WB, for this easy to build first boat. Curious, though, the plan booklet stated that I could find additional plans and instructions on this site for transforming the rower into a sailing dinghy, such as the center board trunk, mast-step, skeg, and spars. I don't see any of that here. What up? Thanks.

[John Wilkerson]

Hi all, Can anyone provide a technique for scarfing the wide pine boards needed for the sides? Like many, I can find nice pine. However, the better the wood the smaller the pieces seem to be. Thanks.

[Larry Weatherall - Virginia Beach]

John: I'm NOT an expert in woodworking but I did manage to get my (4) 1x10's scarfed together in what appears to be an acceptable manner and I'm happy to share how I did it.

First of all, on one end of each board, I used a square to mark a line 5" back from the end of the board. Then I drew an angled line (7 degrees as I recall) from that mark to the end of the board on the opposite side. That showed the material that needed to be removed to expose the surfaces that would be glued together.

I then clamped the board up in my Workmate and started removing the indicated wood with my trusty spoke shave. It took me about 10 minutes with the spoke shave and a sanding block to get the end of each board angled just right.

I used West Systems epoxy mixed up as a thickened adhesive and can report that it works WELL but the parts MUST be clamped very securely to hold the wide surface areas in constant contact with each other as the epoxy drys.

Make sure that the boards are PERFECTLY ALIGNED when they are clamped up or you'll end up with A LOT of planing and fitting when you go to glue your newly scarfed planks together to form the sides.

Yes, this IS the voice of experience speaking....

That's how I did it and if I can do it, ANYONE can!

[liz]

I am building a Joel White nutshell pram. What glue should I use? This is my first boat building project

[Mr Albert Rogers]

Global comptia

Dear Sir,
Our company will like to purchased some goods in your store but before going further we will like to know if you can shipp your goods international.
If you can please let me know as soon as possible.

Company Name
Global Comptia
Uk

From
Mr Rogers