Messing round in boats....

Since we got the little Bitish Seagull outboard going, and especially since it's got a couple of friends in the shed under restoration presently. I've been thinking about boat building again.

I've always wanted a boat, especially a small fishing boat, and a larger sail boat, but it's not been particularly feasible for various reasons.

I've been looking at various plans on the net, and this set from the FAO office of the UN is particularly good. They come with clear patterns and all but complete construction instructions.

They're designed for the displaced fisherman of the Bay of Bengal and as a result of the post WW2 mass dumpings of single cylinder engines (particularly the 102cc WD model British Seagulls), in South-East Asia and the consequent mass-retrieval by the savvy locals, they've been designed to run off a single cylinder outboard in the rating 3 1/2 - 8hp.

The heavy hog and stem allows for easy beaching in areas without jetty's, without tearing apart the hull.

The frame construction technique, means that if I want to change the boat to a cabin, all I have to do is glue and screw timber bulkheads up to a couple of frames and then enclose them.

The standardised building jig means all I have to do is cover it up and store it before building the next one, if I want to.
I haven't got the timber for building the boat in stock yet, but I'm pretty certain I can put together the jig out of what is floating around in the shed.

If anyone feels like buying me Xmas or birthday presents.... 19mm and 9mm marine plywood will do fine....