Kids boat for use with a Featherweight MKII

[Horsley-Anarak]

I am sure it would scale up well.

Pop round and I will give you the offsets.

I will look at it and try and sort out a PDF.


H-A

[Horsley-Anarak]

It was whilst sitting on the beach at Studland last year that I thought using a car top boat with a seagull would be better than making sandcastles.

Last weekend 3 days of sea trials proved that this little boat is great to use on the sea.



We caught 1 Bass, 4 Mackerel (number one son did not manage to get them in the boat ), 2 Pollock and tested it almost to its limits. When we were out beyond Old harry about 2miles from the beach, the 3 foot swell did prove quite exciting (we had VHF).

It handled it well even the wash from the ferries that were going into Poole Harbour did not cause much of a problem.



This picture was day three, which was the calmest day.

The best loading was one adult and one child, we also tried two adults and two children. This still left plenty of freeboard, but did not handle the waves so well.

We also were able to tow the kids around on their body boards, which they thought was great.

I think that this boat is a great cheap way to get on the water Seagull £35.00 (off ebay) and about £100 to build the boat.

We did look at some of the small boats that were in Studland bay, small inflatable with a modern 3.3hp on the back would cost you the best part of £2000.00.

Boating on a budget is possible, and a small reliable Featherweight is still fantastic value compared to modern Jap engines.

H-A

[Collector Inspector]

What a wonderful time you must have had! Looks Mint!

Featherweight looks the real deal, especially boogie (Body) boards etc. Slow, but still "Boogie".

I just love the lines of the thing (Has it a name yet) and really if you could do the sums for bigger and let me know it will probably be the catalyst for me to actually clear some space and finally get down to making one. The style of construction will be best for me I reckon.

If slightly larger I can use heavier Anzani, Australian Riptide as well as my little love Featherweight. Also my Australian, to you guys "Oddities", as well.

Little classic Mate! You obviously enjoy life on your own terms, well done.

Regards

Bruce

[Horsley-Anarak]

And then there were two.

My sister inlaw wanted one for her birthday, three sheets of ply from Wickes and a bit of resin.

Now I just need to sort out a Featherweight for her.

H-A

[woodbutchergraham]

At this point I must make a comment. If you use the standard WBP far eastern plywood be extremely careful. Most importers are using wafer thin external veneers with a larger bulk core, and check for voids in this area. As for using Polyester resins obtain some styrene solution add about 5-10%to the mix this will thin out the resin and help wet out the ply for bonding. But to be honest you can’t fail with epoxy, yes it’s expensive and not easy to judge how much hardener (without pumps) but the bond and strength out way polyester by far. So I will leave it up to you.

[Horsley-Anarak]

Still a typical Forum, more talkers than do'ers.

Please don't just try to squash the people that are doing it, In the last year there have been no more home built boats shown on this forum.

Don't worry about the possible short fall of polyester over epoxy, a cheap ply polyester boat will when not stored in the water last for many years.

If it proved to be half as good as epoxy then it is still plenty good enough.

If the boat lasts for 5-10 years then that is fine, when it is no longer viable make a better one.

It is easy Broken Manifold bloke to make them in paper, how many good ones have you made in the last year? ( converted jet skies don’t count)

I find that virtual boats do not float well with a Seagull on the back, better to just bite the bullet and make one. There are loads of tested plans on the net.

Build a small boat buy a great British icon and off you go. No CE to worry about.

H-A

[skyetoyman]

Built a mirror dinghy in the late 60,s. Stitch and glue. 10' 10" long equates to around 12' if pointed. you can see the joint of 8' /2' 10" plywood
Perfect for a 2 to 3hp seagull shortshaft and would fit on the top of the car

Cleveleys beach nr Blackpool

Picture 1157.jpg (21.05 KiB) Viewed 4339 times

[Horsley-Anarak]

Mirror dinghys were first available in 1963.

Am I correct that in thinking that there was little or no epoxy around at this time.

From what I can remember the hull was stitched with copper wire and then the seams were taped with glass fibre tape and polyester resin.

Bit of varnish on the inside, bit of paint on the outside job done.

There are still plenty of thirty year old mirrors about, and there must be some older ones afloat.

I have seen one on the Thames with a 40+ on the back and it was going well.

H-A

[outboard]

Very intersting lads. Are there plans available for this project? I like the look of it and it could replace my inflatable.

Gerard

[skyetoyman]

copper wire , drilled holes and fibre glass tape is spot on. Thousands were built in small back yards. The working mans intro to sailing
The breakwater posts in the background claimed many unwary anglers who hadn't seen them at low tide and came back at full.
Brilliant at popping off outboards. These same anglers were usually the ones that hadn't taken there trailers out of the reach of the high tide and even if they got back safely they had to wait until the tide went out to find them. The simple joys of fishing on the Fylde . Almost as good as watching the holiday makers trying to put up a deckchair

[skyetoyman]

I am sure you can still get plans for a Mirror Dinghy. Leave out the centre board arrangement . They had bouyancy compartment at both ends. The pram front made it very solid but still light enough for single handed launching. I still miss my Mirror. 7496 I think was the sail number. £90 for the kit from the Daily Mirror.

[woodbutchergraham]

HA I do take exception to the comment “a talker than a do`er”
I for one would rather “do than talk.”
This was a small project to back up my theories and was built using polyester resin, Styrene solution, biaxial tapes, and marine plywood. Given the same project again I would without doubt use epoxy.
But you must tell the facts EPOXY is better than Polyester for boat building just because You don’t use it doesn’t make it correct
(See link)

http://www.rcsailing.net/forum1/showthr ... ster-resin
http://www.c-cyachts.com/images/company ... 15574.html
So there we have it both sides of the argument and as always
IT’S UP TO YOU!

[skyetoyman]

Reasonable prices on ebay for mirrors . New Complete Kits cost £900
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Mirror-Dinghy-/27 ... 3f00f51669

Glenrothes

[woodbutchergraham]

I bet the new kits of the Mirror dinghy use epoxy!

[skyetoyman]

Too true blue