Saving Old Seagulls

There you are, at least it made you post some pics Graham, it looks good.

My post was not intended to be Acid, sorry if it was taken that way.

Glad you are a doer, I have used epoxy (west system) on a 24' steam launch and I have built 2 stitch and glue boats using it. I did find that it is also harder to use than Polyester, plus it is not stable under UV.

It has the advantage of being stronger, but I do find that it is very expensive.

Polyester if used with care "I think" gives fantastic results, if I was building a large boat using marine ply then I would be using Epoxy. But a small Seagull boat can be made for about £100.00, and as I have said before it does let people with limited budgets build a boat and use their horrid, dirty, outdated, smoky, rubbish, bits of Great British history.

When you look at the time a small boat is in the water PVA and Dulux paint would be good enough, how many millions of GRP boats are there in the world the only major problem that they might get is osmosis.

H-A

£900 doesn't sound cheap to me for a small boat kit.

4 sheets of 6mm 5 ply marine grade, should be less than £120.00
2 litres Episeal 40.00
2 litres epoxy resin & hardner to suit 50.00
100 meters 4" glass tape 15.00
1 box 1" stainless screws 10.00
Sundry timber for gunnels, transom & whatever 75.00
Stainless fittings 20.00
Paint & sandpaper 60.00
And a whole heap of time 00.00

Giving a grand total of almost £400.00

Hard as it is to agree with Manifold, but he's right, I build my scale models out of the thinist sheet balsa wood as it performs more like ply than card so that I can see if a, it looks right & b, it's stiff & strong enough in the right places.
I don't use stitch & glue but make a temporary skeleton out of rubbish ply & mdf & fasten to it with penny washers & self tappers & fill the resulting holes afterwards.

Beware modern ply it's crap! most 6mm is 3 ply comprising 1 thick balsa quality core with a sheet of wallpaper on either side, it varies in stiffness all over the sheet, never let the timber merchant deliver it to you, that way you get what your given. go to the biggest ply dealer you can find take your scales & pick the best you can afford, sheets of widely differing weights,m tend to have different bending properties, so try to get them all the same.
I allways seal all the ply I use with Episeal, a very thin epoxy sealer, it seals real good & slows down the end grain problems that all ply is subject to.

Sorry HA but the only boats I've seen the tape peeling off, used polyester resin, though I'm told some of the new polyesters are very good & are much more resistant to osmosis.

Manifold's software looks very good, & a table of offsets for a hull can be on the other side of the world in seconds, a T square & a ruler is all you'll need to start marking out your ply for cutting.

So stop talking & get on with it.

Not sure I'd agree Australian ply is better than the UK it comes from the same places, often with slightly different names but I would agree with the price difference, they all seem to have a policy of charging what the market will stand.
Most noticable with things like De Walt power tools as you can compare like with like.
5 years ago the Kiwis were paying about half what we were & the Aussies about 60%, this has changed since the value of the £ went down the drain, now us poor pommes can't afford to buy anything in your end of the world, even your fuel is catching us up!

having done a little scouting through my worldwide contacts it seems i have to agree Charles. Most of the mills are produceing a similar type of product, however the USA seem to have the best supplies of 6mm 5 ply with even laminations.Marine ply for what we use our boats for is a bit over the top, as a good WBP ply uses the same adhesive. It`s the lack of voids that makes burch faced and marine ply worth its cost as well as thay look good varnished ( strange no one asked me how i put gel coat on the outside of my canoe?)

I thought that you might have used Flow coat, rather than Gel Coat.

Go on then tell us how you put Gel Coat on the outside of your canoe.

H-A

Its simple just add wax in solution to the gel coat and catalyst mix about 3-5%. Stir well and apply liberally and evenly use a guage, the wax rises to the top giving a smooth clean finish. Most of my materials where sponsored by a local resin company who supplied me with 25lts of Lloyds approved resin 25ltrs of fiber fill 25ltrs of fine fill and a l ltr of catalyst all FOC. Just some samples they had left over!

Like a fellow member called me the other day a lucky bas***d
but thats a whole new thread.

I don't remember saying "lucky" Graham.

Try not to misquote me.

Charles, is this your own design? Wouldn't mind a copy of the plans, are they available?

Maybe someone could point me to where I could learn a little about designing and how to use this software Manifold and Charles are talking about, it all sounds clever.

Gerard

Gerard this hull was built as a test hull & only for speed, as it stands in the bottom picture it weighed 47 lbs, but finished in yellow paint & fully rigged weights about 70lbs.
It's not realy heavy enough, to use as a knockabout, there were no plans, I just used ideas I had in my head from other peoples hulls I'd used & seen & other boats I'd built.

I used 6, 4, 3, & 2mm ply with epoxy.

Rather than highjack HA's thread, perhaps you should start a new one, giving all the details of what your after, & wait for suggestions.

Size, maximum load, how you will move it in & out of the water, where you will use it, water conditions, your woodworking ability & the tools you have access to, should be enough info to start the ball rolling.

Sorry HA, didn't intend anything, I am looking at your plans (as illustrated by manifold). It looks ideal for use around the coastal waters where I am, my inflatable is more for inland water hence my interest in your design and Charles' yellow peril.

Will do as Charles suggests.

HA, and pics of the build stages?

Gerard

I did try and redraw my little boat using Carene, but I was unable to change the shape of the transom but still keep a good v at the front.

What I have on the boat is a bit of v at the front but a fairly flat transom on the bottom chine.

Perhaps it is me, but I seem to be stuck with the same amount of v through the full length.

Also I did try to draw my next boat, but that will have quite a flat stern.

Is there another program that lets you decide on the shape of the boat at different stations? I can remember one in the past that I used that had an auto spline facility. so you could draw a few stations then it would fill in the rest. You could also stretch different points to suit.

H-A

P.S. I have named my design "Larus"

Manifold you are obviously a little dyslexic KO
Or are you trying to call me an A*** H***

For something slightly different, have a look at these kits:

http://www.gaboats.com/boats/classic12.html

or, for a real beauty:

http://www.aandrwayboatbuilding.co.uk/n ... rsale.html

Tim

I love this one it reminds me of my youth Balsa,Tissue, dope, model aeroplane making.#
Not sure that my lot would manage with "don't stand there !!!".

14 foot and only 25kg, could be a lerryn winner.

H-A

Three nice boats, the mahogany one is stunning.