Dear Mr. Devlin,

How does one go about getting boat plans printed full size? In my small town there is no longer a blueprint shop, nor are there any industries that have print shops.

Best regards and Happy Halloween,

John

Hi John:

We do not offer full sized drawings that can be used for cutting as we have had too many issues with paper stability and being able to transfer from the plans to the plywood without destroying the drawings. Instead, we do have three options available for you:

Option #1 -- Printed study or construction plans: These are printed on 24 x 36 paper and mailed to you.

Option #2 -- Downloadable study or construction plans: These plans offer you a lower cost since we don't incur paper, printing labor, and large format printer costs. But, of course, this would require you to find a copy center in your town that can print on Arch "D" sized paper (24 X 36 size). In Olympia, the FedX-Kinko's copy center is the best bet and I think they charge something around $4 dollars per page for the Arch D format size. Our drawing resolution is optimized for this size so you are assured of getting a really good drawing and the download drawings have color on them, something that we can't currently offer on our printed black and white versions of the plans. Color helps us to highlight different features of the design. Once the plans are downloaded, you can save them to a memory stick and take them to your local print shop.

Option #3 -- Boat kits: We now have a cutting service here that can cut out a basic hull with puzzle type scarfs and shipping for most of the basic hull kits is about $450 coast to coast by common carrier. We use BS1088 marine plywood (the highest grade possible) for our basic kits and think this is a great option for the builder as it provides you with very accurate parts ready to assemble.

Thanks for the interest and I hope this helps you make your decision. -- Sam Devlin

I am busy reading your book Boat Building and your website and a few questions keep nagging me. Do you cover the entire outside of the boat with fiberglass cloth and epoxy or do you use fiberglass and epoxy with wood flour in it? And the same for the inside of the hull, is it just epoxy and fiberglass or epoxy with wood flour and fiberglass or perhaps just epoxy with wood flour in it? If you have to spread that wood flour mixture all over the surface it would seem to be very difficult to get it on evenly! You seem to speak of the wood color and grain on the inside as if you can see it after you apply epoxy and fiberglass to it. Wouldn't this cover the wood up? You use varnish?

Thanks, Joe

Dear Joe:

Thanks for your question and I hope the explanation I've done helps clear your confusion. We are advocates of sheathing the entire exterior of the boats with fiberglass cloth (6 oz. cloth a fairly light cloth covering) or Dynel polyester cloth set in epoxy... On the inside all we are doing is glassing fiberglass tapes on the seams of the boat and seams of the intersections of the bulkheads with the hull inside panels roughly in 4-8 inch widths (but keep in mind if we have a rough 90 degree joint that 4 inch tape would only lap 2" onto each of the surfaces). We let that first coat of taping cure to hardness and then sand somewhat smooth and start sealing the inside of the hull with just Epoxy Resin and Hardener mixed without thickeners or fillers added to it... For a wood grain finish you would need to varnish or urethane clear over that epoxy to give some U.V. protection to the epoxied wood surface... If painting then just a good opaque primer and final paint over the epoxied hull inside suffices. The wood Flour mixture is a fillet that coves the inside corners of the joints of the hull panels and bulkhead to panel intersections and makes for a smoother and neater joint and one that tapers the strength of one panel over to the next structure in as smooth and continuous manner as is possible. -- Sam

May 03, 2010

Sam,

First I wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed going through your book. Building a wood boat is a dream at this point but in the mean time I've come across an opportunity to purchase an older wood boat. The catch being that it would require a lot of work to make it structurally sound. The hull is in need of repair - seams coming apart and many places show deterioration and water damage to the wood. In some places on the hull the fasteners are visible.

In any event, I was wondering if you might know where the best place would be to get some information on rebuilding/rehabbing. Processes, methods, etc. in particular to the hull and structural components necessary to make the boat sound. It is cheap enought and if it is something that could be salvaged, I may be in favor of testing my hand on it as an intermediary until I get the time to build one from scratch. Thanks for your help.

Todd

Hi Todd:

Well, it certainly sounds like you are tackling a big project and you should be prepared to spend a lot of money and time on it. The biggest decision on whether to repair an older boat or not is whether you really want that boat in your life. I have done a few repair/conversions myself and it's very easy in hindsight to say that it was not worth the effort, too much money paid and no way to recoup the labor or money pumped into such a project. But if you love the boat and I mean really love it, then it may be worth the effort to repair her. I don’t really recommend doing it as an interim boat because you will find it almost impossible to part with without losing many dollars and all that time you pumped into it. And while it may be fairly easy to talk you through a simple Stitch and Glue project, you will have to wear many hats to repair a boat like this and there is no one clearinghouse on where to get the information to allow you to approach it intelligently. So study WoodenBoat magazine and I recommend you buy one of their DVDs with all back issues included so that you can a least look up articles on each of the topics that you will encounter and that will need information to approach it directly.

So my advice is be careful with your choice, go into this project with the idea that it will cost much money and many hours of labor, only do it because you are hopelessly in love with the boat and it is worthy of repairing, and only do it because you are going to keep her forever. My best advice is that if you are short of meeting any or all those categories then avoid the project, buy a simple set of plans and build a small boat that can be used as a learning tool towards building a larger boat someday.

Sam Devlin

Sam,

You have an extremely informative site and the more I read, the more I’m convinced to try one Egret designs as a starter. I have a couple of questions:

1. How are the plywood sheets joined together into one panel when the sides and bottom are longer than the original sheet? I don’t notice any laps or doubled areas in the photos.

2. After glassing over the stitches on the inside of the seams, how do you remove the stitches? Do you simply cut off the wire that is on the outside only and leave the glassed over wire in place?

3. I’ve seen some stitching done with tie wraps. Is wire better?

Frank Palmer

Hi Frank:

We join the plywood sheets, end-to-end, with a scarf joint (a 8/1 long slope angle) cut into the ends of both panels and glued up with epoxy resin. Once you have mastered the art of scarfing, you can make any length or width of plywood that you want. We most often stitch the boat up and then do small dabs of epoxy and filler in between the wire sutures allowing us, after that epoxy cures, to remove the wires without problem. If some epoxy resin gets on them, it's no big deal to heat the wires with a propane torch, the epoxy will release its hold on the metal, and you can pull them out with a pair of pliers. I never have liked to leave the wire stitches or any part of the wires in place as they may want to work their way out of the joint at some inopportune time in the future. So the rule is to pull them out completely.

We have also been having very good results with stapling the panels together with an air powered staple gun using either a ½” wide crown 18 gauge steel wire staple for the larger designs or using an upholster's staple gun which has a 7/16” crown monel or stainless steel staple for the smaller boats. In both cases, the guns cost something under $100 dollars and a box of staples will stitch up about a dozen boats. I have never been a fan of the nylon wire ties for stitching as they take a very large hole in the plywood to use and leaving them in the joint just doesn’t make much sense to me. Stapling or simple stitching is an easy process, works extraordinarily well and is easy to remove after the epoxy cures.

Regards, Sam

August 16, 2010

Hello again,

I would like to thank you for your immediate response. I am studying the plans and I lofted couple of parts in some large scrap templates and I admit you are right, it's not that time consuming. I have one question regarding the removal of stitches while the hull is still upside down. If I glue with epoxy the six main panels of the hull, will the gluing be strong enough to keep the panels together while I remove the stitches? Or is there another procedure I should follow in order to put the fiberglass tape?

Thank you in advance.

Tassos

P.S. I am currently building a model of the black crown to help me understand the later build. When she is finished, I will sent you pictures.

Hello Tassos:

When she is upside down and you have all the panels stitched up well and everything is true and looks good to the eye, the process is then to climb under the hull and tab all the hull parts together. The tabbing process is to make small fillets of thickened epoxy in the seams and where possible reinforce them with small cuts of biaxial tape over the fillet material. Sections of the tape about 2”X4” size can be epoxy saturated and applied over the fillet and effectively we are tack welding the structure together. If you do this process in between the wire stitches (sutures), you will be able to allow a day to cure (or more time if that suits the project) and remove the wires without much fuss. If some epoxy gets on the wires, it is no big chore to add heat to the wire (a hand held propane torch works best for this action) and the heat will allow the epoxy to release its grip on the wire, thus allowing it to be pulled out. Bulkheads may be tabbed together at the same time and with the same methods. After pulling out the wires, I recommend doing any of the interior glass taping of the joints in both the hull panels and in the bulkheads to panels joints now while it is still relatively easy to apply. Do the vertical sections which are easy to see and reach but I don’t try to do anything more than the tabbing in the overhead areas as those parts are easier done once she is rolled right side up and we don’t have gravity working against us.

Sam

September 05, 2010

Hello Sam,

I have your book and DVD, both are excellent! I will be ordering plans for the Polliwog soon. I'm a rookie and want to build the Polliwog to gain experience for building a 16ft outboard skiff for fishing. Marine grade plywood (Occume, Meranti) is impossible to get in MN and WI and was wondering if I could use 5-ply birch plywood with exterior rated glue and no voids (that I can see from the edges) for the hull. One side is AA, the other side does have knots that I would fill in with epoxy. Its from a big box store and is intended for flooring substrate (so they tell me). Also, what thickness plywood is used for the transom. I know the plans will tell all, but want to get a jump on getting the plywood.

Looking forward to boat building in Duluth, MN.

Sincerely,

Mark

Hi Mark:

We do recommend 1/2" for the transom, and no, I don’t endorse using the flooring stuff for the hull. It really goes like this --all the labor, money and effort that you put into this project hangs on the integrity of the hull planking and I don’t want to even in the slightest way suggest that you do anything but use the finest materials that you can get, use labor that is well thought out and a rewarding endeavor to your time and energy, and take the proper amount of pride in the accomplishment of building this boat. If you are successful, you will be joining a fraternity of people that is eminently smaller than the fraternity of those that think about such projects but never get to the actual labor part. In other words, take pride in the accomplishment of being a boatbuilder, there are few people in the whole world that can make the claim to be such, and take the pride in building something with your hands that literally breathes life into a pile of materials. That is creation at its finest expression and well worth filling up ones chest with pride over. Spend the time and money on good materials and take the full measure of what you are attempting and the full measure of pride in the final accomplishment.

Sam

Cold molding extra layers of plywood on the larger Stitch and Glue boats that need to have the ultimate panel be increased in thickness

August 19, 2010

Tassos:

The cold molded layers do not need to be scarfed but can be butted together, but make sure to stagger the butt joints so that no weakness line is developed. The rule here is to not have any joints overlap either over the original scarf lines or over any of the butt lines in the cold molded layers. All cold molding layers are of ½ the thickness of the original panels and on some designs it is smart to rip the plywood into smaller strips for cold molding the bow sections which have the most curvature in them. So on the Black Crown 30 hull that you are building I would recommend using the first 8ft. of cold molding layers from the stem aft ripped into more bendable 4” widths and fastening them individually butted up next to each other. On the next layer you can alternate the layers orientation so that you end up with a slight double diagonal pattern, that will make for a really strong ultimate laminate.

I use staples for the intermediate layers and use screws fastened thru small blocks of scrap wood for the final layers, you can use packaging tape on the bottom of the small scrap plywood blocks to eliminate the epoxy from sticking to them and remove the screws and blocks after glue cures hard. That will give you the best lamination and will give you the most fair and smooth final skin, without the telegraphing of the staple tracks. I suggest on both cold molding layers to drill small 1/8” holes about 12” on center throughout the panel to make sure that you have a good lamination going and don’t have entrapped air in between the layers, when done properly the holes will fill up with epoxy glue showing good contact between the surfaces and no air entrapment. Of course both surfaces to be glued together need to be carefully coated with glue and its vital to keep the surfaces clean of sawdust or any other contaminate that might cause a problem in the laminate. I coat both the boat and the back of the panel being applied to it with un-thickened epoxy glue making sure that even if I might have a small gap that all surfaces are sealed with the vital epoxy glue. A good trick to cutting out the cold molding layers is to lay them out in staggered pattern under the lofted bottom panels and cut out all the panels including the cold molding layers with one cutting session, once labeled for keeping in order and stacked aside to wait the cold molding you will save valuable time trying to mark out the panels from the assembled hull (which is your other option).

Sam