The White Boat

2014-07-27

I am going to start adding my posts to the top of the page now as it is getting a bit long for sculling everytime. I have been away from building the boat for 5 weeks as work commitments have gotten the better of me. I knew they would and it was always planned that way. In the time I have been gone Peter has been working on the engineering of the steering and so on. He's done a remarkable job, as you will see in the photos.

2014-04-20

Hello and welcome to the next project. I, along with a lot of help from others, am going to attempt to build a 1920's style counter-stern riverboat. It is 21 feet long and 7 feet wide and will eventually be powered with a 7hp Simplex, single cylinder marine engine. First things first, I bought the 5th and only remaining hull from Peter at www.pvlaunches.com.au, never fear, he can make more, just go to his website and contact him. But this is the last of an original batch of five. You can see the first four on my Autumn 2014 blog. I intend to make a small cabin on the front and have an open boat at the rear (no, you don't need to engage in fore/aft/bow/stern-type boat-speak all the time just because you are building a boat. Front and rear work just fine). 

 
Once you have a hull, you need a floor; and for that you need floor bearers. These are tricky because you need to shape them in 3 dimensions and include a complex curve at the base to match the hull. Once you have two floor bearers in, you need to make templates for the rest to match so that your floor will be flat. Then make the rest. Mine are made from Redgum sleepers for the weight bearing ones and permapine for the rest.

2014-05-10
A few weeks have passed and a couple of hard days have gone into the White Boat. You can see here that the floor bearers have been glassed in, the stem-post has been set and I have made the front floorboard. It doesn't look like much, but it takes some doing, to be sure.



After that we made a jig for helping us with the raised front and just kept on layering the back and sides, and finally making the gussets to support for the deck.

This week I made some more floorboards and Pete has done most of the engine bearers. Today We measured and designed what I want for the raised decks and cuddy cab. We managed to get the first bits of the raised decks on and the engine bearers bolted down. They are both psychological milestones for me. I feel like it is really coming together.