Boat Builder Central

Let's first discuss the material: I prefer to stick to plywood. Strip planking is not as strong. It is fine for pretty kayak but not for a hull that may slam in bad weather.. Understand that we use the plywood as the core, the strength comes from the skins. All other points can be addressed if you a...

Everything is already in place, you can't change much but no changes may be needed. As a starting point, I would try to get the sail center about 10% aft of the CLR. You may be close. I would make a sail from cheap polyethylene tarp, glued. It is cheap and fast to assemble. You can play with the sai...

Well before computers could do it, we used to cut out the lateral area from cardboard and balance it on the tip of a pencil. It is good enough for what you do. Better, today, draw that same surface in CAD and get the center of area. I would do it for you but the FB11 is not my design. The FB11 is no...

Please look in the Power boats section and see the very long thread from Peter from Curacao. It will answer many of your questions. Since Peter lives in the Caribbean, he used his boat there, no problem. If you are based in the US and want to cross to the Bahamas and go further down, I would not ant...

Yes, thank you Fuzz.
The 12 oz. is easier to wet out and will absorb less resin. My first choice was 3 layers of 12 oz.
I don't know where the 4 layers came from, maybe about someone who mentioned a larger engine or a larger scaled boat.

Depending on where you sit, the headroom is between 85 and 100 cm. Those are small boats, I can't give you more headroom.
Yes, they can sit on their stub keels at low tide or they can be dragged and rolled on the keel.

Different style boats. Inboard against outboard, classic picnic launch look against lobster boat etc. One important point is that the DE25 is easier to build and will cost less. Another point is draft. The inboard has shaft, a prop and a strut sticking out which can be difficult in your area. You ma...

No problem at all. In the VG18 and VG20, the length of the berth under the cockpit seats is 232 and 235 cm respectively.
In the AD16, it is 295 if you cut through the last cockpit bulkhead which is possiblr.

Somewhere on this forum, there is a long thread about a DE25 built heavy for which we hesitated between a 115 and 150 HP. The builder picked a 150 and is happy with it. This particular boat was built for cruising with a family, lots of gear and diving equipment. If that is the plan, go for a 150. On...

I designed a Pacific Dory some years and decided not to finalize or publish the plans. The main characteristic was the raised bottom at the bow. The only advantage was the beaching but there is a heavy price to pay in slamming. Considering how few will really beach such a boat, I think it was not wo...