Boat Builder Central

So after having sought all your expert advice on which 17ft-ish boat to build and having bought the plans for the OD16 things took an unexpected turn. Anyway... we ended up blowing the 16ft max length requirement (and decided to moor rather than park it on the lawn) and ended up with this: http://ww...

Fantastic news, guys. Great inspirational thread and a great report of the first outing. Thanks a lot for sharing so many pictures and posts - really helpful to those of us trying to work out how best to proceed.

Well done, again - what a great boat you've built there.

Thanks guys. That makes a lot of sense. I'd seen other small boats with 50HP, 60HP, 75HP engines and wondered what was going on. Pretty sure nearly all of them had at least a shallow V bottom, which your explanations now help make the Bateau figures make more sense. On holiday we hired a 5m rib with...

Wow, this is moving along at pace! A really good thread to read and the photos are great. Can't wait to see it in the water (not quite as much as you, though, I'm sure!)

A deliberately provocative thread title, perhaps, and I'm playing devil's advocate. I'm very new to boats, let alone powerboats and let even more alone DIY power boats. I'm hoping for some instruction and guidance, rather than trying to stir up some frenzied debate. The plans I've got for the OD16 s...

Ah, I see - yes, an inbuilt cooler does hold an appeal. I think if we start building our aim is going to be keeping weight down as much as possible. In terms of performance, I guess it's all to do with weight and trim. Steve292 built his FS17 with a lot of extras and it came out about 3 times the st...

Your boat is really coming along. Nice work. Sorry to ask a really dumb question, but what is the advantage of a built-in cooler? Over, say, a hatch designed to fit a removable cooler bag? http://www.teebeetrading.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/cooler-bag.jpg One concern I am having with all the ext...

I love the look of this boat! Really nice pointed bow. Is there an easy way to view the gallery? If there is, I'm blind.

Ilker, what a fantastic boat you built! Congratulations. This is a really inspirational thread.

(Disclaimer - I know nothing about boats!) If you can consider the Runaround which looks like an inboard, then you might want to look at this thread about a new 21" design which you could possibly scale down by 10% to 19"... http://gallery.bateau2.com/albums/userpics/10004/stern_bateau3_60...