Boat Builder Central

*Question 1* Interior space. That can be done as long as you do not move or remove a frame. It would give you a very small cokpit and with two people in the cockpit, far aft, the balance would not be as good. I prefer to keep the weight of people forward. It's a small boat, sensitive to the weight ...

I agree, it looks great and thanks for posting all those pictures.

Tanks drawings are included in the plans but they are a suggestion: you can make your tanks larger, smaller, move them a little bit to another place. My drawings show fill, pick up and vents but again, you can change that. Plan for those inspection plates. Instead of inspection plates, some builders...

It is possible and Fallguy describes the correct method: plank the foam on a male jig. This does not require any changes to the lines drawing. My plans give the dimensions inside of the hull skin, it's very easy. Please see my "Foam Sandwich 101" HowTo file in the tutorials section. It sho...

It will be fine in an SK14. I would worry if it was a bigger boat like a CS25 but this a light hull and my specs are over kill. For the fillets, the type of filler is not very important. Normally, we use a putty made from a mix of the two that is why you see the dark color. In most of my designs, th...

If you are asking about bolting the L brackets to the stringers, the idea of drilling oversize then fill with epoxy putty (milled fiber) then drill for the bolts is the way to go. I did reply about the fastening of the rubber mounts to that L bracket.

For the engine mount bolts, don't forget that you will need them all loose while you align the engine. That will be done dry first, out of the water but do not tighten them with full force. launch the boat and do the alignement again. Every hull moves a little bit when in the water. Once the hull is...

Thanks Tom, I forgot to reply to that one.

Some of the rules that are discussed here apply only to manufacturing not to amateur boat building. If you buy a tank from a manufacturer, it will be certified and that's it. Look for the ABYC sticker or ask the manufacturer.

About 15 years ago, there was a story in Professional Boat Builder about a boat very similar to the LB26 with electric propulsion. Two years later, there was an article about refitting that same boat with diesels. The electric motors and batteries were very expensive and did not perform well at all....