Boat Builder Central - Builder Forums

Maybe not the smartest thing I've ever done, but what can I say?

I've been a long-time lurker on these sites and have wanted to build a boat for ages. But I never seemed to have the time, or a place to build it. So when my wife planned to visit her parents for a few weeks, I started thinking.. and pacing out the dimensions of the living room, I thought just maybe I could do it!

I knew it would require an organized schedule and some very neat epoxy work. My plan was to do all the cutting and sanding outside, and the epoxy inside, get the boat finished and take it to a buddy's place for painting.

I got a v12 epoxy/glass kit from boatbuildercentral Europe and found some reasonable plywood locally. I must say things went pretty well: I spent about 8 days working stretched over 6 weeks or so. I would have liked to have it painted and launched by now, but got bogged down a bit with fairing and sanding and other priorities. Soon, real soon.

I built the row/motor version and mostly stuck to the plans. But I did incorporate a few tricks and mods I learned from reading these forums. I took lots of pictures and put some in my album.

I'll link just a few pics here.. you can check the album for the full build sequence. Don't laugh at my workspace

A tight squeeze for two sheets of plywood!


Stitching goes fast:


My bow came together real nice:


End of two days, ready for inside seams






Hey I can put it on the car myself!


Thanks Jacques for a great set of plans, I can't wait to get it in the water.

Cheers,
Steve in Umeå Sweden.

Looks great, lets see more pics of her on the water

Dave

You are a braver man than I!

The boat looks great. Great job!

Well done Steve.

Looks great. Just goes to prove where there's a will there's a way. Does the wife know she has a boat yet? I don't think I'll be building the TW28 in my living room though.

Nicely done.

Rick

This one goes into my favorite posts folder

Nice job!

joel

That's funny, usually the wife leaves after the boat building begins....

Nicely done. I'm glad it fit out the door!

Next time I build in the house I'll take photos too I promise

Tony
(far away from the sea for the week but saw trout swiming in the river today!)

This is great! Very nice workmanship! I'd like to see close ups of your racks for getting the boat onto the car singlehanded - I had a go at something similar, but never succeeded and ended up getting a trailer

Wow, that is a beautiful boat. It must have taken near surgical precision and extreme care to build it inside the house. After building the GV11, my garage looked like a disaster area and still does.

Very, very nice work. My hat is off.

Cheers,

S.D.-

Thanks for the kind words guys. I really enjoyed building it. I told my wife what I was doing, but I don't think she really believed me until she saw it. She probably thought I was building a model!

JerryF- It wasn't really that hard to control the epoxy drips with a drop cloth, but you have to be really careful not to step in them and track them around.

Barney- I'll take some more pictures of my rack in action and post them later. It took a lot of thinking, but turned out quite simple in the end. I plan to use the same rack to hang it upside down above my car in the carport.

I still haven't painted it yet, but I have collected all the paint and hardware I need. Despite some conflicting advice on the forum, I have decided to go with Interlux Pre-Kote and TopLac because it is easy to get here. I made a test piece with my planned painting schedule and it seemed to turn out nice. No problems with the pre-kote curing over the epoxy, but we'll see how it goes on the real thing.

oh and I can't stop thinking about the "next" boat. Probably a OB17 or a GV17, but that one won't be in the living room!

Cheers,
Steve

Greetings Steve,

Have you had a chance to get on the water yet? Does your wife enjoy rowing?

Cheers,

S.D.-

Greetings Steve,

Did you ever get a chance to paint the boat?

Have you put on a small motor, or, have you been rowing?

Cheers,

S.D.-

I finally got around to uploading some pictures of the finished boat in my album. Finishing and painting took more time than I expected, but I think it turned out pretty well.

This is a shot with the boat primed after fairing the tape edges with a microbaloon mix. You notice I use Cracker Larry's trick of using a golden retreiver to soak up epoxy drips and paint spills .



I used Interlux pre-cote and TopLac for the paint system and didn't seem to have any trouble with it curing or sticking to the epoxy. This is after two coats of paint, but before the seats/rubrail are varnished. Also yet to install deck hatches in the under-seat chambers and some hardware:



I also put a stripe on the side with that 50mm vinyl striping tape that comes on a roll. very easy.



I take it everywhere on the racks on my car. I haven't weighed it, but it turned out light enough to lift myself (just).

OK.. this is what it's all about. enjoy.

/Steve

Beautiful! Congratulations.

That's what I'm talking about
Nice fish and nice boat.

Very nice! Nice pics as well!

What kind of fish?? What body of water??

Greetings Steve,

Did you ever get a chance to paint the boat?

Have you put on a small motor, or, have you been rowing?

Cheers,

S.D.-

I guess you answered it all! Very wonderful work only bested by "dinner in the box"!

Yours is the standard that others will do well to measure theirs by.

Cheers,

S.D.-

Q wrote: What kind of fish?? What body of water??

That's in Norway near the arctic circle. In the box is mostly cod and "sej" (brits call them coalfish, close to pollock). you can also get other atlantic coldwater species here.. haddock, halibut, atlantic mackerel etc. Fantastic fishing there, and it's a weekend trip for me with a bit of a long drive.

spjoyce wrote:Fantastic fishing there, and it's a weekend trip for me with a bit of a long drive.

That would be Swedish understatement... A bit of a long drive, jeez
Keep the photos coming so that we can dream. I hope to bring my familly up within the next year or two. Those are places you have to visit once in your life - I went as far as Bergen in 1978 or 79 (the year the weather was good )

Tony

I uploaded a few more pictures of the finished boat in my gallery here:
http://forums.bateau2.com/thumbnails.ph ... 481&page=4

I have been using the boat quite a bit over the summer and it has performed well. It is a really nice rowing boat: well balanced, tracks straight and moves effortlessly through the water.

I also have a honda 2.3Hp 4-stroke, which is plenty of power to drive the boat at hull speed. You really don't need anything more and rarely use more than half throttle. As others have noted, when motoring by yourself you really should use a tiller extension and sit in the middle seat, it is a small boat. The rocker on the bottom causes a bow-high attitude when sitting in the back by yourself.

I used quite a bit LESS epoxy than supplied with the kit, probably had almost a gallon leftover. But I didn't build the sailing option and didn't cover the bottom in glass.

cheers,
Steve

Nice Dog, nice fish, nice water, great looking kid, and congratulaions on a beautiful boat.

Duke

Wonderful pictures of the family having fun, each a postcard, the 12 will build memories over the years to come.

Again, great job.

Cheers,

S.D.-

Beautiful boat, family and pictures Steve. Sweden and Norway are such beautiful countries, I have been to Bergen and a few other small places in Sweden and Norway that I no longer remember there names. This was when I was when I was in the Navy nearly 25 years ago. I took a train for two weeks and toured the coast of both countries trying to stay away from the big cities.

It looks like you are building a lifetime of memories with your boat and it will continue to do so as the kids grow up.

Tom

...Steve you are crazy - to build the boat in the living room
...but nice to see that somebody does it in the house.

My wife would cry "divorce"......and I'am "No, a fishing boat"

After this no one can say that less space is a reason for no building -thanks!

Bye
Bernd