Boat Builder Central - Builder Forums

A little bit of history............

About 10 years ago I found Bateau.com and got urges to build a boat. I couldn't decide which so bought the plans for GV11, SC16 and V12. At the time I had quite a big workshop space a bit of spare cash but it turned out, absolutely no time to build a boat.

Fast-forward to a couple of weeks ago and my urge to be on the water was re-kindled. Now I do have a bit of time but a much smaller work area and no money so small and human powered it's got to be.

It is often noted that all boats have a designed displacement and that small boats in particular do not behave as intended if they aren't loaded. There's no point my having a 20ft canoe if want it to be able to be paddled by a couple of nippers or just myself. The HC12 looks like it should fit the bill perfectly.

I downloaded the plans and have already needed to seek some advice on here but am now ready to go.

My local timber merchant is getting a couple of sheets of BS1088 in for me and I should have them in a day or two. I have been in the carpentry/joinery/building trade for too many years now and know that the quality of ply these days is horrendous so do not have high hopes.

I have a source for epoxy that I've used before for bike related projects. It mixes as a 2:1 ratio which makes life easy and that is on it's way.

I'll order some tape tonight.

I am truly amazed at the projects that I see underway on here so I doubt many people will be overly interested in an "ickle" canoe build but I quite enjoy jabbering so I'll chatter away anyway.

I marked out some 6mm MDF today and cut templates for the panels and molds. The boat is symmetrical so it'll make things easy

Thank you for volunteering to post a record of your build, and good luck with it.

I am glad to read any build threads here.
Hoping to start on my own HC14 within a week or two. (nearly ready to start but now that my checklist is nearly done it seems the honey-do check list has grown immensely)

Cheers chaps,

I cut these yesterday but for some reason I deleted the picture
Epoxy arrived today but still no sign of the ply yet. I am expecting a pair of wheels to turn up for my Stinkwheel and I'm afraid that when they do they'll will take priority because I'm at an event next weekend.

What are the big holes in the center of each panel for?

Narfi, these are templates, not the hull panels, presumably those are just for moving/gripping etc.

Ah i see now, that makes sense.... I was hoping to just use my first cutout of each as my templates, will that cause me any issues?

bateau-webmaster wrote: ↑Thu Jun 29, 2017 1:37 pm Narfi, these are templates, not the hull panels, presumably those are just for moving/gripping etc.

They're drainage holes to let the water out if the boat gets swamped

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I figured that because the square ends of the panels are really small, it'd be easy to be a little bit out and over 12 feet, that could be quite a bit at the ends. I have marked an alignment line on the templates that can be transferred to the panels so that when I am joining them I can put a straightedge on the line. The holes are so I can "tick" the end of the line onto the panel and not need a 13ft straightedge.

narfi wrote: ↑Thu Jun 29, 2017 1:39 pm I was hoping to just use my first cutout of each as my templates, will that cause me any issues?

That would've been my plan too but I had a bit of time, no ply but some MDF so thought I'd plot out the dims on that. The MDF was knocking about so if I cocked things up it'd be no loss and it'll make it really easy when I have the ply

Drainage Holes!! That's Rich!!

I cut out the molds today and went to pick up the ply. It was stamped up as BS1088 but was only three plys and the outers were about half a mm thick. Right or wrong, I have rejected it and ordered some bloody expensive ply from a known to be reliable source.

Also found a odd lump of windowboard in my junk rack to use for the portage yoke. It's plantation grown "Red Hardwood". It's very lightweight, the grain is swirly and it's a bugger to work. In the UK it's used for cheap front doors and trims. It's pants but to be honest, probably the only sort of hardwood that is sustainable.

I do have a couple of bits of mahogany that I was considering using for the seats but I may well just go with cleated ply as per the plans.

My wheels are back so I'll be working on The Stinkwheel this weekend.