Boat Builder Central - Builder Forums

After wanting to build a boat for a very long time, I finally got the chance (my wife agreed) when isolation happened. As frustrating as it's been to not be able to go to the hospital (I'm a medical student on a surgery rotation), it's been lots of fun to build the V10 with my son. I've cheated a little bit, as I've repurposed some windsurfing gear as an easy test rig to see how it sails - depending on those results, the rig may be subject to change.

I wanted to build the V10 as I personally greatly prefer the looks of V-shaped hulls, and if I'm taking it out on Moreton Bay near Brisbane, being able to cut through the chop a little will be advantageous. I'm really pleased with the plans, although I found the BOM and build time estimate to be off. Because I'm in Australia, I can't easily source some of the recommended epoxies which may be partially why.

I've posted a full build log so far with >100 images and captions here: https://fearthecow.net/guest/building-a-boat/. It's almost finished - I'm posting this now to procrastinate as I have exams next week!

Here's an image of where it's currently up to as of today. One more coat of blue, and then just the ports/hatches, rigging, rudder, tiller, and centreboard to install (they're build and painted). I'm now on a launch deadline for next Friday with two major exams in the middle, so I'm under the pump, but should make it.

And poof! There's a boat! Beautiful!

Hi,
Congratulations to a beautiful built V10 and the speed record in building it you definitely broke. Corona has its good sides it lets boats appear within a few weeks and the birds and bumble bees in my garden are multiplying themselves just as fast in fantastic smelling air because of hardly any cars before the house.
Greetings from Karl and sunny Austria

And poof! There's a boat! Beautiful!

Thanks - there's been a fair bit of pressure involved from the senior surgeons giving tutorials over Zoom. One very senior urologist wanted an update on what I'd achieved at the start of every tutorial!

It's been a very fun project, and a big thanks to everyone on the forum - I really haven't needed to post as pretty much every question I had was already answered here. I thought that I should still put up my log in case it helps other people in the future.

And I hope that all is well in both Florida and Austria too - we've been very fortunate with COVID in Australia. While it's annoying to not be able to go out much, I got to build a boat!

I should also mention that the colours are the choice of my 3 year old, who is currently obsessed with Blippi (a YouTube entertainer who dresses in blue and orange). I would have gone for more traditional workboat green/cream, but you've got to pick your battles.

My wife decided to do up a model one day, so I shrunk the plans showing how to place each section on each sheet of plywood onto A4. My 3yo then instructed my wife where to paint each colour, and which colours he wanted from a Norglass Marine Paint brochure. If he's this strong-willed now...

I can vouch for the V handling chop well. Heck, I’m the idiotic type that takes a v12 right into the ocean. Lil Bit eats it up and makes me smile every time.

The only thing I found you need to make sure you didn’t miss when sailing in lumps is the cleats on top of the dagger board. With a load on board the peaks may hit the top of the trunk giving you a glorious fountain inside the boat. A 1/2” wide lip all around the trunk will seal it up nicely and prevent the V from being a floating wading pool.

Your V10 looks great. I actually think the colors aren’t bad. I’m sure you’ll enjoy your V quite a bit. Just be ready to spend time talking about your boat at the launch and anytime you aren’t moving. It’s a nice problem to have.

Thanks for your advice Jaysen:

The only thing I found you need to make sure you didn’t miss when sailing in lumps is the cleats on top of the dagger board. With a load on board the peaks may hit the top of the trunk giving you a glorious fountain inside the boat. A 1/2” wide lip all around the trunk will seal it up nicely and prevent the V from being a floating wading pool.

I'm not sure how well it'll work yet, but I've added a lip around the daggerboard and a progressive wedge to hopefully fix it in the slot. I thought that this could be an issue. I've also got a cover for when I'm rowing.

First the daggerboard - extra wedge added in for a snug fit, and a piece of meranti with a hole cut in it to sit flush on the middle seat:



And a cover plate instead for when I'm rowing that has a little wedge to stick in firmly:

You’ve got it covered! Looks great! Now we need to see some pics of her on the water!

And we've launched! No wind today, but went for a row.

It rows well with surprisingly little effort. Ian had lots of fun rowing with both myself and his grandfather. Thanks to Jacques for designing such a nice boat!

Ready to go:



The two builders out for a row:



Taking a ride with his grandfather:



I'm sure that we're going to continue to have lots of fun with this boat. It's been lots of fun. As soon as there's enough wind, I'll get a sailing photo uploaded too.

Congrats Bobob!! She looks great!! Glad to see you son enjoying her as well!! Jeff

Dang that is a good looking boat!

Fuzz wrote: ↑Fri Jun 12, 2020 9:32 pm Dang that is a good looking boat!

Thanks - I know quite a few parts that only a parent could love - but when you build it you know where they are! I picked the V10 because I really thought that the curves and V-hull make an attractive design.

I'd love to try a second build leaving some of the timber bright finished, but I'm not sure that I'd have the patience to get the quality of finish that I'd want - and that some of the builders on here manage to achieve.

And now for probably the final update - it turns out that it can sail too!

We took it out on a local dam (as the bay didn't have great conditions for the first sail - I thought that ~17kts might be a bit much to try taking my son out in). As I said in an earlier post, the initial plan is for a dodgy windsurfing rig. A local shop slung me a CF mast for $50, and an unusual size sail for $50 too, so it worked out pretty cost effective. It sailed reasonably well with its oversized sail (5m2 windsurfing sail vs 3m2 gaff rig on the plan) and is insanely fast to rig. The balance is a bit out compared to the usual bigger boats I was sailing pre-COVID – I could reasonably easily overpower the rudder and daggerboard and effectively change our heading by adjusting the mainsheet, but it was still eminently and easily sailable, even with a 3yo on-board!

Ian (my 3yo) insisted on being on the tiller, and managed pretty well to follow simple instructions of "push it away", and "pull it towards you". He needed to be encouraged to stay on a straight line though as he enjoyed being in control and making the boat respond. He pretty much was on the tiller the whole way out and back including through quite a few tacks and a couple of gybes.



It turns out that the rudder floats though (who'd have thought wood would float?!), so I may put a very weak pin through the eye in the pintle that can shear off if I hit the bottom hard. If I was feeling particularly dodgy, a wooden skewer from the kitchen drawer would probably suffice!



But all in all a successful day, and now the boat has a name. We named the boat, "Sequestration". A pun on isolation, and questing for the sea (yes, groan).



Many thanks to Jacques, the team, and all of the people who post on here with their updates and tips. A complete blog of the build is up at https://fearthecow.net/guest/building-a-boat/. I look forward to sailing this many times in the future. I think that it's going to be an excellent boat for Ian and his younger sister to grow up mucking around on - and hopefully become a bit boat obsessed too!

Your three-year-old is doing better than my sailing students! When I say "push it away from you" or "pull it towards you" they get it right about 1/2 the time.
Beautiful work and a great project to get Ian started at a very young age.

Congratulations - nice boat! I'm in Townsville with a powerboat built on highly modified Mangusta 20 plans from Batuea2. I wish I had stumbled across your build sooner as I could have helped you out with sources of wood, epoxy etc.

Where is that water?

Cheers
Lee

Thanks Lee!

The epoxy was from Volksglas in Brisbane, and I think (it was a while ago now) the ply was mostly from Plywood and Panel in Darra (with a couple of smaller project sheets from Bunnings for the 18mm bits). The owner of Volksglas was really helpful - not sure if it was the cheapest, but he definitely was helpful.

The first set of photos on page 1 is Dumaresq Dam in Armidale, NSW, and the second set are on Wivenhoe Dam. It was blowing 20kts on the bay the first day we took it out, and I thought that was a bit much for a maiden with a 3 year old.