FS14 In French Polynesia

[Aurator]

This all started from having a sailboat and sailing across the Pacific. I had a great time and met some wonderful people in some very remote places during my travels. Since I finished cruising and sold my boat in New Zealand I have been flying back to French Polynesia every year to visit some of those people and places. In particular I spend a lot of time on the island of Toau in the Tuamotus, current population 6, fishing and just generally hanging out. It had become apparent to me in recent years that I really need to have my own boat to maximize my fishing opportunities while I am there. Searching for a boat locally and in Papeete turned up nothing I was interested in so I decided to build my own boat. Which led me to Bateau and being the proud owner of a set of FS14 plans. So in October and November of 2014 I planned a two month visit to build my boat having never worked with fiberglass and not being particularly good at working with wood. What could possibly go wrong?

[Aurator]

Toau
Building it here.

[boat_AUS]

Hi. I've been building a fs14 and it's been a pretty good experience so far. Spend some time on the forum and read any stitch and glue books you can get you hands on. Not sure if allowed to suggest books to look at on the forum. The support for building bateau boats has been great! Looking forward to following your build

[Rickk]

Toau
Building it here.

Wow, is that just the rim of a volcano? Is the whole interior under water? I scoured the area and couldn't find anything on the rim - maybe one little island with enough coverage to support something.
That will be an adventure for sure.

[terrulian]

Atolls are, for the most part, the coral build up around the shores of sunken volcanos. In the South Pacific you can see all three stages--the Marquesas are young and have small reefs right along the shore; Bora Bora, and Moorea, for example, in the Societies have fringing reefs offshore with a lagoon between the reef and land created as the coral which was originally next to the beach grew along with the sinking of the volcano; and in the case of this island along with the rest of the Tuamotus, the entire volcano is now hidden below sea level and all that is left is the ring of coral that began as a reef right along the shore. Believe it or not, this was figured out by Darwin.

[terrulian]

BTW, if you are really going to build your boat on that island with a population of only six, I'm just guessing there's not a Lowe's handy. Forget never having worked with glass before...it's easy and everyone will help. But how are you going to get the materials there? Also, not to be able to run to a store when you run out of rollers or brushes or sandpaper...now that's a problem. Also, how are you going to get a connection to all the smart guys on this list? There's no ISP out there, is there? I don't even think there's Internet on Rangiroa.
You'd probably be better off building in Pape'ete and shipping it to the Tuamotus...but maybe I misunderstood your plan. I'm all ears, though...sounds excellent.

[Aurator]

Rickk, very little land around the edges of an atoll. Generally there are small islands on the edges called motus, these can range from little sand dots to quite large islands covered in brush and coconut trees. The motu I visit is not very large.

[Aurator]

Ordering all the supplies at one time for delivery to a neighboring island by freighter stretched my meager French skills to the limit. The ship arrived a week after I arrived so my two month time frame was down to 7 weeks of build time. The only things that were not as I expected was that the 15 HP Yamaha was a long shaft and not a regular shaft and the 2x4's were pressure treated. All in all not a bad result. We loaded up all the material and made the hour and an half run back to Toau.




It all fit!!

[Aurator]

I claimed a tin roof open shed for my workshop and started by building some sawhorses. I found a discarded oven and an a freezer that I dragged in to use as work tables and storage. I also found an old wooden table that I repaired and used as a mixing table.

My Shop

[Aurator]

With the exception of a 220V Makita RO sander, I brought all the tools for the build with me in my luggage as well as all the fiberglass cloth and tape. I did get lucky and manage to convince my wife to come along for a couple of weeks so I used all of her luggage allowance for tools and sundries. It's the tropics, how many clothes did she really need?
I only had electricity a couple of hours a day so I chose Makita battery powered ones as my main tools and I used a couple of solar panels to keep the batteries charged up.

My Tools