Boat Builder Central - Builder Forums

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?

Toau
Building it here.

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

Aurator wrote: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.

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.

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.

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.

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!!

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

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

Don't forget to set up a camera to shoot a pic every minute so you can time-lapse it when your done and good luck to you, I made almost daily runs to the hardware or other stores to get things I didn't have so this will be a true challenge ))

I have no idea how you will get anything done on the boat with that view I could just stand there
and stare at the horizon for hours Good luck .

I could just stand there
and stare at the horizon for hours Good luck .

That is a beautiful view But when you live on an island with a population of 6, what else are you going to do Not likely they have a movie theater, or bowling alley

This is a wild build. Talk about having to plan ahead.
But I'm still wondering how your Internet connection works and...is the electricity produced by a community generator?

Hi Aurator,

You are a brave man but anything is possible ! What a view and who cares about people...boat building trumps all
Keep posting photos when you can.

Marc

blueflood wrote:Hi Aurator,

You are a brave man but anything is possible ! What a view and who cares about people...boat building trumps all
Keep posting photos when you can.

The view is wonderful, it did often lead to longer pondering sessions than were strictly necessary.

terrulian wrote:This is a wild build. Talk about having to plan ahead.
But I'm still wondering how your Internet connection works and...is the electricity produced by a community generator?

No internet connection on Toau. I do have an Iridium phone I use for staying in touch. As for the power there are three households on the island and each one produces its own power usually with a small generator although there is a bit of solar too. In planning for the build I read this forum for many, many hours took lots of notes and made lots of lists. Rags, packing tape, finishing nails, screws, dowels,mixing supplies, etc. I went over and over the lists, I was afraid I was going to miss something critical that would halt the build. And then had to fit it all in to my luggage weight allowance. I ended up with two clamps (yes two) and an 4" ABS rod case I cut up to make small clamps.

Cracker Larry wrote:

I could just stand there
and stare at the horizon for hours Good luck .

That is a beautiful view But when you live on an island with a population of 6, what else are you going to do Not likely they have a movie theater, or bowling alley

No bowling alley, just some very serious Petanque play.

jorgepease wrote:Don't forget to set up a camera to shoot a pic every minute so you can time-lapse it when your done and good luck to you, I made almost daily runs to the hardware or other stores to get things I didn't have so this will be a true challenge ))

I did not think of that. And I had my GoPro along too. A hardware store would have been a dream come true at times!

I started the layout of the parts and enlisted my wife's help and she instantly displayed the ability to add, subtract and divide fractions in her head with great speed and accuracy. Worse she discovered a large error I made in laying out some of the parts. I am sure that I will hear about it less and less as the years go by.

The human calculator.

Rags, packing tape, finishing nails, screws, dowels,mixing supplies, etc. I went over and over the lists, I was afraid I was going to miss something critical that would halt the build.

Well, I sure would have. Necessity is the mother of not only invention but clear-headed planning. A definite tip of the hat to you.
While I am loathe request that you would deplete the island's rare resources to report back to us, I hope to hear updates whenever possible.

After finishing my sawhorses, I cut out all the parts. The battery powered Makita circular saw did great.






Done!

Great. What a cool build.

Thanks for the update and pictures! I am enjoying following you!

Boat building in paradise.. must be nice If it turns out half as beautiful as that water then it's a winner. can't wait to see it finished.

My work benches.



Trying to pick out the two straightest ones for the strongback. I had purchased some extra 2x4's because I thought I was going to have to build my own tables.


All of my clamps in use at the same time!!

Putting it all together.

looking good, what a pleasure to build right next to the water, just think how easy it will be to check your water line and launch ))

I'd get nothing done. Absolutely nothing. I'd pick up a tool, glimpse that blue, and then ... nothing.

I'm very interested in seeing how you manage with only 2 clamps. I expect to learn something I can use.

Looking good! It must be nice to live in two different types of paradise...

I was too busy looking at the pictures to notice where you call home until Noles said something. Nice to see another Alaskan on the site. There must be 5-6 of us by now, maybe more. I am pretty sure you want to take your time building the boat, weather is not really so nice back home for you now
Fuzz

jorgepease wrote:looking good, what a pleasure to build right next to the water, just think how easy it will be to check your water line and launch ))

The other nice thing is since the water is so warm I just jump in and wash off the dust when I need to. The downside is that when there is a very high tide and the wind is NNW my shop floods, so no wood or tools get left on the floor. It does wash away the sawdust though.

Noles309 wrote:Looking good! It must be nice to live in two different types of paradise...

It is indeed! I spend two or three months in New Zealand every year too. Thinking about building a boat for there as well.

Fuzz wrote:I was too busy looking at the pictures to notice where you call home until Noles said something. Nice to see another Alaskan on the site. There must be 5-6 of us by now, maybe more. I am pretty sure you want to take your time building the boat, weather is not really so nice back home for you now
Fuzz

I don't get down your way much but if I do I would love to see your boat.

Jaysen wrote:I'd get nothing done. Absolutely nothing. I'd pick up a tool, glimpse that blue, and then ... nothing.

I'm very interested in seeing how you manage with only 2 clamps. I expect to learn something I can use.

Another view from the shop for Jaysen.

I put the bottom panels on and hung the sides on. I played with the alignment until I ran out of zip ties after tightening and cutting them off several times. I think it would have been smarter to bring wire to tie the panels together, although I still might be there fussing with getting the perfect alignment. Anyway I pulled out the last zip tie from the package and chanting "gaps are good" tightened it up and was done.

Two questions for the forum members.
First, does any builder, ever, walk away from the boat without stopping and looking back one more time?
Second, what is going on when I am building this boat and starting to think about what to do different "on the NEXT one"??????

Hi,
I also cant step away without looking at my boat even if I only did a little thing like right now attaching the cleats onto which I will glue the sole. I envy you about the warm and beautiful place where you build your boat. Here in Austria Winter is just around the corner and I bought a gas stove for my building shed where I can warm up the room rather quick. My fixed coal stove in there is nice and also warms the room but I spend just as much time putting coal into it as I spend building the boat thats why I am taking already 2 years. I will follow your thread everyday just to learn how one can build a boat in 2 months.
Thinking about building the next boat ( PX14 ) I hope I will work more efficient because my intention is not to think every step over ten times before I do it.
Good luck with your build and not to many high tides with NNW winds.
Greetings from Karl ( foggy cold Austria )

Hi Aurator,

To answer your question from my build;

1: All the time and then some. Sometimes to ponder the next step ahead but more often than not...to see if I have not missed anything. And lastly; simply to look at her lines and telling myself only a few more years before we see water

2: Get some professional help Aurator. I think you are showing early signs of BBV. In retrospect (after 3 years) start with a bigger boat than you need or will ever need, then build a smaller second / third one

Keep up the fun work !

Marc

I don't get down your way much but if I do I would love to see your boat.
Just let me know if you are coming down and I will do my best to make a get together happen Not much I like better than spending time talking boats. Summer or winter does not matter as I have a heated shop to work in so the dory can be inside and we will have a warm and dry place to visit. Bring the family, I have plenty of room.
David

[quote="Aurator"]

Two questions for the forum members.
First, does any builder, ever, walk away from the boat without stopping and looking back one more time?
Second, what is going on when I am building this boat and starting to think about what to do different "on the NEXT one"??????

Yep that sounds like BBV for sure..
I take a detour on my way to work all the time just so I can drive by my dock and look at my boat

The island I am building on has a very nice anchorage directly in front of my shop. It is protected from all the common weather directions which makes it a bit unusual in the Tuamotus. The result of which is that there is a constant stream of sailing yachts coming and going. And everyone who has visited so far comes over to see my boat and have a chat. One gentleman from the East coast of the USA who was crewing on a recently arrived boat came over and was admiring the boat as I cut off the zip ties (I of course fully expected the boat to fly apart, but the spot welds held) and offered a helping hand if I needed it. I accepted his generous offer and the next morning we started to tape and glass the bottom and sides wet on wet.
It was a very long and hot day but we finished it and at the end of it all I split the last beer on the island with him. Thanks Sergei, your epoxy mixing was much appreciated.
I am not sure what the time standard is for taping and glassing the bottom and sides, but was very happy to get it all done in one day. Particularly since it was my first time working with the big pieces of biaxial cloth.

I mounted the tape overhead near the bow and it worked out quite well. Very easy to roll a piece out, cut it and get it in place. I used one layer of 12 ounce tape as 6 ounce was out of stock when I was buying material from BBC.

Looking real good!
Is that a phone booth in the back ground?

That glass work looks great!

at the end of it all I split the last beer on the island with him.

Great job Aurator
If all the guys on this forum gathered on that spot of yours fully heavy duty tool outfitted, material + extra, top notch ply and ready to go on any big boat on this site....you would see 500+ bodies on the beach, liquids in hand and a smoke in the other yapping with their butts on the sand all day... "Yeah suuureee the strongback...hmmm well we'll get to that tomorrow Aurator"

Me included
Marc

..saw the phone booth is there a working toilet ?....

Looks fantastic! Having a helper and a new friend was a blessing.

I cut up my rod case to make clamps for the rub rail, glued them on and decided to flip the boat and glass the inside.



I didn't have the lumber to make a cradle so I filled some copra bags with coral rubble from the beach and settled the boat down on them. Seemed to support it well.

Walkers Run wrote:Looking real good!
Is that a phone booth in the back ground?

Yes, it is a phone booth. It has not worked in 7 or 8 years now. Actually a good thing for me because I tapped into the solar panels that power it to charge my Makita batteries. Toau has intermittent cell phone service now so the phone booth will never be repaired. It was amusing in years past to go running to the phone booth every time it rang. It is a very popular for visitors to take a photo of now, everyone thinks it is quite amusing. I keep trying to get it converted into a beach shower, but no luck yet.
By the way, I looked at your build thread. Amazing work. It must really turn heads on the water.

blueflood wrote:Great job Aurator
If all the guys on this forum gathered on that spot of yours fully heavy duty tool outfitted, material + extra, top notch ply and ready to go on any big boat on this site....you would see 500+ bodies on the beach, liquids in hand and a smoke in the other yapping with their butts on the sand all day... "Yeah suuureee the strongback...hmmm well we'll get to that tomorrow Aurator"

Very sorry to hear that, I was just about to offer free plane tickets if anyone wanted to come down and help. But if everyone would just be sitting around.... And yes we have a toilet. I even have an indoor one here in Alaska which is more than some of my friends up here can say.

Cracker Larry wrote:That glass work looks great!

at the end of it all I split the last beer on the island with him.

Thank you Larry! Really appreciate the sentiment from the reigning Bateau Builder Sensei. I spent days and days reading through your builds, copy and pasting your tips, techniques and guidance on to my ipad to bring along as a reference. I owe you a big "thank you" for sharing your hard won knowledge. Thank You, if we ever meet the cold ones are on me!

willg wrote:Looks fantastic! Having a helper and a new friend was a blessing.

I really appreciated his help and he was good company. Unfortunately his boat left for Papeete the next morning.

With the interior glassed I dropped the strong back in with the frames attached and spot welded them in. I settled on using a Ziploc bag to lay the fillet in and then used a 1" piece of PVC pipe to form the radius. Hitting the fillets with some neat epoxy to smooth them out when they were partially set up and then laying the tape on was a great system. Very fast and clean with no air bubbles. Working clean and fixing any problems as they occur before the epoxy sets is saving lots of time sanding. There are no cargo straps on the island so I beach combed a few rope scraps and used them to pull the sides to the frames.

Pulled the strong back off and filleted and taped the frames in. So while I am doing this a junk sails into the anchorage and drops his dinghy in and rows to shore. In a Prameke! So we had the first Bateau builders meet in the Tuamotus. It was great talking to him he had actually built his junk in his bank yard in France over quite a few years and then sailed it to Polynesia via the Panama Canal. You can just see his boat at anchor in this photo:

Much better view from your workshop than mine

I had to get creative clamping the battens for the forward casting platform.

You've done a serious amount of work in 2 weeks. Looks great. I think you've done this before

Those low cleats take some clamping creativity for sure. I usually kerf the glue side a little so they will make the bends, then use a couple spots of hot glue to tack them in place until the epoxy cures. Don't know if you have access to a hot glue gun and power, but that is an easy solution.

Cracker Larry wrote:Don't know if you have access to a hot glue gun and power...

I don't think he'll need any, Larry. He'll just scrape some glue off barnacles and heat it with a magnifying glass.

Aurator, we're all enjoying your build. Thanks for sharing!

add seagull poop to barnacle glue and it makes a good fillet

Cracker Larry wrote:You've done a serious amount of work in 2 weeks. Looks great. I think you've done this before

Actual time to this point was about three weeks, but I was putting in some long hours. I have no artificial light so can only work during the daylight. This is my first rodeo with epoxy and fiberglass, the first batch I ever mixed up was to glue the sides together. I must admit I do like working with the materials. Given my lack of woodworking skill the whole "gaps are good" is very good thing.

Don't know if you have access to a hot glue gun and power, but that is an easy solution.

.

Unfortunately, no hot glue gun, but I will definitely have one on the next build down here. The Panga 22 would be just perfect down here. This really is a sickness isn't it? The plans should come with a warning label.

The tool that I am really missing is a vacuum cleaner. Cleaning up after sanding is a long slow process. I do not have any sort of shop brush or dust pan so have been using an orange juice container I found on the beach. It takes a long time to sweep up with a chip brush.

My vacuum.

I did a bit of playing around with a fairing mix in the front locker just to see how it was to work with and then glued down the front casting deck. Before anybody comments on the amount of weight I have on it, I need to explain it got left out in the sun and warped quite badly and since I do not have any extra wood I had to flatten it out and make do.

Double post

Since there are times when you just have to wait for the epoxy to harden I decided to take my kayak out to do a little fly fishing for a change of pace. I am not sure what these silvery fish swimming in the shallows are, maybe you Florida boys could identify it for me.

Those Bonefish get around )) nice!

Yep, that's a bonefish

Taped and glassed the front casting deck. I rounded the edge and brought the glass over and down and around into the front locker.

Watching your build makes me question my life choices

That seems like an amazing place to be. Perfect boat for it. You have more willpower than me - in that region I'd never complete the boat, but I'd be surfed out and happy

I'd probably put on a mask, snorkel and fins, maybe a pole spear, and swim circles around the atoll all day. I wouldn't get much work done.

That too! I can only imagine how unspoiled it is under water. You really have to respect a guy who's able to buckle down and get a boat built in that environment

Does that area get slammed by hurricanes or typhoons?

That seems like an amazing place to be. Perfect boat for it. You have more willpower than me - in that region I'd never complete the boat, but I'd be surfed out and happy

There is a nice break at the opening of the anchorage when the swell is from the right direction, but I don't surf.
I think the FS14 is going to be perfect for what I want to do.

michael c wrote:That too! I can only imagine how unspoiled it is under water. You really have to respect a guy who's able to buckle down and get a boat built in that environment

Diving here has ruined me for anywhere else in the world. You do however have to be really comfortable with being close to lots and lots of sharks at all times.

Cracker Larry wrote:I'd probably put on a mask, snorkel and fins, maybe a pole spear, and swim circles around the atoll all day. I wouldn't get much work done.

Spearing might not be such a good idea, it attracts a lot of attention. Lunch with a few friends.

Rickk wrote:Does that area get slammed by hurricanes or typhoons?

They do occur, but are fairly rare. Which is good thing, the high point on the motu is maybe three feet above sea level.

I beach combed a piece of ABS pipe and cut it in half to connect the limber holes on the middle seat. I glued it in and covered it with glass.


I only had a small amount of two part foam so I put the word out I needed some foam buoys to make the boat unsinkable and soon a had a pile to choose from. There may not be hardware store or chandlery near by but it is amazing what washes up on shore.


I cut them up and fit them into the seat compartments and then poured the two part foam over them. I think it will work.

I decided to foam and cap the area from the stringers to the hull, so I cut some pieces of foam to fit and put pieces of plywood over them and taped and glassed them. I also finished the mid seat foaming and glassing.





I threw the stern seat in just to see what it looks like.

Time to flip it and fair the bottom and sides. Full disclosure here, there is some time compression going on. Fairing took me a few days even though I was aiming for "work boat finish". The disaster was that the electric generator that powered my RO sander died and I spent most of the job sanding with my long board by hand.





New arrival.

You are killing me.

The build is progressing amazingly. How much time are you spending on it each day?

More importantly, how much time are you and Mrs spending staring at that water? That place looks like the thing of many a person's dreams. Many of us would get lost down there...

The longboard is better anyway.

Next up was primer and three coats of epoxy and graphite done the Cracker Larry way. Three coats wet on wet came out looking good. The only real hitch was as I was admiring the perfect glossy sheen of the last coat a gecko dropped out of the rafter onto the keel and ran to the edge leaving little gecko foot prints behind. A quick tipping with the brush saved the day but there is a black bellied gecko running around out there somewhere.

And then suddenly my time on the island was up. So there she sits very close to being done and getting wet.
Total time on the boat was around five weeks, with most days being 8 hours or more of work on it. Having a few more power tools or more help would have made it a bit faster, but I am happy with my progress.

The good news is I am flying back tomorrow to try and finish up. The luggage is crammed with goodies for the boat and two cans of Kiwigrip for the deck.

Look for an update from me in three weeks or so. I hope to have some pictures of a floating boat and a performance report.

Very well done and very nice thread. Looking forward to the finish

Ok, made it back from Polynesia. Just before I left Alaska I got word that the supply ship had broken down and that the material I had ordered would be delayed. So I bought a sheet of marine plywood locally and made some educated guesses and cut it into pieces small enough to fit in a Cabela's large duffel bag. Also packed two cans of Kiwigrip and the MSDS sheet attached to the cans and a letter explaining what it was and that it is cleared for shipment in passenger aircraft.
Everything arrived in Tahiti and customs waived me through which saved me from having to explain the strange contents of my luggage.
Arriving on Toau, I was happy to see the boat still wrapped up where I had left it. After a day of cleaning and organizing I started back on the build. First order of business was to finish foaming and decking the areas between the stringers and hull.
I also built some boxes attached to the transom to fill with foam to provide some additional floatation and support for the rear seat. I also cut a hole in the middle seat for a hatch/tackle box I brought.

Boxes built and foamed.

Drilling and filling. The four holes on the left are for a pin anchor I decided to try out.

Is your body in shock My daughter goes to school at UAF and I know the weather is just a little different in Fairbanks than it is in Polynesia this time of the year
Fuzz

Any update on this build? I just like seeing the photos of the boat with the water and palms.

It has been awhile since my last update. I am heading back down to Toau the first week of November to finish the boat so time to get up to date on the progress.
I capped the gunwale with some 3/4" pine strips and tapered it to the rub rail with some epoxy sawdust mix. All the spaces between the stringers and hull are foamed and covered, taped and glassed.
I did have one disaster. I made the first mixing error of the build on one of the floor sections It took a day to clean up and wasted some much needed epoxy.

Ready for the rear deck.

I installed the rear seat and a breasthook and with only a few days left on my trip I put all the hardware on the boat and put it in the water. I only had to move it about four feet at high tide to get it in so it wasn't a big deal. This was not an official splash by any means, still lots of things to do including lots of painting. I have a 2 cycle 15hp Yamaha and spent a day running up and down the lagoon breaking in the motor.

Aurator wrote:This was not an official splash by any means, still lots of things to do including lots of painting. I have a 2 cycle 15hp Yamaha and spent a day running up and down the lagoon breaking in the motor.

She already looks great. Congratulations.

Nice clean work there and beautiful picture, rainbow and all

Nice boat in a beautiful place!!! Jeff

Postby Cracker Larry » Sun Oct 30, 2016 6:53 am

Nice clean work there and beautiful picture, rainbow and all

Thanks Larry! I have to give you a great deal credit for my build. I copied and pasted a huge amount of wonderful tips and information from your posts and took them with me to the island. I was reading it constantly. With no internet access your posts were my only help when I had a problem. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!!

Thanks glossieblack!
I tried to keep your saying of perfection being the enemy of the good in mind during my build, but it is hard not to get caught up in chasing perfection. I had a local visitor come over and look at the boat while I was sanding on some imagined imperfection and he asked me why I was working so hard if it was going to be a fishing boat. I really didn't have an answer for him.

Postby Jeff » Sun Oct 30, 2016 7:34 am

Nice boat in a beautiful place!!! Jeff

Thanks Jeff, it really is a beautiful place. Cant wait to explore it some more when the boat is finished.

he asked me why I was working so hard if it was going to be a fishing boat. I really didn't have an answer for him.

Newt