Boat Builder Central - Builder Forums

Before having a go at any bigger projects I thought I would build a little D5. I am currently boat less, so this will get me by for a year or two. Use will be crossing a river lagoon to access salmon fishing, trout fishing along the edge of local lakes, and sea fishing in sheltered bays and sounds no more than a few hundred metres from shore. Powered by oars and possibly a 2hp outboard if I can pick one up cheap.

Ordered fibreglass and epoxy last week. Got a 100m roll of 400gram biaxial tape, 5 metres of 200g woven for the bottom, 12 litres of Westsystem with Fast.

Picked up the ply on Monday. Okoume Built to BS1088, and seems to be good stuff. Supplied by a reputable NZ company.

So far I have cut the hull panels.

Pictures to follow.

I doubled up the 6mm to ensure a mirror image. Measured four times cut once. I don't have a lot of practice doing this sort of thing but I teach maths for a living so that part was easy. I will do away with the half sheet of 9mm and cut frame A from the 6mm leftovers. Not yet sure if I will need to double it up.

Congratulations on getting started on your build!!
Please do post plenty of pictures

I will. There's not a lot of beginning to end fully documented builds for the D5 so I am hoping that this will be one. I will also appreciate the assistance where I can get it. I haven't cut the sheerline for the top of the side panel, leaving it flat against the plywood edge. This is drawn with a concave curve of about 30mm at the widest. I assume that this will only affect cosmetics? I am tempted to leave it as is.

If anyone is looking for a good saw for cutting ply, I can recommend the Dremel Saw-max. It's an abrasive cutter and will go through anything you care to cut, at least to a max depth of 20mm (3/4") It will cut a 2 by 4 if you cut both sides. Goes through ply like butter, and very little splintering.

Welcome, Stuart.
This is a good time to use your side panels as a pattern to cut your rub rails.

Interesting concept. Just trace out the shape?

OneWayTraffic wrote: ↑Wed Jul 12, 2017 8:10 am Interesting concept. Just trace out the shape?

Yes, the strips will bend much easier.

OneWayTraffic wrote: ↑Wed Jul 12, 2017 6:15 am If anyone is looking for a good saw for cutting ply, I can recommend the Dremel Saw-max. It's an abrasive cutter and will go through anything you care to cut, at least to a max depth of 20mm (3/4") It will cut a 2 by 4 if you cut both sides. Goes through ply like butter, and very little splintering.

Good luck with the build. And thanks in advance for taking the time to do a build thread on it.
About the Saw Max I really like mine also. One thing that has been really handy is the flush cut blade. Being able to lay the saw on its side and cut something flush has proven really handy for me.

Looking good so far!

After cutting the side and bottom panels I smoothed the edges with a sanding block and drilled stitching holes. I kept the side and bottom panels lined up and rolled down the connecting edge to avoid getting out of alignment.

I have kept the top edge of the side panel straight rather than cutting the 30mm concave camber shown on the plans. This should allow a straight strip to serve as a rubrail. If there is a good reason for that camber now is the time to tell me. I was thinking about drawing the transom straight across as well.