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Construction
Mark V Designs

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Details of the construction proccess.

The first thing I had to do was to find a suitable building. I found a 48' by 27' garage that was perfect, except part of a wall will have to be removed to get the boat out. I moved in and started building the boat in the beginning of August.

I had to loft the hull full size. Since it was a long and narrow boat, I lofted it half length, which makes any unfair curves stand out better. I screwed 5 sheets of half inch plywood on two-by-fours. I made sure the bottom edge was straight, so I could use it as a baseline. I ripped some nice battens out of fir, and got a drywall square. Lofting went rather quickly, taking less than two days.

the bulkheads forward and aft of the cockpit were made, and since there are no permanent full-width bulkheads or frames in the cabin, 7 temporary frames were made with 3/4" lumber. I made a strongback with two-by-fours and drywall screws. The frames were set up and faired, and the motor well was made, then the shear clamp and chine log were scarfed and laminated in place. I made a scarfing jig for the router, and it made perfect scarfes.

I was originaly planning on using the toungue-and-groove fir flooring for the entire first layer of the bottom, but decided to use it only in the cabin area, and use 3/4" plywood for the rest. This will save quite a bit of time. I started with the plywood at the stern, then I fastened one strip of fir at the centerline. The first strip was screwed down to the temporary frames. The rest of the strips were glued together, but I tried to avoid screwing too many to the frames, because all the holes will show when the boat is finished. I glued 3 strips per side at a time. Blocks were screwed to the frames, and wedges were drove between the blocks and the planking to hold them together while curing. the blocks are easy to fasten and remove with drywall screws and a VSR drill.

The next step was the first layer of the side planking. I made a pair of adjustable racks to hold the plywood in place for marking, and then cut it and temporary screwed it in place with drywall screws. after all the panels were cut, I coated the inside with epoxy and then glued them in place. I used drywall screws to hold things together while the glue sets. Drywall screws work well for this if you drill a pilot hole in the piece that is being glued, and also coat the screws with paste-wax so they can be easily removed.

1/2 inch plywood was glued on the bottom next, after a lot of sanding. First, I cut the pieces to shape, and then I drilled pilot holes about 8" apart. Since I was working by myself, I had to find a way to lay the panels in place without making too much of a mess. I made a block of wood that I could screw to the top of the plywood panel, and I put a nail in a long piece of wood to hook on the block. After coating the bottom and the plywood with glue, I set the plywood in place on edge, and then lowered it with the hook. It worked really well. Once the piece was in place, I screwed it down with 1 1/4" drywall screws.

Next, I glued the second layer of 1/2" plywood on the sides, and then a layer of 3/4" on the bottom. Then, I sanded everything, filled the screw holes, and rounded the chines. I put a large radius on the chines forwered to help prevent turbulance. Then, I glued and shaped the outer stem.

I sheathed the bottom and sides with a layer of Xynole Polyester cloth from Defender Industries. The Polyester cloth is much easier to deal with than the fiberglass cloth I had used before.
Well, two months into the project, and the hull is just about ready to turn over. I used more epoxy than anticipated, so I have a lull while waiting for more. Here are the costs so far.
Lumber for strongback and temporary frames; $150
Lumber for clamps and other parts of boat; $160
34 sheets of 1/2 inch plywood; 816
12 sheets of 3/4 inch plywood; 360
40 galons of epoxy; $1190
5 pounds of colloidal silica; $37
60 yards of polyester cloth; $360
Other stuff; $300
For a total of $3370
The tounge and groove flooring I got for free.

Turning over the boat went smoothly. First, we used levers to slide the boat to one side, then we jacked it up and blocked it inches at a time. We had a safety line fastened to the main beams on the building.

We took some nice pictures of the proccess.

After levelling the boat, the side decks were glued on. They consist of 5 layers of 3/4" by 2" fir laminated to the inside of the shear clamp. the first layer was bevelled so it's inside face was plumb, and the next 4 layers were laminated inside of that.

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