Well it floats.


The wind affects it a little but it is stable and has plenty of room for fishing.. Have to find some cheap seats for it and work out where to put them. In it by myself I had to sit about a foot forward of the rear of the cockpit to get the bow down to where I wanted it. The seating has to be movable. and needs a back rest. I used my fishing box and a couple of cushions.


On the beach at Paterson River, The boat on the right is my Sherpa, designed by John Welsford.
http://www.jwboatdesigns.co.nz/

It's finished. Now to test it. Went down to the local lake but it was starting to blow hard and some big black clouds came over the hill and frightened me away.. Will try tomorrow.

I couldn't workout how to clamp the splash rail to the deck. So I made some blocks of scrap wood and hot glued them in place and then screwed the rail to them. It seemed to work.

The rail in place.


I tack welded the rail with thickened epoxy.



Filleted and tapped.

Port side deck is not trimmed yet.


Stern deck is on, have to build hatch for it. starboard side deck has been trimmed to size.

This is the floatation for the bow. I used noodles that kids play with in water. They dont seem to absorb water and are cheep.




This is the stern floatation. Not the brick that is only to hold down the noodles till the expanding foam sets.


The first side deck on.



The 2nd side deck on.

I cut up one of the sticks of pine to make the gunnels. I had help from Rolf in cutting and gluing on the gunnels. You can never have too many clamps.






Now to put the deck on.

Well I got the bottom repaired and put on the glass today.

I put the side planks on next. Very floppy hull, I will have to start to tack glue it.



The bow came together well.


By the way you end up with an off-cut about 8ft long that will be useful latter for another boat.


The boat was turned upside down.



The bow was ok but the bottom was dipped the wrong way. It bent upwards in the middle. Could not see it up the other way.


I cut the bottom open in the middle so I could re-glue it in the right place.



Glue in the slot.

Starting to stitch the hull together with plastic ties. starting at the bow.


Bulkheads in.



It's starting to look like a boat.

The pine was just what I needed to make the table for setout and to save the back.






You can see my high-tech clamps for gluing up the butt joins. Just one layer of 6oz cloth and epoxy. Then scrape them, no sanding.


This tungsten scraper works like a charm.




Then we just have to make some measurements and then cut out the panels. This ply would not lie flat.




This one is of my stick of cedar for getting smooth fair curves.

I ordered plans from Duckworks in the USA and got them in about a week. They seem very good but some of the measurements, where the 30" was added to the Toto were confusing at first, but on re reading it was clear.

I tried a new (to me) supplier of plywood in Dandenong. not too sure about their Gaboon ply. It wont lay flat. But it will do for this boat I hope. I also got a couple of sheets of cedar external ply and some of kauri pine. I also got 4 sticks of 90x35mm pine to make a table for a setting out bench.

Larsboat to fish out of.

I decided to build a Larsboat. A Jim Michalak design.
http://www.duckworksbbs.com/plans/jim/larsboat/index.htm

I think it will be a good boat to fish in some of the rivers around the coast.