Talk Morgan Forums Community General Photo Gallery Boat build

Another experiment in photo posting, this photo was taken yesterday, if this works I will add earlier pictures of the build and bore you all.

Fantastic, it worked, now I can add earlier pictures if there's any appetite for them out in TM land. I might even do it there's not.😂

Thanks guys.
Graham, twin throttle control and one engine😂 early in the build I was in the chandler and he was about to put them on fleabay as they were in a damaged box. I bought them with the intention of using one lever only. It turned out to be a bit of a happy accident because I had difficulty getting a gearbox ratio to go slow enough on the canal but fast enough to get the boat on a plane in the loch so fitted a trolling gearbox. One lever controls the engine the other the troll function on the gearbox. It effectively slips the clutch to allow the boat to go slow enough in the canal (4mph)

Giles, it's a glen l design albeit heavily modified to suit the Scottish climate. I'll add more details as I post more photos on how the changes have evolved.

https://www.glen-l.com/designs/cruiser/catalinaexpress.html

Today's progress, a bit more of the deck layed.



And a more recent image of the cabin entrance and deck. The water pump will be enclosed in a box with lifting seat top.

Gordon, could you tell us more about the timbers used please, they look very clear of knots

Hi Jon.

All the frames, deck beams, Carling's and other structural parts of the hull are dark red Meranti or Sabah, chosen because of its strength but more importantly in a trailerable boat, lightweight.
The boat was designed around 8x4 plywood sheets and these are marine grade Okume, again lightweight and strong with no voids or knots even in the internal veneers.
The cabin widows and door are made with new Iroko, poor man's teak, but still a very durable wood for boatbuilding. It can be left uncoated and will go grey or it can be treated with teak oil to keep it looking like new.
The rear panels on the cabin and the decking are reclaimed teak from a refurbishment of a school science department. It came back to the workshop in a skip and was going to be fuel for the woodburner. I've had it in storage for around 5 years.

Cabin flooring is going to be White Maple that I have left over from doing our living room floor and all the internal plywood will be clad in Brazilian Mahogany and/or White Maple, again spare left over from the house build.

This is a stunning achievement for one man. Please keep the pictures coming for us all to enjoy.

Fabulous work

Talking about boats. Watch this to the end
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeVWEK1HU38

and this on how to load a boat on a roof rack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlNPyicBb6U

Yesterday whilst taking in some firewood I felt my back about to "go" again so taking things easy today. It's given me a chance to dig out some early prints and to speed things up I've taken photos of them on my phone so don't expect great quality.

Like I said the plans are from glen L, chosen because I initially wanted a trailerable boat. The Catalina express had the basic layout I wanted but more importantly the plans came with full size patterns. First job was to transfer these to MDF templates which I then used to router the frame parts. You can also see the stem in the background.


Some of the hardwood frame parts.


Here you can see the build shed, there's a standing joke in our house that everything gets made in wood, even polytunnel hoops. Truth is steel hoops wouldn't give me the height required to build the boat. Putting up the tunnel took the best part of the first year of the build. (2010)


The frames being glued together.


Some of the completed frames.

The frames brought about the first changes, because it's designed for 8x4 plywood I thought the hull looked too low so increased the frame height by 300mm, this meant a revised sheerline, increased length and an extra frame at the bow. All designed using the trial and error method. It worked well but was a huge amount of extra time and work. It does make it a far more comfortable boat though with increased headroom below.

These pictures were taken in 2011 and show around 100 hours work.
We're now ready to build the jig and set up the frames and stem.
Stay tuned. More to follow.

Respect Sir I couldn't do that

Thanks Gordon for taking the time to post these pictures, that is beautifully crafted work way beyond my skill set

Thanks for the interest, it's more complicated for me to find and sort the photos than it was to build the thing😂
There appears to be a photographic gap around the end of 2011 and into 2012 when I built the form, spaced the frames and tied everything together with the bottom batons, chine and sheer. This then had to be faired which is basically beveling all the timbers to ensure the plywood sits flat and is not just touching the edges. A lot of time and spells created but not much to show in a photo.

These would be 2013 and have appeared in reverse order.

A 30' X 5' sheet of plywood being test fitted. The end joints of the sheets are scarf jointed but you'll notice that the long joint is butt jointed and screwed to a backing piece.


Notched frames to accommodate the ply backing piece. The plywood is not fixed to the frames to prevent stress fractures, it's fixed along the chine and sheer only.


First layer of bottom ply fixed. Two layers of 6mm ply with staggered scarf joints.


The glue and cramping process. If your interested in building a boat buy twice as much cramps as you think you'll need and then go out and buy more would be my advice.


The hull taken from the inside. As you can see, built upside down and then turned after fibre glassing and painting.


This takes us up to the end of 2013 with 376 hours now invested.