The completed boat ready to roll

A few weeks ago I got working on the boat exterior and that took a bit of time even though I was at it daily.   Multiple layers of epoxy with 24 hour dry times then priming, drying, two coats of enamel with 24 hours in between, etc…  Finally on the 19th I had a painted and dry boat so got it off the platform and onto the ground to install the seat, hatch cover, oar locks and handles.   I got all that installed on the 20th and loaded the boat up for a test float on our local lake with Lira in tow.  Luckily Catherine got home from work just in time to join me and take some photos and video of the maiden voyage.

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Panels beveled, marked and drilled for assembly

It has been a busy four days since I picked up my wood last Friday.  Over the weekend I managed to get the plans lofted and luckily caught and fixed my lofting mistake.  Yesterday I cut out the sides and bottom panels with my new pullsaw and went to pickup epoxy supplies at SystemThree.   Today I have beveled the edges of the panels, marked them up for drilling and fiberglass tape and got holes drilled on the bottom panel for wires.   This afternoon I am going to a friend’s house to use their table saw and cut rails.   So, I’m ready to roll on assembly tomorrow which is video #5 in the series of 30-odd videos on building this boat.    Hoping to get the sides wired onto the bottom tomorrow so I can loft out and cut the transom and bow pieces and then get those prepped and wired in on Thursday.   Within a week I’ll have gone from a stack of wood to something resembling a boat hull.   Hopefully by then it will have warmed up enough that I can start with epoxy work.

Oops, a few mistakes but I caught it early and fiberglass will cover these extra holes anyway

I’ve spent the weekend lofting my plans onto the panels for the bottom and sides of the boat and finally have everything marked off and ready to cut.   This process involved making 1′ station lines across the boards then plotting points on offsets either from the bottom of the panel for the sides or the center line for the bottom.   The corners were a bit tricky on the sides since they involved offsets from the bottom as well as the side (transom) or the last 7′ line (bow).  I went through and re-measured all the offsets on the station lines  on both panels to make sure they were golden.  After I got the lines drawn in for the sides I started on the bottom.    With the bottom lines in and looking good I measured the arc length of the bottom, 89 3/4″ on both sides, perfect.   Then I measured the arc length on the side panel which should have been 90″.  Nope, it was 87 5/8″, what the heck?

So, I spent a half hour going back over all the measurements and found I had not double checked the bow and transom points on the side, my transom was fine but the bow was off – I had measured the horizontal offset wrong and had to move things to the correct spot, re-measured the arc length and had to move it just a smidge more to get it right.  Whew, glad I didn’t start cutting before triple checking all these measurements and making sure to check arc lengths.

Now onto cutting these panels and then starting to stitch them together before lofting and cutting out the transom and bow panels.  At this rate I should have something resembling a hull later in the week.

After last season at the lakes I decided that I wanted a boat so I could take Lira out fishing with me and keep from being so cold in my float tube.   I spent a lot of time looking at my options – a used jon boat, a small plastic boat or a wooden fly fishing pram.   I finally decided that a pram was the way to go and that instead of buying one I’d just try to build it on my own.  I haven’t built a boat before but have been in a homemade boat before and years ago read up on the whole process and now have the time to go for it.

The boat I’m building is called the Nymph 8 and was designed by Warren  Messer of Red Barn Boats.  I like the looks of this little pram, it appears it will fit in the back of the Tacoma no problem and there is an entire video series on YouTube where Warren builds the hull so I’ve got not only plans and instructions but videos to show me exactly what to do.

I downloaded the study plans and model, watched about half the videos then got the full plans and instructions last week and began planning out the project.  This week I picked up the materials to build the work platform and just ordered all the epoxy products from local SystemThree as well as the few tools I need still.  I will pick up the wood from Crosscut Hardwoods in Seattle in the next week and then can get building.   I’ll post regularly so you can follow along with the project.   Hopefully I can have the boat ready to launch around the time of the Western Lowland Lakes opener at the end of April.