intheboatshed.net skiff – photos of our model, and maybe yours too?

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The model’s parts all fitted, so far as I can tell at this scale,
which shows there are no serious mistakes here. The
glasses case isn’t essential…

Julie and I cannibalised the card from a pack of Lidl’s Soviet-style wheat bix (my favourite, for some reason), used Pritt glue to stick 55 per cent sized prints onto the material, cut the thing out and then assembled it in the traditional skiff fashion – attach bows, bend around central frame, attach stern, add bottom, attach everything else.

It only took a few minutes and yet again the magic worked – and a serviceable if rough model boat popped up in what seemed like a moment.

It was all very satisfying. All the parts went where they were supposed to, which at least proves I haven’t got any of the important components mixed up, and the darn thing looks the way most of us would expect a modern skiff to look – and no doubt it will perform like one too.

I think we’re set fair to finalise the plans for the stitch-and-glue/tack-and-tape version of this 15ft 6in flattie skiff in the next week or two. I’ll make them available for free from this website, and elsewhere. More traditional chine-log construction plans will follow, and after that, who knows? Perhaps a variation or two will suggest themselves…

If anyone else is following this progress and has built a model, we’d love to hear from you at gmatkin@gmail.com, and to be able to add your photos to this post!

See the whole series of posts on this project:

Complete free plans package for the intheboatshed.net flat-bottomed 15ft 6in skiff
intheboatshed.net skiff – drawings and coordinates for stitch and glue
intheboatshed.net skiff – photos of our model, and maybe yours too?
Intheboatshed.net skiff – now we can make a model
Intheboatshed.net skiff progress
Early drawings for a 15ft 5in lightweight flat-bottomed American-style skiff

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Intheboatshed.net skiff – now we can make a model

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Model drawing sheet 1

Model drawing sheet 2

Model drawing sheet 3

Model drawing sheet 4

Model drawing sheet 5

Well, now we come to a moment of truth, and although I’m optimistic that what has worked before will work again, I don’t know for certain how it will go!

Tonight I hope to make a model of the Julie skiff, and I hope some of you readers will also be interested in having a go. So I have made up some drawings that I will print out and stick to cereal box card (I might use model maker’s sheet plastic material, if I was feeling posh).

Then I’ll cut out the components and make the model up using sticky tape.

Making a model is a useful and even important preliminary step before starting boatbuilding, so if you’d like to play this game too, open up the images above by clicking on each of them, and then print them all at exactly the same size. Unless you want to make a large model, A5 would be reasonable in Europe, and some standard size that would be about half-letter would be good in the USA.

If you do make a model, please send us a photo at gmatkin@gmail.com and we’ll put up a gallery here at intheboatshed.net. It would be great to see some.

See the whole series of posts on this project:

Complete free plans package for the intheboatshed.net flat-bottomed 15ft 6in skiff
intheboatshed.net skiff – drawings and coordinates for stitch and glue
intheboatshed.net skiff – photos of our model, and maybe yours too?
Intheboatshed.net skiff – now we can make a model
Intheboatshed.net skiff progress
Early drawings for a 15ft 5in lightweight flat-bottomed American-style skiff

Don’t miss out on something good – subscribe to intheboatshed.net!

A double-ended 15ft rowing boat built by Adrian Morgan

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15ft double-ender built by Adrian Morgan

This Adrian Morgan boatbuilding project started with a message you don’t often hear: ‘We’re digging a lake, and building a boat house, and now we need a boat.’

A couple from West Sussex who wanted a 15ft rowing boat for their family. The delivery date was two weeks hence, May 2007, in time for a father’s birthday – but that was too tall an order, so the boat was delivered a year later, in time for his next birthday.

Adrian says: ‘The boat is essentially a scaled down version of my standard 18ft sjekte, with correspondingly more beam in relation to its length to create a stable boat that’s still easy to row.

‘The form is almost symmetrical fore and aft, with a bold sheer forward which sweeps up slightly at the stern. The price was around £4,500, finished clear varnished inside and outside, with a white bottom to set things off nicely. I have to say that the planking was a joy, the strakes almost made themselves, so sweet were the curves. They conformed almost effortlessly to the moulds, and there’s little or no tension anywhere, which promises longevity.’

See Adrian Morgan’s website.