Model-making progress and drawings of Paul Connor’s Practical Boatbuilding skiff project

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The 10ft double-ended skiff model

Paul Connor has kindly sent a photo of his model of the 10ft double-ended skiff from Practical Boatbuilding for Amateurs, together with his extensive set of computer-generated construction drawings.

There’s a good amount of background to this project. The original drawings and information from Practical BoatbuildingĀ  are here, an earlier intheboatshed.net post on the model project is here and two threads discussing the Practical Boatbuilding skiff and Paul’s project are here and here.

For Paul, the model is a proof of concept that shows the boat can be made at full size using the clinker ply technique, but I think many people will enjoy making a model of this little boat. I hope they do.

I think the model shows two things. The point that a boat built the these old plans is practical and will be beautiful is clearly the first, but the second is that in my opinion the boat itself would be even more elegant and better in the water if made 12-18 inches longer on the same beam and draught.

Download Paul’s pdfs of the drawings here: sheet-1; sheet-2; sheet-3; sheet-4; sheet-5; sheet-6; sheet-7; sheet-8; sheet-9; sheet-10; sheet-11; sheet-12; sheet-13; sheet-14; sheet-15.

Many thanks Paul!

PS Readers interested in making a model of something simpler, might check out the free plans page!

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Water Craft boatbuilding comp winners 2009

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Nick Paull’s Hazy Days, winner of the ‘most professional’ category of the 2009 Water Craft boatbuilding competition. It was built to Steve Killing’s Prospector Canadian canoe. Click on the photos for much larger images

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Mike Wooldridge’s Puddle Duck, victor in the ‘home made boat most likely to encourage beginners’ category’. It was built to the Selway Fisher Drake sharpie plans

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Chris Waite’s ingenious and effective home designed rowing skiff Octavia, winner of the ‘most innovative home made boat’ section

This year’s Water Craft magazine amateur boatbuilding competition at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show was better than ever, despite the rain. Editor Pete Greenfield’s idea of opening up the competition by offering three categories of home made boats – most professional-looking, most likely to encourage beginners and most innovative – was clearly a big hit.

Hazy Days is undeniably very smart and won a tightly contested section, but I very much enjoyed seeing Puddle Duck, which chimed nicely with my view that people should be encouraged to feel that they can build small, simple and low cost boats that they can be proud of and which are effective on the water.

However, my favourite this year was Chris’s Octavia, which must count as one of the cleverest designs I’ve seen in a long time. Yes, those scraps of ply in the plastic bag are all that was left from the three sheets of plywood he used to make the boat, but that’s only the half of it – when Chris wants to transport it, the boat divides in two to fit in the back of his car, and when reassembled the undersides of the riggers include a system of pegs that neatly hold the boat together.

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A hydroplane at the Beale Park Boat Show

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Outboard hydroplane Twirler at the Beale Park Boat Show

The exhibition at the Beale Park Boat Show features quite a few veteran motor boats of various kinds, and last year it included this little plywood hydroplane.

I was struck by just suited to home-building a boat like this must be. While it isn’t very big, complicated or expensive to build, it must deliver a heck of a lot of fun in a small package – and other water users won’t automatically assume you’ll behave like a selfish oaf, as they do when they see a group of jetskis coming their way.

I notice that there are various plans for hydroplanes available, but I’d guess that these plans at the Svenson site look pretty useful: Yellow Jacket

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