Home>>> Boat projects for self-construction>>> A setless boat made of plywood. How to build a boat out of plywood
  

A setless boat made of plywood. How to build a boat out of plywood

From yachtsmen-motorists, our yacht club «Mayak» received an order for the design and construction of a comfortable cardboard boat made of plywood, designed for two or three people. The boat had to be stable as light as possible, convenient for transportation on the trunk of a car, and also walk under oars and a small motor.

We managed to make such a boat. The material for it was plywood, covered with fiberglass. The weight of the vessel did not exceed 40 kg. It took 2 sheets of 4 mm plywood, 3 sheets of 6 mm plywood (FSF GOST 3916-69), 6 m of fiberglass and 5 kg of epoxy glue. It also required a small number of slats, copper wire, screws and 3 door handles.

Basic data of a non-assembled plywood boat
Longest length, m 2,6
Maximum width, m 1,1
Side height, m 0,4
Empty weight, kg 40
Passenger capacity, people 3
Permissible motor power, kW (hp) 3,7 (5)
Speed under the engine, km/h 15-20

Boat hull design — general appearance and cross-section

A setless boat made of plywood. How to build a boat out of plywood

Boat hull design
1 — deck, plywood δ=6 mm; 2 — hatch, plywood δ=6, pine 20x20; 3 — side, plywood δ=4; 4 — bank, pine 20x200; 5 — bank stop, pine 20x30; 6 — bottom, plywood δ=6; 7 — payol, plywood 6x600x1000; 8 — carlengs, pine 20x30, L=2600; 9 — bulkheads, plywood δ=6; 10 — transom, plywood δ=6; 11 — support recess, pine 15x15x300; 12 — recess, plywood δ=4; 13 — transom trim, pine 15x200x315; 14 — handle.

The selected contours of the hull provided not only an easy stroke both on the oars and under the motor, stability on the course, soft germination on the wave, but also ease of assembly with the use of a method of stitching with copper wire staples to connect the bottom halves to each other and the sides with the bottom, followed by gluing the groove with strips of fiberglass on epoxy glue.

Maintaining the shape of the plywood hull of the boat is provided by bulkheads and transom, which are made according to the same template — the hull from the bow bulkhead to the transom has the same cross-section shape.

Bow bottom boats at a length of 800 mm (up to the first bulkhead) are formed from two inclined plywood sheets having only a transverse edge. The angle of inclination of the forming bow overhang to the main plane is 30°. The lining of the side along the radius passes into the side formwork.

Watertight bulkheads divide the hull into three isolated compartments. When filling any of them with water, the plywood boat with the crew on board remains afloat.

The assembly sequence of the case is as follows. Initially, bulkheads and transom, sides and bottom halves were painted according to templates made according to the plaza. Then the billets of the bottom were joined along the length on a plywood lining 200 mm wide. Billets of the bottom and sides were first sewn to the bulkheads and transom (according to pre-made markings), then sewn together. Further, the carlengs were installed (the upper edges of the sides were fixed to them with epoxy glue with screws pressed), the halves of the bottom in the bow, the deck and the saturation details.

All connections sewn with copper staples were glued from the inside with strips of fiberglass 50 and 70 mm wide, with a wide strip superimposed on top of a narrow one. This method of assembling body parts has already been described more than once on the pages of the site vodnyimir.ru (see, for example: Double fishing boat «Crab», Boat of seven parts, «Catfish» — motor boat made of plywood). The wire diameter was 1.5 mm, the paperclip pitch was 50-100 mm.

The outside of the case is pasted with fiberglass on epoxy resin, in which lead meerkat is introduced as a pigment. A beautiful look was given to the boat by painting its top with blue enamel paint. The inside of the case is also proolifen with the addition of a meerkat.

Brass bushings with a diameter of 12 mm, fixed in wooden cushions, serve as sub-hooks. A bank of a 20X200 mm board and a recess for the engine are reinforced with bars, the transom is a 15x200 mm vertical board.

The plywood floor is based on two floras.

P. I. Bernatovich, 1982

FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD: The design of the cardboard boat proposed by P. I. Bernatovich is interesting and original. The builders chose technological body shaping, allowing them to have tunnel contours with the same loss of the bottom along the entire length. The flatness of the bottom, as well as the bend of the sides in the upper part, ensures both the overall strength of the hull and the rigidity of the skin. This solution made it possible to create an almost non-set design — from the set there are only two carlengs stretched along the entire length of the boat made of plywood and serving to form the edge of the cockpit, as well as for fixing the sides, fore and aft parts of the deck. Bulkheads, in addition to ensuring the waterproofness of the compartments, serve as templates for the formation of the hull shape, however, it is difficult to imagine that without special devices, even the most elementary, it was possible to fix 6-mm plywood before the end of the stitching process (full curing of fiberglass).

Two-tonne contours provide good initial stability of this small boat.

For all its originality and simplicity, some aspects of the design are questionable. Let's start with the fact that the specified load capacity of 260 kg (3 people) seems somewhat overstated. With a full displacement of 300 kg, the draft of the boat should be about 200 mm, so the height of the freeboard will be clearly insufficient, especially since even with a slight roll, a rounded section of the side will begin to enter the water, stability will decrease rapidly. To eliminate these shortcomings, it would be necessary to increase the width and height of the side of the boat.

In general, the work done can be considered as a successful experiment in the construction of a cardboard boat without a set design. In the future, with an increase in size to 3,2x1,4 m, you can get a lightweight, convenient for transportation on the trunk of a car and for swimming in closed reservoirs plywood boat.

Boat projects for self-construction

Share this page in the social. networks or bookmark:

bookmark this page