A Basic (and Beautiful) Boat

Image Gallery Allow it to perform well with a simple homemade sail rig

Buy two 4 x 8 sheets of 1/4" plywood, and you can start this rewarding winter workship project.

There aren't too many homesites in North America that aren't within easy driving distance of a good-sized body of water, So it's a safe bet that those of you who don't own a boat had, over the past summer, occasion to wish you did. And there are several reasons why right now would be a good time to begin a boat-building project.

For one, the winter months ahead will provide some freedom form the constant demands of yard and garden work ( and from the tempetation to simply be outdoor in fine weather) and thus should allow plenty of time for the slow-and-steady woodworkers among us to have our hand-built watercraft ready for launch next spring. In addition, if you decide to buckle down and get right to this project, you'll be able to have a special Christmas gift ready to give a watersmitten youngster . . . or a fine little fowling boat for your own winter duck hunts.

You shouldn't find MOTHER's dinghy too difficult to construct. Research staffers Dennis Burkholder and Clarence Goosen built the brightly painted beauty shown here in just four days . . . and most of that time was spent waiting for glue to dry!

Your first task will be to collect two 4' X 8' sheets of 1/4" marine plywood (we used a less expensive plywood when building the two prototypes used to refine our design, and those boats have held up well so far, but we can't make any estimate of their long-term reliability), about 160 feet of 3/4" X 1-1/8" flexible, clear-grained hardwood (we recommend oak, and ripped our strips from ten-foot 3/4" X 8" boards), a foot or so of 3/4" X 8" hardwood for the motor-mount brace (you'll measure it for exact fit later), about 500 No. 6 X 3/4" brass wood screws, two dozen No. 8 X 1-1/2" brass wood screws (nickle-plated fasteners can also be used), and a supply of plastic resin glue.

To begin, scribe a centerline down each sheet of plywood (it'll serve as a reference point for several of the measurements to come). Then go on to mark the cutting lines for one of the boat's sides. To do so, select a long, straight-grained strip of 1-1/8" X 3/4" hardwood to use as a straightedge. (Keep this strip separate, because the same one should be used to draw the curves for the boat's bottom later.) Clamp its center to one of your plywood sheets, placing the clamp about 1/8" in from the edge at a point 3' 6-1/2" from one end (that end will be the boat's stern). Then, with a friend's help, bend the hardwood into a bow, clamping it so that its outer edges intersect the edges of the plywood 3" from the corner in the stern and 5-1/8" from the corner in the bow. With that done, scribe a line along the outer surface of the hardwood strip.