DIY Rowboat

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As Water Rat noted in The Wind in the Willows, “There is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” If you want to know how to build a boat, MOTHER’s Basic Boat is a simple boat plan, which should be easy to construct for those with woodworking experience.

Cut Out Rowboat Pieces

All you’ll need to build the boat are a few tools and the materials listed at right. The large pieces of the boat will be cut from plywood, and reinforced with pieces of hardwood lumber. You can cut the 170 feet of lumber you will need from three 10-foot lengths of 1-by-8 stock, or use any scrap hardwood lumber cut to 1-1/8-inch-wide boards.

Start by drawing an alignment line for the midship bulkhead, which forms the central support for the boat, across the sheet of plywood 3 feet, 6-1/2 inches from the stern end, as shown in Figure A. Now select one of your long pieces of lumber, which you will use to draw the ship’s curve. Start by drawing the left side piece. Mark the midway point of the length of the strip on the piece and center the strip on edge over the midship alignment line. Next, use a C-clamp to secure the strip over the outside center clamp position located one-eighth inch in from the plywood’s edge. (Clamp positions are marked on the diagram with a “C.”)

  • Updated on Jun 10, 2022
  • Originally Published on Oct 1, 2005
Tagged with: boat building, DIY boat, DIY project, rowboat, rowboat plan
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