1 – Pre-work

Original startup page. 18 October

Ok, as I mentioned in the main thread I have changed the plans re the big boat build and the first thing I am going to build is the Argie 15, a dinghy design by Dudley Dix. http://www.dixdesign.com/argie15.htm

This dinghy will give me some practice with building a boat in plywood which I have not done before and I will get a better feel for the stuff. Additionally it will become the tender for the main boat when that is done. In other words I will not be making it as a sailboat but a row/motor dinghy.

The material list is fairly simple, the dix design link brings you to the page that its on. The main part are the ply sheets, 8x 6mm sheets. I am going through the suppliers at the moment trying to get the optimal combination of good gaboon and a good price.

So to the details of the Dudley Dix Argie 15 Dinghy build. Its a 15 foot plywood stitch and glue type construction. There are a number of blogs that have built one of these…my favourite blog is “A Boat Is Born” … http://argie15.oscarbravo.info/ hopefully without the holes in the hull oafter the trial.

The layout will be standard for a rowboat and motor set-up, I will not be putting in the mast step and sailing gear. There is a boat on the Dudley Dix website that has a similar layout to this plan. http://www.dixdesign.com/amateurs-frielinghaus2.htm. Im not sure if I will go centre concole yet, we will decide that a little later down the track.

The material list is made up of 8 sheets of ply, a variaty of stock timber like maranti and the obligutary epoxy, glass, undercoats and paint. Other bits and pieces like wire to stitch it and rowlocks etc are there too.

So starting with the where to build. My daughters garage is the ideal spot, just needed a tidy out. So I am grateful to her for the lend of the space. So far I have cleaned out the shed and just finished building the platform that the boat will be built on.

Next the materials. Focusing on the ply for a minute. If you are looking at this page then its very likely you know about the very variable quality of the ply on the market. For a start we have Gaboon, ply to BS1088 and ply to AS2272. Most people in the timber and hardware world jsut know that they sell Marine Ply. After that they can read that the stamp on the ply says BS1088. But how good is it??? who knows with-out testing. and BTW as of today Bunnings and Mitre10 sell marine ply with stamps on saying BS1088 for aout $40 a sheet for the 6mm I am interested in.
My next port of call for sheets of ply were the many “sheet or board timber suppliers like Melboard, MrPly&Wood, about 5 all up. I asked for quotes for both BS1088 and AS2272. Interestingly enough those that I have replies from know a fair bit about the differences. So I have picked one of these suppliers of BS1088 timber (Phillipine mahogany ply) and got a 100×100 sample. Tonight I intend to boil this in salty water and see if it maintains its integrity. On inspection of the sample (cut from an off-cut) the unifority of the core seems good so I will give it a go and see what happens. The next level I want to was to contact the two serious marine timber suppliers I know. Naturally they were much dearer but you were buying the known quality. Just to understand the scales of cost. Startign at bunnings and ending with the most expensive marine supplier the prices were roughly $40 then $54…$83…$124…for the 4mm non AS2272 ply. All are BS1088 compliant….maybe!
So I am going to try the one around $60 sheet and see how I go.

The maranti items are relative stock so I will get them as I need them.

The glue/epoxy etc…I will be using Bote-Cote which is not the cheapest but has a very good reputation and I believe in quality in the things that are holding the boat together!

So that is roughtly all for now. I am waiting for the plans to arrive from the US and as soon as they do i wills tart ordering the materials.

Bye for now.
Mick