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| My first boat, an 18ft 'Little Sister' Banks Dory |
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Construction photos of my first boat The dory was built with 4mm thick ply for the sides and 6mm for the bottom. This was thinner than specified and a mistake. The boat was wobbly and lacked rigidity. Thus I was forced to add a gunnel and inwale, frames at every 50cm and gussets. It would have been much easier to build the frames first and add plywood later. In addition I should have used more screws in the process of adding frames as the epoxy failed under huge loads 2 years on. This may have been because the epoxy had fully cured before glueing the frames on, rather than adding the frames the day after the ply was epoxied. I did sand back the epxoy to get a good key, but an extra one hundred screws at 3 cents each would have been prudent. More recently I have added a small keel and keelson. About 3 photos down can be seen the skeg which worked well for quite some time, before being replaced by a rudder. With the skeg and with a good 70kg of water ballast I was then able to control the dory in strong winds, as opposed to being at all ends previously Also note that the trolley 2, the one with large wheels, was lowered by about 5 inches to aid in stability. It worked very well for almost 2 years, but I could not store the boat upside down, and it was overly complicated, taking too long to make and too long to paint. I found that cheap painted radiata pine used for the trolley lasts quite a few years even if kept outside
Notes on boat construction
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Painting the dory
I was happy with the waterbased primer, it sanded very well. The primer permitted the hull, particularly the outside to be much much smoother than was the case with epoxy only. I sanded between each layer of primer and between each application of epoxy fairing paste. Yes polyurethane paint would have been better, but I suspected that the price could not be justified. Afterall the paint is not the main water barrier, that is the epoxy. Thus the paint serves to improve apprearance and protect the epoxy from UV. I chose the colours based on paints I had at home. I would have preferred red/brown paint over cottage green, but as this would cost money I decided against it as I had cottag green to hand. The inside is a light grey, made by mixing the outside grey colour 5:1 with an acrylic gloss my housemate found in the dumpster, I thought that pure white would have too much glare. I chose to paint the ribs a different colour to the inside hull. Not sure if this was worth the effort. To get a good deliniation between 2 colours was difficult. Perhaps I could have used tape for this, but did not have the patience. To sum up, painting the dory was well worth while, it has transformed the boat in terms of appearance. |
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Realistic appraisal of my first boat The boat was worth building, however in my opinion it is not a good boat for general purpose use. The boat was (I no longer use it), optimised for rough weather rowing with two people on board. The boat was too large for a single rower to control in any sort of wind due to high windage, and really needed an additional 150kg of weight to work well. This extra weight could be provided by addition of an extra person plus gear, but in general this 18ft rowboat was too large to be a good one person rowboat. I have now progressed to a smaller 13.5ft rowboat of my own design which I much, much prefer. In my opinion a good general purpose rowboat would have suited me a lot better, as opposed to a specialised design as shown by this banks dory In particular
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| Boat Trolleys My early kayak trolley was used for the dory, this worked OK though the small wheels had issues going over bumps, however suprisingly this trolley proved strong enough. I then built trolley number 2, which I used for a long time. It used large 27 inch bicycle wheels which gave exceptionally low rolling resistance. I could easily push the boat with one finger on the flat whilst moving the boat from my house to the river. The downside was that this raised the center of gravity too high and made the boat unstable, and it was at risk of sliding off. Additionally this trolley was overengineered and overly complex. I then built trolley number 3 (sketch shown and photos to follow), which used stronger bmx wheels with a lower center of gravity. It was also much much simpler. Boat trolleys are very good means of moving boats. A simple trolley using two bmx wheels can support a suprisingly heavy boat and move it with very little effort. I can recommend boat trolleys for those without a car wanting to move a boat any reasonable distance. Please note that I now have a car, though I now have two small wheels permanently attacted to my new boat to assist in moving it from the roof-rack to the water, a system that works very very well. |
Sketch of a new improved trolley based on my two previous attempts. Features include a lower center of gravity (using bmx wheels) and a simpler design Additionally having a flat top assists in strong boat upside down to keep out the water Not shown is a small leg with a brace that greatly assists getting boat on and off the trolley single handed Please note that this trolley has now been built, to an even simpler design, and works well, simpler is better!! 
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