Building the hull

Started too late in the summer (August 15th, 2015).

The form it is used just to create the hull's shape.

Used copper wires to join the pieces and couple of C-clamps in the front.

 

Mistakes: Do not rush. Take the time to do a proper job. For example, always use pieces of wood to protect the boat's topsides from the C-Clamp marks.

 

Protect the topsides from the resin putty or epoxy by covering them during work. When working with the epoxy or the resin putty inevitable drops of glue will make it on the surface. 

 

Do not make unnecessary holes in the hull. This is to try to protect the plywood side for being able to create a good finish.

 

The aft part of the boat's topsides started to descend bellow the hull from the beam number 8 (check the plans) to create the chine flats. The chine flats I have built started at the half of the boat (my wife was right about this again!)

Cutting the pieces

The Dyno Mite plans comes in full size.

What one need to do is to copy the drawings on the Marine plywood using carbon paper and cut the pieces using a jigsaw.

 

The pieces have been sanded on edges and epoxied on both sides.

 

 

Mistakes: Do not epoxy the pieces on the exterior if you want a natural wood finish.

Do not screw the longitudinal pieces via the butt block.

Use only epoxy to join them, otherwise you will have a hard time covering the holes if you want a natural wood finish.

 

When drawing the pieces use the edge of the plywood sheet for the straight line especially for the lines that you will eventually join. If you draw close to this line, cutting with the jigsaw and sanding the edge will not produce a perfect line.

 

Muskoka boats

A few boats that are the pride of the Muskoka region in Canada.

 

You can visit the boat museum for the Muskoka region located in Gravenhurst and have a day trip on the lake with an old steam boat.

 

http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction_Review-g182189-d1425903-Reviews-Muskoka_Steamships-Gravenhurst_Muskoka_District_Ontario.html

 

Resources

Glen L. Witt - Boatbuilding With Plywood                                        

http://www.amazon.com/Boatbuilding-Plywood-Glen-L-Witt/dp/0939070073/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Traditional boatbuilding made easy: building "Heidi"

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0713646918?keywords=Building%20Heidi%3A%20Traditional%20Boat%20Building%20Made%20Easy&qid=1445617408&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2

Famous boat building book - Gougeon

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/assets/HowTo-Publications/GougeonBook%20061205.pdf

Great wood finish

http://www.vintageraceboatshop.com/Stain-Varnish.htm

How to build a windshield

https://www.glen-l.com/weblettr/webletters-13/webletter113-windshield.html

How heavy is the plywood

http://www.boulterplywood.com/MarinePlywood_4.htm

http://www.noahsmarine.com/Canada/Plywoods-can/plywoods-can.html

Where to buy marine paint sealer from (Noah's Marine in Toronto, below link from Kingston ON)

http://www.marineoutfitters.ca/index.cfm?category=10005%7C10006


Where to buy a 600 pounds boat trailer from and assembled it yourself

http://www.harborfreight.com/600-lb-capacity-boat-trailer-with-8-inch-wheels-and-tires-5002.html

Boat lines

How to build a breasthook

Inspiration

Below you can see a few boats with a design and finish that inspires me.

 

PM-38 and Glen-L

Below you can see the article from 1962 Popular Mechanics for building the PM-38.

 

38 m.p.h performance, $38 for materials, 38 hours to build

 

 

https://books.google.ca/books?id=QN8DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA140&lpg=PA140&dq=pm+38+popular+mechanics+pm-38&source=bl&ots=802WEkHBs0&sig=LReBPT4JtV0i23xljgJw2H9bSVY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CD8Q6AEwB2oVChMIyNDZ-9LWyAIVBWseCh0eOwQN#v=onepage&q=pm%2038%20popular%20mechanics%20pm-38&f=false

http://www.diy-wood-boat.com/PM-38-Club.html

Started to look for boat plans, I have found Glen-L site, a wonderful place for boat builders.
Have decided to buy the plans for the Dyno Mite because of its convenient size.

http://www.boatdesigns.com/11-Dyno-Mite-SG-deep-vee-runabout/products/320/

Mistake: Dyno Mite is a boat that uses Stitch and Glue method of building. This method uses a lot of resin putty to build the joins instead of creating a nice wooden skeleton that is covered with the plywood.

At this moment in time, I prefer the plywood method of building a boat that is available for the Squirt (on the Glen-L site).

You can see a great blog below where Art Atkinson built his Squirt a few years ago.

http://artatkinson.blogspot.ca/

Introduction

My name is Eugen Frunza, I am originally from Romania but leaving in Canada for the last 20 years.

 

I am a software developer and consultant.

 

Below is a picture with my family taken 2 years ago, my wife Mina with Paul, Andrei and Stefan (left to right).

 

 

 

Some of the best moments of my life were spent with my friend Florin at Bark Lake. Fishing for walleye at night under the stars cannot be beat by too many other memories.

 



 

Florin and I bought together our boats (a week apart) 6-7 years ago.

 

 

Some other pictures with dedicated fishermen (in Florin's boat) and my friend Liviu getting a taste of my boat (a Mark Twain bass boat.)

 

 

Below the early morning and the same lake at noon.

 

 

Mistake: bought a boat too big (17.5 feet) that I have to store in front of my townhouse.

Due to City Hall complains, I had to move it each year 4 hours away of Toronto.

Haven't used the boat in couple of years so I have decided to build one that will fit in my garage.

This decision was taken in a spur of a moment, after I have discovered the PM-38 article on the web, by another (happy this time) mistake.

 

Another reason to build this boat is that I am not a handyman, not being naturally gifted with the patience and qualities to build things.

 

This blog will show you many mistakes I made during boat's construction but in spite of this I hope I will be able to complete the boat as per my expectations. 

 

If this will happen, you should know that if I did it, you can do it too!

(maybe I should rename this blog - Recovering from the mistakes!)