building a boat 101

p.s I have never done this before and can see why now what alot of work but here we go

p.p.s im no welder either just somebody giving it a go

and a big thanks to mum and dad for use of their house and dad for all his help

first few pics laying out 2 of the 5x 9m x 2.2m sheets of ally 2x5mm 2x 4mm 1x3mm all i can say is you need good m8s you can call on to help just marking out and cutting two days and the shapes dont look like a boat trust me this plan is a 7.3 jackman hull loa 8.5 and 2.8m wide at the widest point

ok boring stuff out the way and sore knees, ears and great neigbours as cutting this stuff with a killer blade on a circular saw then using a wood plane to match up the panels makes alot of noise lets Start welding

the bottom sheet welded together

starting to weld the ribs in a bit of a job for the first time but with a litte help fron a porta power and a few welds here and there it all comes together

now all rib tacked in have to pull hull up hard all along so it touches all the way bit hard at the fort of boat where the boat curves but good old block and tackle comes in handy as well as some jacks its amazing how it starts to take shape

stringers what a pain in the a## lese two have to be straight and welded flat to the floor sheets all along keeping the hull level with a water level this nearly broke me so close to the start as i welded 3 bays down then leveled it to find it twisted  to have to cut them all out again

after this had about 3 months off middle of summer and gutted.

Went to coral bay in may watching all these big boats bore past me was all the motivation i needed got back and got back into it again solved the problem and welded it out on my day off work

then comes the chines sides and foredeck call on those m8s again p.s the 5mm sheets weighed 280kg each so this was a 6 person job plus me tacking

got the sides on tacked the transom and all the support for the outboard in now its time to get it out of under the patio hmmm its bigger than i thought the car port is 2650mm damn this is 2700mm wide oh well weld some lugs on the inside and block and tackle it in to fit just got the 50mm i needed

now its out time to turn it over called a few crane guys but seemed all too hard m8s, where would you be without them forklift will do it

only can try after waiting a month and getting nowhere i was getting desperate and hey it worked well

now its over more grinding and welding the bottom

time to turn back over

time for a trailer to move this thing and finish second hand will do and will lock the boat in

once on trailer i could start the floor tanks cab and finish the transom

460l fuel damn that will hurt to fill up and still havent this is my m8 he is 6 ft tall give some idea of size of project

getting close now and hot again its getting close to summer again man this alloy gets hot time to ask for another favour i need a shed to get more hours in the day to build it mmm m8

ok after many 16-18h days working on the boat and a few months gone by, it was time for the motor an lets see if it floats

so this is where i am so far now its winter again its time for the shed again to do the finishing touches and get some paint on it ready for dive season but this is my story so far feel free to ask questions if you like but remember im no tradie just somebody giving it a go

this was my dhu date didnt quite get finished but nearly thanks for reading sorry its so long but it was a long process

tharks dans

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