The first cut

I made the first cut today, it is actually not for the boat but rather the strong back. It will be a box type with castors so that I can move it around. The cheap plywood I got for the strong back came in a very strange shape (1500x1500 mm) so I will have plenty opportunity to practice scarfing. Sorry for the picture quality my phone is not very compatible with bad light, better lights will be in place tomorrow so I hope that will do the trick.

Got wood!

My wood arrived tonight! I had a local carpenter shop cut, plane and deliver the solid pieces I need. It looks great, tight grained and very few knots.

Frames arrived

Today I received a package!

To get a head start in the build and hopefully gain some time I decided to order the Walkabout kit from Fyne boat kits. However since transportation from UK to Poland is quite expensive I did not get the full package, the bottom plank I will have to cut myself and the epoxy etc I will get locally.

So now all I am waiting for is the solid wood pieces and the epoxy. Getting closer now....

Boat Building Academy

As I mentioned previously I attended a boat building course this summer. It was a one week course in "modern boat building" at the Boat Building Academy in Lyme Regis.

This is something I can really recommend. You will not be a boatbuilder in a week but for me it was a very good confidence booster. I have a fairly good theoretical knowledge on how to build a boat an this course gave me the chance to try out some different things and made me believe I could do it.


You start of with some tool knowledge, how to sharpen planes, chisels etc and goes on to practical use of the tools scarfing plywood and solid wood. The main part of the course is glued clinker, spilling the planks cutting gains etc. There is also time to do some strip planking, could molding and a stitch and glue model boat. In addition we did a lot of various lamination for knees and breast hooks we even had time to do a little vacuum bagging.
(I have no idea what happened to the formatting of the above, sorry but I cannot fix it either)

In addition to the course content being excellent the people at the Academy is very welcoming and pleasant so you cannot avoid making some good friends while you are there.  


I am quite sure I will have good use of this when I get going on my project. 

This is where the magic will happen....

Here is where it is supposed to happen, my garage. I also have a big basement inside the garage where I will build all the parts, so the garage will be for the assembly mainly.

As you can see I have got the plywood already, now I am just waiting for the solid wood and the epoxy. Actually getting the material for the build have been my biggest headache so far. I live in Poland but do  not speak any Polish, so I have had to get help from friends to order it, but even though they have been very helpful it is a little frustrating dealing with this through a proxy.

Hopefully I should have all the bits and pieces in my garage by mid October so I can start the building.