Saving Old Seagulls

Thought I would start a thread detailing the boat I’m building at the moment. Schools over, weathers lovely, so seemed like the perfect time. The LOA is 11ft 3 inches, the beam is just under 4ft and the transom height is 15 inches. Drew the plans by looking at lots of other boats and hopefully taking the best bits from all of them. Design criteria was fairly simple, must be car toppable, must be fairly light, and must be cheap. Total cost so far is just under 300 quid, which even for me is not the end of the world. This has included the price of materials, tools and resin, of which I had none of to start. All the tools needed were sourced at the car boot ( jig saw, clamps, sander) so this helped with the cost a lot! I’ll put some pictures below, tonight I’ve just about finished the inside, a couple more bits to do before I flip the hull and start sanding! I will post more pictures once it’s been painted, and hopefully one of it floating some time in the next couple of weeks.

Good work there, keep the pictures coming.

My own boat build for this year has had a delayed start. I have just got as far as scarfing some sheets of ply together and hope to start cutting out the panels over the weekend.

Last year I built a fishing kayak and have considered hanging a 40 plus off the back of it. But now I am building a pram style dinghy of about 12' LOA, which should be far more suitable.

Good luck with your project.

Cheers, Mark

We need to see a photo of it upside down. Do you have any planning straights on it?

Nudge wrote: ↑Tue Jun 15, 2021 10:15 am ...planning straights....

Hmmmmm...

Don't take this personally, but I had to look that one up Nudge. I guess we are talking "planing strakes".

I don't know what motor is going on that boat, but is planing likely to be possible? I am putting a Forty Plus on my 12 footer, and do not expect to achieve planing with that combination. I am pretty new to hull design, so excuse my ignorance

Cheers, Mark

Main motors that will be used are my race century, seagull 6 and Johnson 6, so I hope to achieve above hull speed. The boat is fibreglassed now so will be painted in next couple of days will send pics then, not planning on adding stringers on the underside but may do if I have issues with tracking once I get it on the water.

I guess we are talking "planing strakes".

Opps! Yes, planing strakes! English is not my first language.... I speak kiwi!

but is planing likely to be possible

my 12 footer will with a Silver on the back!

well it’s car toppable and light (32kg), it’s fate will be decided in the Thames tomorrow morning!

Nice build! Any more photos of finished product?

How many hours did you put into it if I may ask? And transom, is it 3/4 inch ply? Thinking of a similar size build myself and obviously want to keep it as light as possible.

Success! . Happy with how it sat in the water. Here’s a couple of videos I got whilst I was going along:
https://youtube.com/shorts/rqDRfY506k0?feature=share
https://youtube.com/shorts/g-mIAe1bRzA?feature=share
I’ve really enjoyed making it, a month start to finish working a couple of hours here and there when I had time.

Well done Ed, it works and looks like it goes well.

Looks like I had better mend my race boat and add the improvements.

Excellent job there, I will have to get going on my build before the summer is over.
Sadly, I have to spend this weekend replacing the steering rack on my van. It decided to blow out all the hydraulic fluid the other morning, half way through the school run. Interesting

Cheers, Mark