Building Boats With Plywood

Building Boats With Plywood

by

Greg St.Clair

Of all the materials used to assemble boats, plywood is one of the least expensive. Boats offer fun for the whole family; being on the pond, lake, river, or ocean provides relaxation and is a great way to get to the big fish and fresh air of the great outdoors. Building your own boat offers a less expensive way to obtain a boat. Building boats also offers fun challenges for the builders.

The internet provides a great resource for free boat plans made out of plywood, with plans are available for most types of vessels. Typing “free plywood boat plans” into Google reveals over five million results! To narrow the search down, focus on a particular type of boat, like canoes. Searching Google for “free plywood canoe plans” offers over fifty thousand results. Perusing the results of this search identifies blueprints, detailed instructions, and even videos describing the building of canoes. One easily locatable set of free canoe plans details how to transfer dimensions onto plywood, cut the plywood to make long panels, assemble the hull with epoxy and fiberglass, then install reinforcements. As these plans indicate, an easily built boat requires a few easy to get materials and a few tools, the ability to learn and follow instructions, and practice and patience. The materials used in building boats include plywood, epoxy, duct tape, sand paper and nails or screws. The tools required include a circular saw and a jig saw, a hammer, a drill, a batten, a measuring tape, saw-horses, and a good set of plans. Some plywood boats will use paddles while some boats will use outboard motors. Everyone has the ability to learn, so anyone can be successful at building a boat. All it takes is a detailed plan or set of blueprints, describing how to build a particular boat. Simply follow the instructions, step by step, to build your boat. Boat plans are generally loaded with technical boat building terms like butt block, batten and scribing; to learn about these terms, simply type them into Google for an in depth definition. Typically, beginner builders will not be able to jump into building perfect looking boats. It takes practice and patience. To get practice, pick an easy, low-cost boat to build, like a canoe, and practice making cuts and using epoxy, using the methods described in the plans. The first boat built will not be perfect or pretty, but in all likelihood it will be fairly functional. As you grow in experience the boats built will become prettier and easier to build. Building a boat takes patience; it takes time to learn how to properly spread epoxy and it takes work to sand epoxy, making it shine. Plenty of practice and patience turn beginners into experts. Many different watercrafts can be made with plywood. Detailed plans can be found online for building plywood canoes, kayaks, jon boats and fishing boats. Building boats provide unique challenges, often offering as much fun as using the boat. Before delving into building boats it is advisable to research how to read and interpret blueprints, watch some online videos on how to build boats and purchase the necessary tools. With practice and experience, plywood boats are inexpensive and easy to assemble. Have fun building your plywood boat!

Greg St. Clair is an avid boat lover and boat building enthusiast. For more great information on

building wooden boats with plywood

, visit

Boat Plans Central

.

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Building Boats With Plywood