SUPER HUCK / Geoffrey Burns / Perth, Western Australia / advantagebyford@bigpond.com.au / 7-4-01: I have just commenced building a 32 foot Super Huck boat. It will consist of three hulls as per the plans with a beam of twelve feet and a custom (my own)design 16'x12' cabin including upper deck and dual controls. I have been working for 3 days and have completed 3 stem assemblies from laminated 3/4" plywood and have incorporated the bow spreader upright(slight mods)all in one member. I have also built 3 transoms, 3 'B' bulkheads, 6 'A' bulkheads and epoxy seal coated the stems. I am using an Australian Native hardwood called Tasmanian Oak for all bulkhead framing it is reasonably heavy but very strong and looks beautiful when epoxied. Total displacement will be around 7,000 lbs so a few extra pounds of wood will not be a big problem. As you can see I have been very busy and would hope to be launching at easter next year. This is my first boat-building experience so I thought I would start with something simple. I would be interested in hearing from any-one else building pontoons. The full size patterns and detailed instructions are well above my expectations for the cost. The chosen name is TURTLE (house on the back). 7-17-01: The building frame is now complete and the first bulkheads are ready to be notched for the longitudinals. To make things easier for later on all bulkheads and stems have been double coated with epoxy except on areas which need to be glued to something else. This seemed easier and the coats are thicker. 7-23-01: Now just about have the first hull ready for sheeting. As in the instructions if the battens are projected to the stem it will tend to flatten the sheeting. This is the case with my hull but I have overcome this by forming a long double taper. I am really having a very good time doing this and now hope to be able to build a hull in four weeks total. The sheeting will have to be cut in some shorter lengths to start off as those available here are only 8 feet long and will fall on the bulkheads if not adjusted, any and all suggestions would be welcome. I don't really fancy trying to butt-block a sheet between the 'B' and 'A' bulkhead. I hope you are all enjoying the summer it was 0 deg Celsius (freezing) here this morning.
Regards to all
Geoffrey Burns
