"Like Sugar" (Cont'd)

My plans arrived late December 2009 and by that time I was very excited at the prospect of building my own Mahogany-planked classic powerboat. Since ordering my plans I had been pouring over the Glen-L website soaking up as much information as possible and purchasing the recommended books pertaining to cold-molded construction and engine installation in order to educate myself on construction techniques and boatbuilding materials.

For a living I build, renovate and alter domestic dwellings so I have a fairly comprehensive workshop and a good selection of tools; I also love working with wood. Over time I have accumulated and stored some fine quality timbers always sure that one day they would be put to good use so it came as little surprise to find that I had enough material to build the Monaco frame. I have used a combination of Kauri Pine, Coach Wood, Hoop Pine and Douglas Fir. All fabulous boat building material - old and dry, clear, straight and quarter sawn. For my engine stringers I elected to use 6x2 LVL (laminated veneer lumber) engineered plywood. As a builder I use this material regularly and know it to be strong and true. Along with all the boat timbers the LVL has been sanded, filled and triple coat epoxy encapsulated using the West System. Dressed quarter-sawn Sapele Mahogany has been purchased for the keel lams and for the outer planking. For the deck I will use Tasmanian Blackwood for the finishing boards and probably 4" wide Kalantas for the planking with ¼" wide Australian Beech fill strips; should work well.

To date the project has taken 425 hours, with help from my team, from sawing and dressing the frame timbers to a fair bit of head scratching and pondering to final faring in readiness for ply stripping. I have taken the time to be exacting at each stage of the build which, I feel, has paid off with very few frame adjustments needed. On good advice the building frame was built around 12" higher than recommended to enable access to inside the boat during the ply fixing/gluing process.

My boat will be named "SUCRE-COMME" which is loosely French for "Like Sugar" or "SWEET-AS" in English, because that's exactly what she'll be…………..more photos to come.

See photos of Tim's progress here