Thread: 15ft Seababe (First Post.)

What have I started!!!!
Now I have little to no experience with timber but I learn quick and have have been in the building industry for many years (fitter welder/ boilermaker by trade.)

My hope is to complete the Seababe that can be found at
http://www.svensons.com/boat/?p=CabinCruisers/SeaBabe

Anyway I am not going to bore you with more of my blabble so thank you for your time and hope to hear from anyone willing to help.

Howdy Damon and welcome!

Those plans are the lot.

With Svensson's plans you have to be a bit careful. Some are not really complete or are missing details or are set up for engines that no longer exist and all sorts of odd little things like that.

They might be fine ... but I get occasional emails asking advice about old plans people have got for free - they are already halfway through building and found some problem. And I don't know either because all I have is the same plan material and the designer was dead 30 years ago.

Yours is a bit simpler because it is outboard powered.

Now are you using those plans because you really like the boat or are you using them because they are free. If you love the boat ... then that is a good reason to build it.

But if you have chosen it because the plan is free it is a very poor economy as the older designs are not particularly economical now, boat structures are quite different. Modern boats are generally lighter, which means that they cost less (every kilo ... you have to pay for. Also modern boats also have living designers and knowledgeable agents that can fill in details or answer questions.

A modern plan will probably be about the same cost as one or two sheets of ply, which is nothing in the building cost plus motor, plus trailer.

So just to make sure that this is the boat you want.

Best wishes

MIK

I am using the Seababe as I like the look of the boat. The fact that it was a free plan had no real impact on my decision. As I am at the start of my project I am open for change but would like to keep with the same style.

Ok .. good reason to go with that one then.

Glues have become much more dominant since the days of that design. We don't use anywhere near the number of fastenings as in that era. A lot of the time - almost all the time - we use temporary fasteners that can be pulled out and re-used when the glue has hardened.

There are ways of reducing maintenance of the boat too using epoxy resin to glue, glass and coat the boat. It adds an initial cost, but makes the structure very long lived because it protects the timber very well.

Timber - nowadays in Australia we are almost stuck with less durable plantation grown timbers. Happily the epoxy can protect the wood. You can build the old way too without the epoxy,, but you might be up against it finding quality timber of the right length of durable and reasonably light species. A lot of OZ timbers are quite heavy for a boat of this type .. about twice the weight of many of the species in that materials list.

But depends how good you are at scrounging stuff up.

In the past we would have changed almost every piece of timber inside the boat structure over to Oregon (Douglas Fir) as that was the best timber we had available. Like Hen's teeth now. Meranti would be fine, but if you are not epoxy coating it needs to be the dense dark red stuff, not the pink/grey stuff that rots away as soon as the water hits it (almost). If epoxy coating you can use any meranti and it is very unlikely to rot.

A common plantation timber we see now that is mostly suitable for boatbuilding is Hoop pine. Usually clear pieces. Some pieces can warp, but usually not as badly behaved as radiata (radiata is too weak and knotty for boats).

Have a chat to your local timberyard and see what softwoods they have in fairly clear pieces of dry timber.

Some bits can be OZ or imported hardwoods - namely pieces that will suffer some bumping and grinding as the boat gets used.

A lot of the time now, instead of making up frames of pieces as shown in the plan we just cut the frame from the bottom of the hull to the cockpit floor support out of single plywood sheets ... with quite light timber all the way round to attach the plywood to the hull. Or the bulkheads can be held in place and "welded" with an fillet made of thickened epoxy right the way round. Plywood is not cheap, but timber for a boat like this can be a very large part of the bill, sometimes you can eliminate most of the solid timber working through it this way.

Best wishes

MIK

Well after my reply I have had a bigger look around for plans to build my boat. Can not decide between the 1950's Seababe or the more recent Cruisette.
I am open to more suggestions but am eager to start the project soon.