Tiger Tamers Catboat build.

[Tiger Tamer]

I've decided to build a sailboat (can't let Damo have all the boat building fun on oldschool). Anyway (without mentioning names again) I was sent a pic of a Catboat that was a ply kitset build. No plans available for them though and the kitsets are US built. But I did like it. I had been thinking of building a sailboat again as I have built two in the past, although a long time ago now. They were both ply construction and I had some help along the way.

So I started looking online for a suitable small boat to build and mainly Catboats. The reason a Catboat appeals is they only have one sail so easily sailed single handed. They are also beamy as the beam is nearly half it's length. I came across a design called the Marsh Cat 15' which ticked a lot of boxes. The only think it lacks is a small cabin but that could be added along with the build.

So the plans were bought from the USA as digital and printed locally.  

[Tiger Tamer]

With the plans printed and studied it was time to make a start. The boat can be built in different ways, cold molding is the designer's choice but I wouldn't want to try it building it alone. You could build it with ply planking or timber planking or strip planking. Strip planking is the method of choice I am using. I am using 25mmx17mm strips edge glued over a mold.

First thing is to build a base to mount the molds to and then to transfer the mold design from the plans to the molds. I decided to transfer the shape onto 3mm mdf and then to 12mm chipboard later. The plans came as full size for the mold patterns. This way I don't have to flip the paper plan over and read it inside out and punch a lot more holes through it. Didn't really need to but I did.

To transfer the design onto the mdf you lay the plan out and use panel pins through the drawn lines then remove the pins and plan. Then tap the pins back in and then use a flexible batten to bend around the pins and mark it out.

[Tiger Tamer]

All the mold pattens cut out in MDF in half's. The strong back built and the inner bow stem pattern marked out. 

I also started cutting the planking strips. Since I have to cut a lot of them, I needed to find a way to set up the bench saw with a couple of guides to make the task as time efficient as I can. I cut the first five out of a shorter length to work it out. They are only about 2m and the long lengths I have are 5m so good to practice with. Like I said earlier the strips are 25mmx 17mm but cut with a 15dg bevel on the 17mm edge. The reason I hope, is as the plank wraps around the hull the bevel will give it some lateral support for the next plank. Hard to see the 15deg bevel in the photo.

The timber I am using for the planking is Paulownia. It's a very light hardwood about half the weight of pine. Then the hull will get a layer of glass cloth inside and out.

[Tiger Tamer]

The next stage done. Shape transferred to the 12mm chipboard and set up on the strongback and braced. It's now time to start building the boat.

First thing to do is build the Stem, inner Keel and Transom. I am waiting on pricing of lumber (American boat so you have to say lumber) and on the plans it comes in sizes like this 4/4 x 4"x 12' or 6/4 x 4" x 14'. The foot and inches was easy enough but the 4/4 had me scratching my head for a while. 4/4 means 4 quarters or 1" rough sawn and 6/4 is 1 1/2 rough sawn.

[Tiger Tamer]

I bought some timber, sorry lumber. I found some American White oak and some Saple Mahogany locally. At first I looked at the 5m length of Mahogany 5m x 270x48mm like a bar of gold thinking it would be a similar price. It was not that bad at $100.00 per meter and when you put into the cost of building the boat it doesn't make that much difference really and the beauty of it varnished makes it well worth the extra expense. I can see I will need to buy another length as well.

Anyway, the white oak was rough sawn so I had to run it through the thicknesser down to 7/8" to make up the keel timbers and the floor timbers. I now need to set up the floor timbers onto the molds and do a bit of shaping so the planking sits nice and flush to them.

I am not getting a huge amount of hours on it at the moment as I am also putting up a double kitset carport to house the power boat that has been kicked out of the shed now. it's also wooden so I want it kept undercover.

A couple of pic's.