Wooden motor boat. 20ft Max (for rebuild)

[series3100]

As above really, I need a wooden boat, 20ft absolute max.

(If you want know im planning to become (eventually) a wooden/traditional boat builder. Plan is as follows. Leave school, take a year out to earn some money and rebuild a boat just to try and get to know my way around them a bit better then go and start my training... I hope.)

Cheers, Brian

[A C H]

I wouldn't bother buying a boat, just enroll in the International Boat Building College in Lowestoft, people come from all over the world the learn their trade. You shouldn't have any problems getting a job once you have done the course.

I know a couple of chaps who when to Italy after doing the course to work on a massive wooden yatch, pay was good too, and they used to have some really good parties!!

[series3100]

I wouldn't bother buying a boat, just enroll in the International Boat Building College in Lowestoft, people come from all over the world the learn their trade. You shouldn't have any problems getting a job once you have done the course.

I know a couple of chaps who when to Italy after doing the course to work on a massive wooden yatch, pay was good too, and they used to have some really good parties!!

The yard i want to work in / train in doesnt have any space/ work for me for between a year and 2 years. I could just go somewhere else but after working a week there i just feel so welcome there...

As i say i want to get to know my way round boats as much as possible before joining so i could just join any old yard and do any old work but my mum and dad will partially fund the buying and rebuilding of a boat just to get me started. It also means i will have time to earn some money (better than working as a floor sweeper in a random yard) and should also have time to do a day a week in a machine shop (just for the experience). And the bonus is if i didn't sell it i would have a nice boat by the end of a year or 2.

Cheers, Brian

[tycroes48]

Half a dozen here, take your pick.



http://motors.shop.ebay.co.uk/items/?_nkw=wooden+boat&_sacat=1293&_trksid=p3286.m270.l1313&_odkw=&_osacat=1293

[series3100]

Its a bit weird but for some reason i wouldn't mind a 'broom' just because they are cheap and a bit crap so i cant do any harm as such... also you can pull of the Austin powers love in them:eek::D!

GROOVY BABY!:o:D

Brian

[NiteMare]

my dad bought an old boat (two actually), first was 20-22' long with mahogany planking and a single perkins 4107 in it (mid 30's-40's boat), luckily i hardly saw that one....

the second was a 1936(ish) mahogany over oak framed twin engined cruiser (a pair of Morris Navigators and crash boxes) which was 34' long and would bunk 4 people, it had been sat in dry dock for about 4 years when he bought it and neglected so a few boards had to be replaced along with all the wiring and plumbing replacing, the engines were binned along with the gearboxes and a pair of perkins 4108's sourced, marinised and matched to slush boxes...

all paint, varnish and decking materials were stripped and replaced along with the interior gradually being refreshed/repaired...

my dad had that boat for about 20 years, in that time it was sunk once for definite whilst on it's mooring (i think it might even have been twice) whilst in Poole harbour, the deck covering was again replaced along with a few boards, i cut, shaped and fitted new skegs, a new leading end to the keel and a section at the stern supporting the rudder (all green oak), removed and replaced sections of mahogany planking in the hull, rebuilt (replaced) most if not all of the wheelhouse, lifted the engines out and rebuilt them three or four times, modified Jabsco pumps so that they'd last more than a season (last one i rebuilt lasted at least three years) and could be rebuilt cheaply (for pennies rather than 20quid each)....

all these things were done at range, the boat was 140 miles from home so 99% of the work was done with minimal tools and facilities unless the bits could be brought home (mechanical stuff only), try lifting out a perkins 4108 with nothing more than a couple of scaffold poles a couple of 45 gallon drums and a one-armed chain hoist whilst the boat is in dry dock....

i hated that boat eventually, it was like the Forth Bridge in my opinion, nothing but work and grief, the only journeys i ever made in it was from Gosport to bloody Newport on the Isle of Wight and back just to sit on the bottom of a muddy river with nothing to do but scrape more poxy barnacles off...

the damn thing even fell over one day when the tide went out whilst tied to the jetty, try winching approx' 7 tons of boat and junk back upright with nothing more than a lot of rope and three 2x2 timbers....

all major work was undertaken in the coldest months of the year out in the open with at best a couple of tatty canvas sheets flapping about over it

as a hobby, i think anyone that takes it up needs certifying, it was uncomfortable, damp and more grief than it was worth in my opinion, boats are probably great if you live local to them and water but there's ****** all in the midlands

i'd show you a picture of it but unfortunately they're on my broken computer