The Steamboating Forum

Hi there
Has any body here build either the Diana or Dawn plywood boats by Glyn Lancaster Jones.
I am looking for a general ideal of time and cost.

Mike

Hi Mike I can't really help but rather than leave this enquiry unanswered I remember there was a build series in "Engineering in Miniature" many years ago. If you ask on a model engineering forum someone may have a copy. http://www.homeworkshop.org.uk/ Good luck, John

Hi John
Yes i have the EIM volumes, that what put in on to the boats in the first place.
Is has been about 20 years sinch I helped build a couple of wooden GP14's. And I want to get a rough ideal of how many sheets of plywood (good stuff) and how much epoxy resin I will need. I need to keep the cost and time of build down as much as possibale.
Mike

Rough Estimates, based on the 19ft - 6 inch plywood sidewheeler I built last year, which is covered in another thread on this forum:

Hull, 19ft - 3 in x 5ft beam x 24 inch debth. 1/2 inch mahogany BS 1088 sides, 5/8 inch mahogany BS 1088 bottom, Douflas Fir Frames 16 inches on center. This is probably considerably heavier construction than you are considering.

Plywood, 6 sheets 4 ft x 8 ft total, cost, delivered $425 USD
Epoxy RAKA slow cure, 9 US Gallons total, $450 USD
Fiberglass Cloth, 10 oz about $125 USD
Miscelaneous wood, screws, etc. say another $250 USD

Build time for the hull only, 2 months at about 4 hours per day for me, 240 hours, plus about another 50 hours from helpers., say 300 total

This was all done in a well equipped shop. Having the proper tools saves construction time.

I would guess the lighter boat hull, 1/2 inch bottom and 3/8 sides, 16 to 18 feet long could be built for about 60% of the numbers quoted above.

Thanks for that
Yes the Diana/Dawn are a lot lighter,if i recall, with 6 and 9 mm ply. 9 galloons,thats a lot more epoxy than i thought i would need.
I shall read up on your build thread.
thanks
Mike

Mike

Do have a look at Rushforth on this Forum. She is a version of the Panatella design from Steam Boats and Modern Steam Launches. The plans are available - have a browse at the NWSS website (http://www.northweststeamsociety.org/). Dave has done a great job on her and his photos show what a nice design Panatella really is.

Also have a browse at Rainer's new boat build. That will give you an idea of how to do sheet material construction most efficiently, albeit with some clever machinery behind him (I think!). Rainer's posts are good because he develops the idea of the sort of boat he wants. To my mind that is quite important given all the hours that this is going to absorb, never mind the cash.

Regards

Pete