Boat Building

Dispatches from the shop: Progress reports on our boat building projects, plus some useful information for those of you who are building, restoring or repairing your own boats.

Electrical and hardware updates for Sunset Chaser

Submitted by Matthew on

My five-metre runabout Sunset Chaser has been undergoing an assortment of repairs this winter. Here's a brief overview of the wiring and hardware updates I've been doing on this boat, in the hopes of keeping her going for another decade or so.

New plans: Almaguin 400 & 500 utility runabouts

Submitted by Matthew on

The plans are ready! The four- and five-metre Almaguin runabouts, designed with first-time builders in mind, will be excellent fishing, utility or sport boats for inland lakes, rivers or calm coastal areas. They're built in taped-seam plywood and don't require elaborate jigs or fine carpentry skills. Have a look here, and please feel free to contact me if either of these boats interests you.

Breached hulls, swamped hulls, and bilge pumps

Submitted by Matthew on

You see them at just about every boat show. Sometimes it's a six-metre fishing boat, sometimes it's a luxury cruiser with a six-figure price tag. But there are always a few boats with something terrifying lurking under a hidden access hatch in the stern: a "bilge pump" that would barely suffice for aquarium duty in my wife's Red Oscar tank. Sure, it'll get rid of rain water and the occasional bit of spray that seeps down there, but that's not what a bilge pump is for. Its main function is to keep you afloat if everything goes to pot, and frankly, most pumps just aren't up to the job.

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