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Beginning in August of 2008, Lew and Peggi began to build a boat.
This is their story. The first major huddle was deciding what type of boat to build. After much searching (both on the Internet and in books) we decided on building a boat using the stitch-and-glue method. Stitch-and-glue construction is a technique using marine plywood, wire, fiberglass cloth, epoxy fillers, wood flour and epoxy resin.
A stitch-and-glue construction uses fewer parts than fiberglass construction and epoxy is used to bond and seal the parts to achieve a stronger, monocoque (one-piece) boat. The initial construction is quick and easier, and requires no building molds. And in the long term, the boat is much easier to maintain.
The basic steps:
- Cut out the pieces of the boat.
- Stitch the pieces together using ties or wire.
- Apply epoxy.
- Remove tires or wire (called tabbing out)
- Apply fiberglass tape and more epoxy.
- Sand.
- Apply more epoxy.
- Sand
- Finish the boat's keel, insides, and gunwales, etc.
- Apply epoxy.
- Sand.
- Start all over again (with next boat).
The stitch and glue method was developed by woodwork teacher Ken Littledyke for the manufacture of canoes, using plywood panels joined by fiberglass tape and resin. The technique was then popularized by the first TV DIY expert, Barry Bucknell, in about 1964. The method was adopted, substituting copper wire ties rather than fishing line as in the early Littledyke examples, for the construction of the Mirror Dinghy. The Mirror is so named because the design was sponsored by The Daily Mirror newspaper, a fact reflected by the historically red sails. The Daily Mirror apparently wanted to bring cheap sailing to the masses. As such, unlike other construction techniques of the day, which required specialist skills and tools, Stitch and Glue was supposed to put boat-building within the reach of the average public.
Stitch and glue is similar to a traditional form of boat building from northern Europe, particularly Lapland, called sewn boats.
For further reading we highly recommend, Devlin's Boat Building - How to Build Any Boat the Stitch-and-Glue Way by Samual Devlin. The stitch and glue boat plans we purchased were for a design called Catspaw 9. Since the boat is longer than a standard piece of plywood - the first step was to build a scarfing jig. A scarf joint (also known as a scarph joint) is a method of joining two pieces of wood end to end. 
Here is what we did ..... |
| We built a scarfing jig with a 7 degree angle. The jig is designed to hold a piece of plywood on top and then run a skill saw along the angled edge to make the cut along the plywood. |
The finished scarfing jig - ready to make the cuts! | 
Making the cuts on the plywood.
It only takes a little off - but over a distance of two inches or more. | 
The finished cut. Make two and epoxy together.
Step 2 |
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