I have been thinking about a dinghy for my boat. After looking around for a commercial built dinghy under 50 pounds, found that I may have to build it. So I ordered the PDF files from Chesapeake light craft to build the ultralight 6 foot dinghy. I am going to build it from scratch with no kit, maybe save a little bit of money in the process. Hopefully I can keep the weight under 45 pounds.
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Make a book
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The whole log, 11 entries and every photo,
laid out as a book to print, bind and keep.
When I built this dinghy, it was meant to be used and abused. So I didn't want to have a fancy nice clean painted bottom that was gonna be high maintenance and scratch easy. So I built up the bottom with gel coat nothing fancy, just rolled it on with a high build nap roller. I was going to polish it up and make it shiny but then I thought it's gonna get scratched up anyway, so I left it the way it was. It has six coats of gel coat on the bottom. By doing this, it adds substantially to the weight of the finished boat.
These pictures show how many clamps it takes just to put one side of the rub rails on. The boat is so small and curvy that I had to strip the rails into two pieces to make the compound bends in such a short distance of 6 ft. I used western red cedar for the rails this saves on weight and rot resistance.
These pictures show the taping that went in for the interior paint job. A gel coat of the inside deck for more durability and scratch resistance. On the sides, I painted with almond Rust-Oleum "out of the can enamel" from Home Depot. Nothing fancy or expensive, just wanted it to work, and look good.
This is when I installed the bench seat. The bottom has fillets underneath to the strong back. The front and back parts are flooded to the stern bulkhead and bow bulkhead. I was able to get a workout in during this time. Notice the white gel coat in the floor for durability and ease of cleaning.
