Design
AF4
Designed by Jim Michalak
An 18 ft by 5 ft plywood cuddy power skiff by Jim Michalak, about 350 lb empty for protected waters. The cabin is 8 ft long and 4 ft wide with a slot top for standing in fair weather; ahead of it is a bow well, and aft a 6 ft open cockpit and a motor well. The designer now suggests up to 15 hp, and light boats have planed with 7 1/2.
Michalak describes it as the simplest nail and glue construction, using five sheets of 1/4 in and four sheets of 1/2 in plywood, which makes it a realistic first boat. No build time is published; budget 200 to 400 hours. Real hours from logged builds are below.
What building a AF4 actually takes
Medians from the build logs kept on this site, not the designer’s estimate. Nobody has logged this boat here yet, so they are empty until the first builder does.
Those medians firm up as more people log this boat.
Builds of this boat
Nobody has logged a AF4 here yet.
If you are building one, yours becomes the reference: the page the next person building this boat finds when they search for it. One photo and one line is a valid first entry.
Start the first log of this boatBoats like this one
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| Design | Plans from | LOA | Logs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18 ft Flat Bottom 492 | Response Marine | 18′ 0″ (5.49 m) | 0 |
| 18 ft Texas Skiff | Benford Design Group | 18′ 0″ (5.49 m) | 0 |
| Bay Pilot 18 | Arch Davis Design | 18′ 0″ (5.49 m) | 0 |
| Desperado | Glen-L Marine | 18′ 0″ (5.49 m) | 0 |
| Flats Stalker 18 | Bateau | 18′ 0″ (5.49 m) | 0 |
| Houseboat 18 | Bateau | 18′ 0″ (5.49 m) | 0 |