kit built boats

Originally posted by mike ellis hmmmmm, how long before the "c" word appears?

Contender? There is a healthy debate at the moment in the email group about wether a Contender with Chines would measure and if it did would it be quicker.

I personally think it would look like a streaker on steroids but apparently there is one racing the in the famous Garda worlds video and it looks ok, but I haven't found it yet.

Originally posted by HannahJ At the moment you can't buy Mirror plans, although I think this is under discussion - Simon?

Yes that is correct you can only build a Mirror from a kit supplied by a licenced kit manufacturer.  This has given several advantages and explains why the Mirror is the most numerous home built dinghy :

1. The hard work and critical tasks of cutting out and shaping the panels is removed
2. Wastage is likely to be reduced as the kit manufacturer has enormous experience of cutting the panels,  the typical home builder is likely to do this once only in a lifetime
3. As the kits are only supplied by licenced manufacturers there is a high level of control over the materials in the kit and of course copyright,  minimising measurement problems.

Nevertheless as Hannah points out,  there is a working party exploring opening up the rules to allow Mirrors to be built from plans,  there are both major pros and cons,  so not sure how far this proposal will go.

Originally posted by sailingnewbie my dad's got the idea that he  wants to build a boat just from a set of plans - not kit parts, just a set of plans and instructions - is this possible?

Most definitely - people do it all the time. The big advantage of kits with plywood boats is some of the more tricky wood bashing is done for you. The most troublesome is probably the scarf joints, and that's a job that either needs special tools or a fair bit of practice. The scarf joints are the special taper cut edges that enable you to join two sheets of ply without lumps and bumps. When it comes to home building boats in foam and glass then kits are of minimal advantage and no-one bothers, although the classes that do that sort of thing pass building jigs around.

Edited by JimC

you'll enentually get the feeble attempt at a joke once you've hung around on this forum long enough

hmmmmm, how long before the "c" word appears?