Building a tack and tape rowboat

Somewhere I'd heard of people putting together boats themselves with plywood and epoxy, and it seemed to be very free-spirited. You could design your own boat by cutting out manila folders until you found shapes that fit together into a shape you liked, then scale up the design to 1/4" plywood and put it together with epoxy and fiberglass tape. So, not having a suitable craft for the Waccamaw River, and wanting one in which I could take my son Sam, I decided to build a rowboat.

This site was what finally got me hooked in to the reality of tack and tape boatbuilding. Thanks, Bruce!

I bought plans by Jim Michalak for a 14' rowboat called Vireo 14, light enough to cartop, but capable of carrying the whole family. When I bought the plans, Jim listed it as as-yet-unbuilt, and it seemed exciting to be building the prototype. However, I found that someone else had built one before I started.

When I mentioned boatbuilding to locals, they kept mentioning the Georgetown wooden boat/ boatbuilding festival. Check it out. In particular, check out the record time it took two people to build a boat in the competition. Quite the standard they set! I gave myself the summer to build mine.

OK, jump ahead past a summer and fall of occasional bouts of sawing, epoxy, sanding (my belt sander is unstoppable), and so forth, to January 21, 2005: the maiden voyage of the Sandpiper!

Wrestling it off the car and into the water singlehanded was a bit of a struggle compared to throwing around a plastic kayak, but it was doable.

Sam came along to help.

Amy christens the Sandpiper.

And a little for Neptune...

Afloat. She glides along nicely, and looks like she'll hold the whole family and gear, comfortably.

Sam takes a turn at the oars.

Later, I had to do some repairs.