This blog describes in words and pictures the building of a Paul Gartside designed fantail launch. There are a number of fantail launches of various sizes on the Paul Gartside website at http://store.gartsideboats.com/collections/steam-launches.

My boat will look like his 20 foot steam launch but will be 18 feet long and will be powered by a small diesel or petrol engine or possibly an electric motor. I have built a rowing boat, one and a half sailing boats and a small canoe and so this will be something different.

If you would like to contact me please click to send me an email.

Monday, 20 March 2017

Painted, Turned Around, Some Engineering.

The hull is painted now. I finished sanding the original undercoat and then gave it another coat of white undercoat mixed with dark green topcoat about 50/50. Another very light sanding to get rid of the few flies and then 2 coats of International Paint's Donegal Green. I left the boat alone for a few days to let the paint harden and then fitted the rudder bracket under the skeg and a 10mm thick strip of HDPE (plastic) along the bottom of the keel. I merged the HDPE into a half round brass strip that curves around the forefoot and up the stem. With that done the boat was lowered back down to floor level. Here she is:


The boat is resting on a trolley so that it can be rolled out, turned around and rolled back in. The legs in the photo above are to stop it falling over sideways while the slings are removed and then replaced after the move.

I had 4 helpers to do the pushing, pulling and balancing so the move went fairly easily except that one of the wheels lost is solid rubber tyre as the boat was spun around. These cheap and cheerful hardware store wheels look substantial but are not very strong.


here's the boat back in the shed and on its supports so that I can work on the inside.


Inside the boat I started assembling the prop shaft, pulleys and electric motor. The shaft bearings are in place and it is all fitting together nicely.


That's a temporary floor and the rubber mats are padding for my knees!















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