BOATING’S GREAT! Se. START NOW By Keith Vining ‘OU'D really have to vork at it to sink the little boat I built a few months ago. It's made of marine plywood, with a thick outer wrapping of flota- tion foam plastic and a mod- em marine fabric stretched over the foam for a sleck and durable finish. T call the craft a “Jonboat.” The reason: With its double ends and relatively flat profile, it resembles the square-ended johnboat more than it does a dinghy, punt, or other type of small Doat. Unsinkable ‘Jonboat’ ...Wears a foam life jacket Jonboat was designed for those who want a boat that’s not only safe, but is also small and light enough to carry on a car or in a station wagon. It fits that bill in all respects, continued ‘on a frame: The end pieces of the frame actually are the bow and transom of the Gnished boat. ‘The spr should be squared to the ind bottom pieces from one marine plywood, the two wsthwise) from another. 4by8" shoot of LIP wide sides (1 BIIt's less than 8” long and weighs just about 45 pounds, Total cost was around $90. A speed of three or four knots is easy even with an electric trolling motor, and a 5-hp. engine sends the boat over the waves like a skipped stone. The ideal engine is 3 or 34 hp. Motor vibration is virtually nonexistent. Should you capsize, the flotation will sup- port more than 400 pounds of dead weight floating barely awash—a reassuring point if you plan to take out children, I designed my boat so I could use stand- ard 8” lengths of materials. By proportion- ately increasing dimensions, you could build it in any length up to 16—the longest ma- rine plywood made. Materials in Jonboat are representative o 176) Stab of foam ace ved to nner bull with lasticresin. glue. Sides are’ cut 0 rough th so wires can be twisted across ends to the one-by-two battens that clamp foam —j len; hol 132 roputar SCIENCE FEBRUARY 1964 are pulled around the frame and tightened with double wires wound together with a stick, Brad the sides to ends temporarily. The plywood sides, with ends wntrimmed, until glue scts. Weights hold bottom slab for sluing. After end slabs have been glued on, the foam should be shaped as shown below. Two cardboard templates insure uniform curves. S FE T T f EERE TEMPLATE FOR TOM TO SIDES OR TRANSOM ire Tt ro 5 Toh Ho Teweuate ror |BortowTo wow cunve Poor [one-inch sauanesSides are sawed off flush with ends after the bottom has been nailed into place tempo- rarily. All edges should then be sanded smooth, and tape and resin applied over the joints. ‘Completed plywood hull at right shows how fiberglass tape and polyester resin are applied to joints, inside and out. The tape h strength than the wood it holds, ‘Dynel now goes over the shaped foam after keep polyester resin from attacking the foam, 5} ater as’ teen costed witht eateri vinyl Masking tape sud Urunlaachs hold fabric tex= Pull the fabric over gunwale, as above, at least 2” inside the hull. paint or pla: resin glue thinned to painting — poraril Consistency. Pa it or glue coating is needed to to exten Handles of $4” nylon rope are n the nylon enough so the knot will melt together proof—one on the bow as above, two on the —and never come untied. Aluminum pie transom with space for an outboard motor be- with a slot cut in the center will protect ‘tween. Heating the knot with a torch will soften while the nylon rope is being melted. 133of the best in modem plastics. The outer covering is Dynel. Though developed as an overlay for fiberglass, it has properties invaluable in small boatbuilding, First, it has a three-way stretch. It may be pulled around compound. curves impossible to achieve with fiberglass fabric. Secondly, it is much easier to apply plastic resin to Dynel; the stuff can be stretched dry, When the resin is then rolled or brushed on, it penetrates the fabric and bonds with the undersurface. It would be wise to examine the width of the transom chimp on the outboard you propose to use before building the boat. Many small outboard clamps will barely span 2”, This isn’t enough for 2” of foam, plus the 4” plywood. If your motor has a small clamp, use only 1” of foam. In areas where launching beaches have a rocky or shell bottom, more thickness than two layers of Dynel and plastic might be preferable on the bottom. I reinforced my boat with two layers of regular fibergiass and polyester resin over the Dynel since I encounter much oyster-shell bottom, There are many options in the design of Jonboat. The seats may be located where preferred, on cleats. (Incidentally, the only metal in the entire boat is that used to se- cure the seats.) I left out the bow seat, ‘Two layers of Dynel are required for a tough outer skin on the sinkproof boat. The author lapped the fabric to form a keel-like ridge down center. Above: brushing resin over Dynel. ITE rorutak science FesRuARy 1966 if space enough to stand and cast when fishing. The gals love to sit on boat shions in this space, giving a better bal- ance with a man and outboard in the stern, Building tips. To lay out the bottom piece on the %” plywood, mark the center- line, establish the stations along it, and to lift atop a car, Jonboat is small Light enow t inside a station wagon. enough to drive in brads at the end of each station line. You then can bend a narrow wood strip around the brads and run a pen along it for a nice curve at each side of the bottom piece. Cut outside the lines and sand the joint smooth after assembly. No glue is used to join the wood, In- stead, 3” wide fiberglass tape is pressed over the joints and brushed with polyester resin. Do this both inside and outside the hull. Brads can be used temporarily to join some plywood parts, for instance the bottom to the sides. When the fiberglass tape is in place inside the boat over such joints, you can pull the brads, After the foam slabs are in place, yon can shape them easily with a coarse sand- paper stick or an old body file, ‘The Materials | Used Marine plywood (1i"): one 4'-by-8" sheet, one 2'by~ a thece sigan z erste Hots (Dyplast)= 7 planks, 2 by 12” by 8 Dyncl #815; 18 yards of standard 4° with, $29.25, a yo den hae ool deaer onder ‘fram Achien aga, St ith, aver, ANG, fo. at 34°98 a yard) "Frat tape 06" a @ with, $5. Fister fue (Weldwaod)" Sh can. $4.5, ph exterior paints 1 qt $1.70 foster oat'ein wilh extabst and dinner: 1 ga, "Piumber: 12° of two-by-eight for frame; 4° of one-by- ight for inne apron” Bot onesiyrtwelve for sath of one-b-ton far brace and lat Total $4. Vor, 2210, 1 dor, 2-210, best maine sais Hated for sets a leas $1.30; ‘Marne deck pnts ae a Oe hapa ‘acid, 200" i . a abesias cloth (37°30), ext fallen pageser resin ($10). oe a