thanks. I'm pretty intimidated on this forum looking at all of the very professionally done boats. I'm primarily doing small craft to put into my canal and aqueduct. Anything larger than a scow probably would get stuck.
I started boat building a few months ago. Before then, I could not tell you what a transom or strake was, and am still trying to learn all the terms and construction methods.
The skiff I started some time ago, using cardboard. Then, the thought occurred to me that I could fill the cardboard with cement and use it as a form. So I buried the cardboard in powdery gravel (very fine, less than 1/4") and poured concrete in the cardboard (buried so cardboard wouldn't be distorted by wet, bulging concrete). Stuck some nails in concrete in case I wanted to wrap it with twine during gluing.
Broke some hull sticks I cut on my table saw so checked internet and people said to steam the wood, which I then did and bent it around the concrete, holding in place with tape and clamps
forgot to mention the inspiration for the build was an article in 1890 Forest and Stream, which had a blueprint
I'm still trying to come to grips with lofting, btw.
So anyway, for paint, I mix white and bit of black acrylic in windshield washer fluid (an old trick I learned from a Swedish gent). In old days, I read that lobstermen painted inside with buckets of white paint they dumped inside hull and swooshed it around with mops, then did outside; nothing fancy, all about quick and practical; so tried to make mine rough around edges
