Ever thought about building your own boat but have been frightened off by the thought that you may not have the time the ability or money The odds are that you are terrified of the dreaded process of lofting out the plans from the complicated pile of papers and drawings that you normally get when you buy a set of boat plans!Have you heard about the Eazybuild method of boatbuilding It is a series of innovative small craft that have been named The Dolphin Series. They are cheap robust simple to build with minimal plans that importantly do not involve lofting and have no frames at all! The latest in the line will knock your socks off. Its the D25 and is a great dive/fishing boat that can be built in a garage in under six months! They are simply constructed with the stitch and glue methods that anyone with a minimal of commonsense can achieve. The design materials are NZ/Australian standard exterior ply epoxy resin glass tape and biaxial glass cloth that ranges in weight from 200 gms to 600 gms all materials are easily available everywhere in Australia and worldwide.For the uninitiated the stitch and glue method is a method of boatbuilding that allows a boatbuilder to build a boat very quickly at minimal expense. Boats up to forty feet long have been built using this method and are in use worldwide today. The specs range from 12 dinghy the 16 gaff sailing boat the centre console 16 for keen anglers. They then progressed progressed to the 19 sailing yawl that has two masts and is a camping/day/weekender that is easily trailerable.The newest of all the D25 is causing a sensation for its ease of build and how powerful the stitch and glue method is becoming THE method for getting a boat builtfast! The plans involve a simple X/Y coordinate system that does away with the painful process of lofting... a nightmare for first timers and a pain generally for all concerned. The sheets of ply are drawn up into suitable size squares the coordinates supplied with the plan copied to the squares and then the points joined together with a bendy batten. This patented method is almost a join the dots method of cutting out the shapes required from plywood that have been preglassed and faired whilst lying flat in the garage or workshop. The United Nations interestingly during the crisis in East Timor chose the design to be taken for the Timorese Fishermen to use as a blueprint for their new generation of fishing boats that their villages are supplied with. . A typical 16 Dolphin can be assembled stitched and glued and finished in approximately 40 hours work a matter of 3 or 4 weekends. A 16 Dolphin is cut out in a weekend. The fastest time we know of for a 12 Dolphin build was in 24 hours by a team of lads from the Wooden Boat Club at a Brisbane Down by the River expo some years ago and it was presented to a lucky draw winner who actually rowed it up the river on Sunday! The latest in the range is a larger boat at some twenty five feet and is the first ever stitch and glue power boat. It is well under construction in North Queensland and is expected to be completed in a month or two. During the next few months the website will publish progress on the D 25 as it is completed. An interesting aspect of it is that it has been adapted it for completion as either a really large motorised fishing boat (as is the prototype) but it will be equally at home as a yacht! Technical Discussion on the D 25When many years ago the original Dolphin 12 was drawn up to plans the designer did wonder just how large a boat could be manufactured by this method.He thought there was no real limit and reasoned its just that the logistics get more involved. There is no doubt that the production and quality of ply wood has undertaken a quantum leap for the better and many well respected designers are now very happy to turn the clocks back and redesign and build boats from the new generation plywoods that boast new hitech glue lines and quality. youll be on the right track if you use plywood to ANZ/Australian standard 2270 These new plywoods in conjunction with the incredible adhesive qualities of epoxy and the monster strengths of the new glasses carbons and aramids now allow inexperienced boatbuilders that were formally hesitant to build to enjoy the immense pleasures of creating and self satisfaction of building their own boats. . The reasons are diverse. Self satisfaction confidence building financial. Dont forget a new 2530 foot yacht today runs as close as dammit to two and a half grand per foot.... The financial incentives are high certainly but nothing beats the feeling of launching a boat that is equally at home 40 miles out on the reef or sitting quietly in the creek.The designer realised that easily manageable attainable stages would be paramount. Nothing must be complicated. and achieved a frameless boat in spite of its size. (although it must be said the 25 D25 has one or two support frames in the rear section) It cannot be emphasised too much how a framed boat complicates the process of boatbuilding. They take up much more time effort skill and weight and after months of work you still only have a frame. It is enough to seriously deter many would be builders and you cant blame them. The secret of all the Dolphins strength is epoxy composite resins and glass and the strength of the bulkheads and the longitudinals that stiffen the boat from end to end. The designers own yacht The Nicky J Miller is a frameless boat and she is forty two feet long and weighs about seven tons. She performs well in three to four metre seas and 35 knots plus very well.. she is a a strip planker but withhindsight been able to turn back the clock she would have been constructed her from epoxy glass and plywood. The build time would have halved. More considerations for builders Eight years as a marine surveyor with the Small Ships Surveyors Association has given the designer of the Dolphins a unique chance to peek into pretty well most of the major makes of todays yachts workboats and so on. Many of them are clone like and cramped a result of trying to squeeze a quart into a pint pot trying for too much in one boat.

You can see with the D25 how the development process can be manipulated at an early stage. Thus it was with the D25 having had the luxury of being able to choose front cabin size right from the start. Plenty of space full standing headroom in the cabin double bunks cooking area storage walk in toilet with a full 10 feet long forward cabin. This works equally for the yacht version and the fishing boat. Visitors to the site will see photos of the build to date. The cabin has a full height bulkhead that divides the forward section from the rest of the boat in both versions. However with the yacht version there is heaps of space for yet another cabin extension that combines the steering area if desired. The fishing version has a small cabin/windshield area