suterman

Well I've got my canoe paddles, but the boat is short and stout compared to a lot of punts. I call it a punt but its mostly supposed to be paddled or motored. I might add some rowlocks and oars, it goes upstream at Bridgnorth just on the motor where the average flow is about 2-3 mph I think, it goes up Pendlestone rapids on the motor with some paddling to help it along. I guess the top speed is about 4.5 mph carrying 2 men without paddling

A few more pics of the build DSCF4441 by suterman, on Flickr DSCF4440 by suterman, on Flickr DSCF4445 by suterman, on Flickr DSCF4451 by suterman, on Flickr DSCF4462 - Copy by suterman, on Flickr DSCF4482 by suterman, on Flickr

riverside by suterman, on Flickr

Oh thanks for all the replies and interest, I've been checking the thread but the replies only just appeared. Here's a little more information. Last year I bought a 2 man canoe and enjoyed it very much but craved a little more comfort and stability, so I decided to make this thing. its shape is inspired by an old photo of a punt in the river at Bridgnorth from over 100 years ago. The boat is made from 9mm ply for the base and lower sides, the rest is 6mm, the gunwails are douglas fir, the transom and front are pine with dug fir planks to cover the ends. Hardwood strips on the bottom. I used Gorilla glue and screws to join it all together. The build took around 70 hours over 3 weeks. size is 13' x 3' 6" The empty weight is around 50KG so 2 men can load it onto the roofrack. I have made a little trolly to help with lauching. Tthe outside is painted with crown primer and crown solo black gloss, the inside is ronseal external woodstain. The costs were cheap. total cost of boat was plywood £80, paint and stain £100, screws £10 Glue £30. The motor is a bison 12v 62lbs (£170) with a 75 AH leisure battery . I've been out 4 times on it now, launching at the slipway at Severn park it will cruisie 2 miles up on full power with 2 passengers and still have juice to spare. I've worked it out that all the worry and talk of battery life is irrelevant on a boat like this, if the battery lasts longer than it takes for me to become uncomfortable in the boat then thats long enough, I recokon on a canal it would last most of the day. The water in the boat in the pic is from my feet, though there is a tiny seep around the curve in the rear prow around the chine but its nothing serious.

ok thanks, looks like the day licence would suit me best

I just made a small plywood boat to go on the river at Bridgnorth. I was wondering about other places to take it, like the Severn at stourport or nearby canals, but I'm not sure on the ins and outs regarding licences places to launch it and whatnot. can anyone help? its a car top launch can be launched/recovered at a slip or just from a towpath maybe? PS its a 14 foot lightweight punt with a 62lbs 12v motor DSCF4507 by suterman, on Flickr

Wow, what a lot of replies, Chris and Jami dodger, well, talk about negative, I realise that the boat may not turn a massive profit, and I am not necessarily motivated entirely by money. Like I said in my first post, I have had a few days to think about it and would like to keep the boat, I have a couple of friends who have ample space to keep it. I have undertaken large and tricky projects in the past with great results. Fortunata, thanks for the tips I have a plan Tow boat to my friends Woodwork shop stopping off at the jetwash on the way, scrub and clean the boat in and out. I can soon rub down the old paint and then fix up any damage and paint it. My friend will use the old timber as templates to cut out new stuff using 3/4 marine ply I was thinking about just using silicone sealant to bond the wood to the hull. (how's that?) the tricky bits will be the cabin hatches. I have steering console wheel and throttle/gear controls. I can soon clean them up and refit. I dont plan to fit any internal or navigation lights or anything like that. I will probably replace the transom as the current one is a poor job. The hull is already painted, I might go over it again when I do the deck and interior. As for the cushions, my pal has a contact with a firm that makes minibus and bus seat uphulstery they can make me up some cushions at a good price. I will take the engine back to my shed and give it a quick service, it should hopefully be in good order. I am planning to have the whole thing done during one week, but that normally means three weeks. Watch this space.

i was looking at shetlands, the hull on this one is a much more of a displacement type, I have been told that it may be a CB15 but have not got much more info than that.

Dont know??

Hello. My name Mike Suter, I am not new to boating, my dad was always very keen before I was born (I am 33 now) when I was younger we had an 18ft canoe which my dad I made (WIth a cheeky 2hp johnson) then an 11ft delquay dory with 10hp johnson and then a Hurley 20 which was moored at Milford Haven which we restored in our back garden and used mainly in winter. I have been working in the conurbation to the East of Wolverhapmton clearing an abandoned service garage, amongst all the rubbish was this small boat and trailer, I offered the owner some money for it and he accepted (he wanted me to burn it initially). My first thoughts were to refit it and slap it on ebay as is to make a few quid but in the last few days I have thought more and more about keeping it as a shared ownership with a friend of mine, The only problem being one of storage, I may be able to find another party to go thrids on ownership who can store it, But it's all up the in the air at the moment and remains to be seen. Anyway.... I wanted to ask if anyone knew what boat it was (who made it? what model? and how old is it?) the boat is 15ft in length and has a 6ft beam it comes with an outboard , a Johnson fd19d (1965 18hp?) Here are the pics... Hope you can help. Mike

Gary, here's a screen print of a quick model of my ideas I made on sketchup....

Thinking is good. Like your dad was saying, pehaps the best way to find the most central position of the box is to keep spinning the crank by hand and "feel" for the best position. I think the trick of it in our case is to make a mounting that can be adjusted in height and side to side, (threaded mounts and oversize holes)

Heya peeps, I am caspers and caspers brothers friend. I am helping them with the engine + gearbox setup and will probably get involved when it comes to building the boat (should be started in about two weeks) I generally stand about and point out things that I see could help and suggest ideas when they come to me. I have had no experience with narrow boat engines of building but like to tinker with other stuff that gets oily and hot and burns fossil fuels (old volvos specifically), I also normally take a few pictures and videos along the way whenever I am messing if I remember my camera (hence the YouTube vid posted in this thread) Here are a couple of pics of the flywheel mesh guard we made a few weeks back.. Today we were working out the fitting of the gearbox to the engine, the output side of the crankshaft has a keyway and the input shaft of the gearbox is a drive spline. the two are coupled together using two adaptor flanges, the engine side flange have a keyway and the gearbox side being a spilined type, the two flanges being bolted together with 4 cap screws through threaded holes in the flanges. We were trying to work out how best to line up the two shafts (crank and input) so as to give the least stress on the input shaft bearings. We came up with the idea of mounting the gearbox on a thick vertical steel plate welded to horizontal feet (with some bracing to give added stiffness) the feet of the mount being fixed to the engine bearers using vertical studs that can be altered using nuts and locking nuts on the underside of the feet to unload vertical stress on the crank/input shaft with oversize holes in the feet allowing movement to undo any horizontal stress. Anyone have a better idea..? Pics paint a thousand words.