Wooden Boat Site

D4 Sailing Dinghy Photos

Since this website has been getting about as much attention as my D4 Sailing Dinghy project recently, I thought I would take some photos of the boat and post them up here.

As you will be able to see there are still a few things left to complete before she gets on the water. It is also begining to look more like a restoration than a building project!

I have decided to get the D4 to the rowing stage and then sort out the sails after that.

This is what I have got left to do:

1. Tape the outside of the hull and then coat with epoxy resin.

2. Fit the centre seat.

3. Fill the joints around the seats and centreboard with epoxy filler and then tape with fibreglass.

4. Fit the oar locks.

And that should get it to a rowing stage.

To get it to sailing, I need to make the polytarp sail. I already have some aluminium tubing all cut to size for the mast and sprit.

Incidentally, I have been threatened that the D4 may be turned into a novelty sandpit and installed in the garden if I don’t get on and complete it!

New Zealand Backyard Boatbuilder : How to Build Your Own Wooden Boat - John Wellsford

John Wellsford is the man responsible for me turning my carport into temporary boat building shed.

After reading his New Zealand Backyard Boatbuilder : How to Build Your Own Wooden Boat, the carport is on a place that is far to dangerous for my children to play in and a source of constant complaining from my wife about mess and dangerous tools and substances left lying around.

After purchasing a house in the coastal suburb of Beach Haven, Auckland - I thought it might be a good idea to build a boat and take advantage of the nearby Upper Waitemata Harbour. So off I went to the library to see if there were any books on the topic of Boat Building. One book that stood out from the rest was titled Backyard Boatbuilder : How to Build Your Own Wooden Boat.

Perfect! I checked it out and then spent the rest of the day and evening reading it. I then spent the next few nights reading it too.

John manages to detail how to go about building a woodenboat by explaining what tools you need and what to expect in the building process with a high level of knowledge and humour. Also, what I believe makes it a great book, is that the chapters are interspersed with tales of John’s openboat adventures around New Zealand waters. And this is what really made me decide to try and build a woodenboat.

If you want to find out more about John, his boats, and what he is up to the visit his website - John Wellsford - Small Craft Design.

Dave Perillo’s Open Boat Web Site

If you are keen on John Wellsfords Navigator and also enjoy reading about some open boat voyages then I suggest you take a look at Dave Perillo’s Open Boat Web Site.

Dave is an open boat enthusiast who enjoys living in some of the world’s best open boat cruising waters - Aucklands Hauraki Gulf in New Zealand.

His web site is chock full of really cool photos of his voyages around Auckland and accompanied with some equally great writing which make you want to pack up your tent and head of for a few days of exploring.

Be sure to check out his 5 reasons for open boat sailing and his account of his voyage around the islands of Fiji.

I’d also like to thank him for letting me use some pictures from his site here

D4 Sailing Dinghy

The D4 Sailing Dinghy is a simple Pram type design - a basic and practical 7′ 10″ boat.

It can be built as either a sailing of rowing dinghy as well as being suitable to use with a small outboard.

The great thing about the D4 sailing dinghy is that the basic plans are available for free download - which meant that since it would be the first boat that I would build, the initial outlay of cash would be reduced. I didn’t want to spend a whole heap of money to find out that I did not like sailing or that my boat building skills were non existent!

Details on the D4 can be found at bateau.com, but you will now find that it has been upgraded to the D5. The free plans can be found here.

I can vouch that the D4 has been fairly simple to build. It has no butt joints and all panels can be cut from a single sheet of plywood.

bateau.com reckon it can be built for less that $200. We’ll see

Welcome to my Wooden Boat Web Site

Hello and welcome to my Wooden Boat Web Site.

Withing these pages I aim to document the building of my D4 Sailing Dinghy and bring news of wooden boat topics from around the internet.