Modifying the Boat Hull

Experimental Boat Build – Modifying the Hull Shape.

This page is about modifying the hull shape, check out the main project index for the rest.

There is a YouTube video about this which shows the step by step, or scroll down for pictures and words.

In the previous part, I mentioned some modifications that I was going to make the boat in order to make it more stable.

I have added some expanded polystyrene lumps to each underside of the hull which have been fibreglassed over, and I’ve also cut the top 20cm to so from the top of the boat to make to lighter and shallower, this will mean that it has less air/wind drag.

In all it’s looking much more boat shaped and it looks and feel more stable side-to-side. I just need to add a bit of reinforcement around the top edge, mainly so I can strap it to my roof bars without it bending – the remaining frame in the bottom of the boat still holds it rigid. I’ve also reinforced along the keel because I noticed what appeared to be a crack – possibly caused by dropping it during the last tests. I’ll also be building a trolley for it shortly.

I’ve glued a strip of expanded polystyrene around the newly cut edge, this has been primed with PVA and will be covered with fibreglass – I have some light weight fibreglass tape for this:

Here’s the boat ready for testing in water again, I’ve also made a simple trolley to move it on. At some point I’ll go back and sand all the lumps off and decide what to do about the cosmetics: