Bernd v. Hoesslin

At last, my Vardo hit the water! The coaming works great. I did a mixture of laminated ash veneers and an upper ring of plywood. Glued together with epoxy and for safety reasons, assured it with 20, or so screws. Should last for at least one generation... :-) The first, who tried the boat was my son, followed by myself and my wife. We had a great time, playing on the water of the beautiful "Staffelsee".

Sadly, the coaming broke, when I first tried to put it on my boat, so I tried to repair it, but it didn't really work. So in the last two weeks, I experimented much, to make a new coaming. Hopefully, I can put it on the boat next weekend. Then it will be ready for a real Vardo launch at last!!

Sorry for not updating my post. But holidays have been over for more than two weeks now. Here some new pics:

Fine skeleton!

Absolutely incredible boats! They're amazing!

From bow, from stern and inside, upside down again, sorry. Tried to turn it, but didn't work...

Ready with th sewing! All the stitching is done. Yesterday, I broke the coaming. Thank god, nothing serious happened and I had to glue it over night..

So beautiful!

Ups, alle the pictures are upside down, what did I do? 1. Footrests installed 2. My mother giving me a helping hand with the sewing (ask your mother, she knows how to do it...) 3. Bow and stern ready 4. My uncle at the saw. Good to have parents, friends and relatives!!

Little Update of my Vardo buildalong experience:

Thank you Jeff, your plans really worked great and yes, it is a big advantage to read the manual first! ;-). Thank you action tiger for the good wishes, your german is way better than my english is!!

Not yet a launch. But my Vardo is slowly coming into shape. Pictures of the launch will hopefully follow sunday, or Monday.

Thanks for the answer, I'll think about that and probably order the pölyester when the time has come.

Hello everybody, just bought the plans of a Vardo boat, I want to build in spring next year. I personally don't have any experience in building boats, but there are friends, neighbours and relatives, who are eager to help me with my ambitious project. The skin of the boats usually is from nylon, or polyester. Has anybody experience with cotton? You know, that type, tipis and canvas wall tents are made of? What are the pros and cons? Looking forward to any answer, thank you! Bernd

I'm just starting into the boat building business, but that is one of the finest examples of a sof boat I've seen yet! Congratulations! Your wife must be very happy! Wish you lots of fine trips together!