SteveKos

I Called in to Duck Flat wooden boats here in the Adelaide area today. They stock pacific maple ply, which is quite adequate for my needs, but is still AU$77 a sheet. Quite frankly if I bought the Hoop Pine I would have to put off the project awhile. If I glass the hull, and use a good marine primer and paint over this product it will do just fine. I can buy good quality solid timbers for the parts I want to feature in clear timber, so I'm satisfied my materials needs are now taken care of. I have arranged with Duck Flat to pre-order with about 2 weeks notice so that they can hand pick the best of the available sheets. I'm very impressed with these guys. They just love wooden boats and seem as excited about helping me as I am with building it. I should have looked them up when I did my kayak build a couple of years ago. They even offered to go over the build plans with me when I get them to advise on any tips that might assist. They have agreed to do a package price on the materials if I go through them as well, which is a fair trade in my view. I just need to order the plans now and get preparing!

No argument Alex. I wasn't seriously considering external ply, but many boat plans suggest either marine or external ply, so I was curious about it. I'm going up to Duck Flat boatworks today to look at some ply options. I think they stock Pacific Maple which seems a good option. Are you in Australia? You seem to be in a similar time zone to me. I'm in Adelaide South Australia.

Thanks for the replies. Looks like it's the standard non-nested. The rig is another decision, but the ayes seem to have it regarding the cat rig. Looks like I've got the nod from the finance officer ;-), so it's a matter of ordering the plans and starting getting the bits together . Another question. Regarding ply. Genuine oukume here in Australia is very expensive. There is a very good quality hoop pine MP but it is very heavy and also wickedly expensive. I am considering an imported European MP. Some have even used exterior ply I believe. I intend to paint everything in a good 2 pack polyurethane paint with just some feature components polished timber. If I use a good primer and paint, could I get away with exterior ply?

After trawling the entire internet and much hand-wringing and head scratching I've almost finally decided on the Spindrift 11 as my next boat build. However, just a question about which version. I was initially thinking of a N version but the more I consider the benefits/costs of this option for me I have ruled that out. (My car will just have to live outside from now on ). But now it's a decision whether to go for the S or the standard version. Question. Is the S version able to be rigged for a single sail, and vice versa? Or how easy might it be to make adjustments post-build? My reason for asking is that I'm not a total novice sailor but have not sailed a sloop rig alone. I currently sail a kayak trimaran with a let-o-mutton sprit, which is a nice easy sail to rig and handle, and I want to start out with a fairly simple sailing setup initially on this one too to build my experience and confidence before going to a sloop or second mizzen sail etc. but I would like to do that without needing to do alot of work on the boat to accommodate the change in sail rig.