Thanks for the responses. The costs are easily acceptable. Eleven feet worries me a bit, however. I have a feeling there may be a tight corner or two in my house.
Anyway, I can’t wait for your first test. Please be cautious.
Thanks. I will be careful. I already have a buoyancy aid and the launch and initial test of the boat will all be done in quiet waters no more than waist deep.
Work continues on the boat - I try to get at least a little bit done every day, but at the moment, it seems the more I do, the more I discover is left to do.
I’m determined to finish it though and it can’t be more than a couple of weeks away now - I can’t let this become one of those projects that goes on forever, never quite being ready. That would be so depressing.
When I was a young child, I lived in Cyprus - my dad was posted there in the RAF - there was a little shack in Akrotiri called The Hovercraft Club - where a small group of enthusiastic RAF engineers and hobbyists were building a small (2-man, I think) hovercraft - it was always going to be ready in a few months. Just before we came back to England, I remember helping out in the construction of a new clubhouse, but the hovercraft was still a few months away from completion.
Fifteen years later, when we went back on holiday, the clubhouse had been expanded and enhanced. The hovercraft was still a few months away from completion.
Another fifteen years on and my dad went back there on holiday - the clubhouse is now quite a serious bar/nightclub/venue (still called ‘The Hovercraft Club’). I’m not even sure the hovercraft was there at all - it’s possible that somewhere out the back, it was waiting under a tarp for the last few finishing touches…
It’s really close to completion now - I only need to sand the outside of the hull, spot-fill any blemishes, then paint and varnish everything.
Cool. If it keeps raining, you’re gonna need it 
Si
:eek: Your bank balance is now, officially, doomed.
What did you end up using to dilute the sealant? (You started another thread on the topic, but I didn’t see the answer.) Did you wind up diluting silicone sealant with mineral spirits, as someone suggested? Did it work? I have to admit, I was skeptical, but then, I know nothing about sealant.
I haven’t done any of that yet - the information is for my next project (or at least something I intend to do at some point in the future - either a traditional-style coracle, but made of more modern materials, or a collapsible canoe along these lines:
http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/summer/boats/umbrella_canoe.htm
Mange, I was browsing your site and you refer to trimming things using a quadrant bit for your router. I’d never heard of a “quadrant bit” so I googled, expecting to find about a gazillion references to “quadrant bits” for routers, leaving my ignorance well fought.
Instead I find that the only pages on the entire internets that refer to a “quadrant bit” in the context of a router are…
[drum roll please]
… your boatbuilding pages!
Fill me in, please.
Oops, looks like I just made the name up.
What I’ve been referring to as a ‘quadrant bit’ is more commonly (nay, universally) known as a Rounding over cutter. In my defence, I’ve been calling it a quadrant bit because when used at full depth, it produces a curved edge that is exactly one quarter of a circle in profile. Furthermore, if that edge is then ripped away from the board, it becomes quadrant beading.
But I probably ought to use the correct term - I’ll post a clarification on the my boat page tonight.
Gotcha, thanks. All makes sense now.
Nearly finished!
I’ve named the boat. There’s a picture on the website linked in my sig (I won’t spoil the surprise, but it will make you smile)