Here are two boats built on the same mold with about 200 years difference in technique and materials. One is the most beautiful boat I have ever seen and the other, we'll see.

The foam boat pictures tell the whole story. The tools in the picture are all we used. Went to Lowes bought three sheets of 4 x 8 two inch thick Styrofoam for $12 each, ran them through the table saw two inches wide with a 3 degree bevel on both sides, tied them to the boat with dental floss, stuck them together with bamboo skewers, no glue, rough finished with a sureform plane and sandpaper and glassed it.

Three of us started this procedure at 10:15 in the morning and were finished "planking" at 3:00 in the afternoon, with lunch in there somewhere. It took me about an hour to fair it and Jose and I glassed it taking about 1.5 hours for each layer, it has 3 layers so far. That's it. We don't really know what we're doing, making it up as we go along, but it sure is fun. The two inch foam is firm enough to work with, it doesn't flex when you are working on it. You can sand the inside to any thickness you want. To see how easy it is to work with go get a foam cup and sand it.

Jose and I lifted the glassed hull off of the mold easily, probably weights 60 pounds. I'll let you know how it works out, I'm sure it will be at Cedar Key in May. It was so much fun that Jose started one for himself, we already have the rigs for them so we can try them out without a whole new rig. You can see from Roger's expression what he thinks of it, actually he's as curious as I am how this will work out, some think it'll explode when I stress the hell out of it as I'm prone to do.

The other pictures speak for themselves, Roger Allen is worlds greatest wooden boat builder, period. I told him that I was going to sneak over and screw a clear plastic deck on his boat we the inside wouldn't be covered up. He's the man when it comes to knowing how an old timey boat should be done.

That's why I called it 100% opposites. a foam melonseed and a classic traditional melonseed built on the same form. The wooden one is Roger Allen's hull #1 of this series. The rest of the foam boat building isn't too interesting, it's built the "normal" way with wood and such.

Dave

David Lucas
Lucas Boatworks and Happy Hour Club
(941) 704-6736

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