Why you should build your own boat by Terry Buddell

FIVE GOOD REASONS WHY TO BUILD YOUR OWN BOAT!

 Just like to thank all those people who contacted me after visiting my site where the  full details of the newly built Dolphin 25 Fisher has been placed. As  few of you know The D25 is the latest in the line of the Dolphin range of frameless boats that were originally designed around ten years ago in Australia.

As  boatbuilder I had always thought that the bothersome task of lofting out a boat from complicated plans and frames was a real chore..by the time the framework was finished you really had enough of the whole damned thing. I wanted another way and promised myself that I would find a different way to easily and quickly construct a boat that would meet all the criteria needed for modern accepted marine practise.

I sat and thought about it and realised that frames were not needed and to prove a point built a forty two foot yacht out of epoxy composite construction that was totally frameless and I  have in fact lived on  lived on for over seven years. Unbelievably she cost a little over fifty thousand Aussie dollars to build and that included a new engine! She’s no show pony either and we have crashed through some serious four and five meter seas together over the last few years so the idea really does work!

( you can actually see photos of the yacht at the site if you wish)

The first in line was the twelve foot Dolphin dinghy made from four sheets of ply and woven glass mat and epoxy composite, which rapidly evolved into the Sixteen foot Dolphin sailing boat. Then came the sweet twin masted Dolphin 19ft Yawl and now finally the Dolphin 25 Fisher.  Over three hundred of these boats alone have been built around the World.

So what is the Fisher 25? Living in Australia where just about everyman and his dog are nuts about fishing it seems crazy to me that an average fifteen foot tinny or aluminium open dinghy now retails for between six and twenty thousand dollars! I reasoned that a larger boat could be built for much less and even a handsome profit could be made! There is also the great satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself.

I set about designing the Dolphin 25 that a man could build alone in his shed or porch awning that would be strong, safe, unsinkable take six people fishing in comfort and inexpensive to build using the latest in Hi tech materials.

 I settled for Bi-axial glass mat and epoxy composite timber construction using the latest in epoxy bonded plywood coated on glass. Using the pre-soaking method of preparing the ply before building is part of the Easy-build method which has now been in practice for over ten years!

Another of the criteria is a boat that you can sleep on in comfort, cook and washup, with ashower and toilet area too….In fact extended stays are possible with this boat

The result is the Dolphin D25 which has recently been finished and now awaits the first launch! They say a picture tells a story and so it should! You can see for yourself

At the dolphin website and follow the links to the Dolphin 25 photo pages.

  

Dolphin, boatplans, epoxy composite construction, Sailing boatplans, Fishing boat plans

Introducing How to build a weissenborn slide guitar

Hi there!

Terry B here,

Just wanted to introduce myself onto my new blog page that will be about Weissenborn slide guitars and how to build them, play them and even but the plans and a new book I just wrote called ‘How to build a Weissenborn slide guitar”

Well, what is a slide guitar exactly? Basically it’s an amazing type of guitar that you play across your lap ( exactly like Ben Harper or Jeff Lang) It is different in shape to a normal guitar because it has a hollow neck that goes all the way up into the headstock of the guitar. This gives it the amazing cool rich tones that seem to swirl aroung inside the guitar giving it a sound that literally puts the hairs up in the back of you neck! You play it not with steel or glass tube held in your left hand and this gives the guitar a cool, whiny, ethereal sound that is rich ,full and totally captivating.

It is almost hypnotic to listen to and anyone who has ever heard one of these guitars always wants to hear more! When I first heard a Weissenborn played by my guitar hero, jeff Lang, one of the world’s best weissy players, my life changed on the spot… I had to have one! The only trouble was, as I later found out that a Weissy will set you back between $1800 dollars to three or even four grand! Ouch!

After a few weeks deliberation I took the plunge and decided that if I could not afford one I would build one instead! Now this I thought must be a major undertaking ( but was happily proved wrong later!) I did some research and eventually decided that I could do it…Well, its only timber after all..If I stuffed it up I could buy more and maybe not make the same mistakes!!! I ordered the timber ( Australian Maple, a close cousin of Koa wood traditionally used for Weissenborns)and a week or so later the boc of timber, machine heads, all the gear I needed arrived!

Eight weeks later, I strung up my brand newly built guitar, tuned it tentatively to open D chord DADF#BD and played ny first chord! WoW!!!! It had happened…the rest of the day I spent just playing ,playing and even more playing! I had done it after twenty years of thinking about it!

In fact I was so pleased I decided there and then that I would write a book about how to build a slide guitar for people who had little resources, no shed and fancy wood working tools ( I built mine in the cabin of my boat!) draw up the plan of my new design ( much deeper than most) and build a website where I could tell people about Weissenborn guiatrs and find loads of tips about how to learn about these amazing guitars! I have evengot lots of articles about the secrets of how and why they sound like they do and nuch more, soundclips and so on!

If you are interested in looking at a simple, easy to do way of building your first Weissenborn guitar, why not visit www.buildaweissenborn.com right now?

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