April 20 2012 Ski King Build in the UK Update

I collected the engine and gearbox from a beautiful boat yard on the River Thames yesterday. The thatched cottage with river frontage next to the yard used to be where the actress Dora Brian lived.

Ski King Build in the UK

Like many people I am limited to the size of boat I can build by the size of my garage. Once I had decided the 16ft is about the maximum I looked around the plans that are available. I wanted to build a boat with inboard engine driving through a marine gearbox and shaft to the propeller and NOT through a LEG which I think looks TERRIBLE, others may disagree!

Eventually I decided on the Ski King, yes on the drawings it's only 15ft long but it can be stretched. Having ordered the drawings I set off to my local wood yard 'English Woodland Timbers' a super and most helpful company. They had recently decided to stop selling Utile Mahogany so I did a deal with them to clear all that they had in stock some 21cu ft.

This was transported home in five trips on the roof of my Citroen estate car. Being square sided and rough sawn I set about running each board through the planer so that I could expose the grain making it easier to choose the correct board for each part of the boat as building progressed. When the plans were delivered I set up an 8ft x 4ft MDF sheet on the work bench and used that to draw each frame full sized one at a time then constructing the frame on the MDF. I know how big the boat will be because I have the plans but as I constructed the first

frame I thought WOW this is big, bigger than I had imagined!

The rule was run over the garage again just to check there is enough room to build the Ski King. With all the frames built I set about constructing the engine bearers, at that time I had to make the decision how much length I was going to add because the engine bearers are notched to accept each frame. I added 3" between each of the frames: Transom - frame 1, frame 1 - frame 2, frame 2 - frame 3. frame 3 - frame 4 thereby adding 1ft to the total length. I hoped that this would help later in the build as some people have had a problem fitting the engine and gearbox due to the restricted length. I also don't intend building in the rear cockpit, I want a long stern deck which I think will look terrific.

I have hunted for some time for a donor boat and eventually found one on eBay.co.uk which was 16ft long and had a Ford Essex V6 Engine and was shaft driven, it also had a trailer. This was exactly what I wanted so was less than delighted when I logged on one day only to find it had been withdrawn. I contacted the seller and asked if it had been sold? He said 'how much were you going to bid then'? I told him a lot more that he had sold it for!!!!

I kept looking on eBay and found listed a Ford Essex V6 and a Velvet drive gearbox which I have now bought and it awaits my collection later this week.