Building the Malahini with Dad

My name is Alan Bates, and I live in Brisbane, Australia. In the early 70's (as an 8-year old) I helped Dad build a 12' plywood boat underneath the family home. I had some fantastic memories of that time, and the great fun we had fishing in that boat while I was growing up. So, while holidaying in a beach front apartment at Noosa (Queensland, Australia) with my family in Easter 2006, I thought, "Wouldn't it be great to build a wooden boat with Dad!"

When I got home I called Dad (now 82 yr old) and asked if he wanted to join in the project. The reply was an immediate and resounding, "Yes"!

After searching the Net for the 'perfect' design (well the one that matched my vision of the 'perfect' boat), I found Glen-L, and the design for the 'Malahini'. I was in love! It had all of the curves and lines that I was after.

I ordered the plans and your excellent books "Boat building with Plywood", and "How to Fiberglass", and started getting ready.

Construction commenced in July, 2006. The frames were marked, cut and assembled over a couple of weekends, and I took 2 weeks holidays with the aim of building the hull in one go, to really move things along. The aim was to have the boat ready for the following Easter holiday at Noosa in April, 2007. The other good reason to hurry up was that I had convinced my wife that her car had to stay out on the driveway for the duration of the project, so the Malahini could be built under cover in the garage.

Want to see some photos?

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1. Here are the frames on the building form. A couple of things to note. I went with a metal form. I already had built a work bench that was 600mm x 2400mm (It's all metric here in Australia, so I had a lot of fun building in a sort of combined metric/imperial 'pigeon' measurement). So to get the correct length for the form all I had to do was to build a shorter bench that totalled up to the correct length and tack-weld the two together. The concrete floor was a bit uneven, so the benches had their legs shimmed before welding, to ensure they were true and even.

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2. That's me!

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3. You can never have too many clamps!

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4. Dad's patience really showed during the fairing process. Everything had to be perfect! This shot also shows the bandsaw that I bought for the project. It was easily the best money I ever spent (after buying the plans to the Malahini). It saved a huge amount of time, and allowed very accurate cutting of the frames, etc.

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5. Sheeting the hull had to be done with 2 joins, so I made these in the flattest part of the hull to make fairing easier. I chose to build the boat using 'Hoop Pine' framing, and ply. Hoop Pine is a bit more expensive, but it is one of the great boat building woods. A short distance from my house is a grove of Hoop Pine trees that were planted in the late 1800's to provide masts for ships in the future. Progress killed-off the tall ship, and they were never harvested!

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6. Dad marking the ply to fit the bow frame. This takes a lot of patience and precision. This shot also shows the 'transition' point in the bottom/side joint of the ply very well.

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7. The hull is complete! Bearing in mind that the frames were constructed before I took holidays, Dad and I spend 12 straight days (good 10 hour days in most cases), to get to this point. I was tired, but I felt very pleased. I can only imagine how tired Dad was at 82!

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8. I had never fiberglassed before in my life (the old boat that Dad and I built in the 70's just had a coat of house paint). Your book explained everything very well, and there were very few surprises. Our part of Australia gets pretty hot, so once temperatures hit 35 + degrees Celsius, pot life on the epoxy is very short, and you need to work fast.

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9. More sanding.... Did you notice the building form has castors on it? After the hull was completed, I cut the tack-welds, un-screwed the frames from the form, lifted one end of the hull and removed the shorter bench. I then repositioned the hull to balance it on the existing bench, re-screwed the frames to the bench top, jacked the whole thing up, and fitted castors. That allowed me to roll the hull out on to the driveway for sanding and painting, and to get it back into the garage overnight, or during rain (a little bit of Aussie humour there ..... Australia is currently in the grip of the worst drought in over a hundred years. We haven't been out of drought now for 15 years in some places, and water restrictions apply just about everywhere).

 

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10. The keel and spray rails have been fitted, and there is more sanding to do. I actually chose to fiberglass the bottom edge of the keel, just to give it some extra protection from abrasion. So far, it appears to be working.

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11. The hull is turned. I took the easy option. We built a cradle to hold the hull while it was still upside down. The cradle was lined with old carpet so the paintwork wouldn't be scratched. I then got about 8 friends over and we simply picked up the hull and flipped it over into the cradle which was sitting beside it. I then transferred the castors from the bench to the cradle, so I could still wheel the hull around as required. If you are doing this, make sure that at least 2 of the 4 castors are "locking" castors, so your project doesn't take off down the driveway by itself! The weight of the hull when it was first turned was 133 kg (292 lbs).

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12. The interior framing has been completed, and I have pre-cut buoyancy foam for installation after the top decking is completed. It just glues to the bottom side of the top deck with a contact adhesive. The buoyancy foam is 50mm low density polyethylene (LDPE). It was great to work with and cut with an electric bread knife (don't tell my wife!). Buoyancy foam has been added under the top deck, and under the floor. The State Government has recently changed the laws to require small boats to have positive buoyancy.

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13. The front seat under construction. I spent a lot of time car rallying in my youth, so I know the importance of good weight distribution. That is why I chose to position the fuel tanks under the front seat. The front seat is actually very close to the mid-point of the boat, so by putting the tanks here, and by mounting the battery in a box on the junction of the stem and the forward frame, the weight of the outboard is counter-balanced. Oh, and I found a beautiful mahogany steering wheel.

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14. This shows the front seat completed, with a curved top to match the curve on the top deck. The rear seat is essentially a bench seat, but instead of being fixed in place, it just locates on a ply block on each side that sits between the seat beams. This means that the bench seat can be lifted a few inches and slid forward to access the rear storage areas. The leading edge of the rear deck has to be upholstered to provide a backrest. You'll see this in a later shot.

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15. I cheated with the top deck. A local ply company manufactures a marine grade ply, with the top veneer being 3 inch strips of Teak, with 1/4 inch strips of Ash in between. It looks great, and was very easy to fit. This shot also shows the holes that I pre-cut in the tops of the frames to run the steering cable, forward control cables, fuel lines and battery lead (remember, the fuel tanks and battery are positioned at the front for better weight distribution).

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16. Remember earlier that I was talking about the great lines and curves of the 'Malahini'. If you doubted me, just have a look at this photo! By the way, I named her 'Sophia', after Sophia Loren (great lines and curves!)

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17. Leaving home for the first time. 'Sophia' is off for her outboard, windscreen, and sign writing. Do you remember what it was like when the kids left home for the first time? ...Well that's how nervous I was!

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18. This is a good shot showing the position of the battery box (and my son, Jack). The windscreen and carpet are also in place, and in keeping with the era of the design, I have gone for the minimum number of (analogue) gauges.

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19. Have a look at this! Firstly, you'll note the edging on the motor well cut-out. It was cheap aluminium table edging that Dad bent to shape, using the scrap piece of ply cut out of the top deck for the motor well. What a great result, and cheap too! (I must have Scottish ancestry). The second thing to note is the unusual steering arm on the outboard. Because I opted for an outboard motor with a standard shaft length of 20", the cut-out in the transom was made 5" shallower than the plans provide for (the plans are based on a 15" shaft length). That was all good, and I would do the same thing again tomorrow. The problem was that when it was time to fit the outboard, the steering arm fouled the top deck when turning the steering wheel to the left. The engine installer offered to cut out part of the top deck to make it fit!!! NO WAY! A friend with an engineering shop re-manufactured the steering arm out of flat stainless steel bar, and TIG welded in a countersunk stainless bolt. This was tricky, so just think about this modification carefully if you need to do it.

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20. Harry and Jack test the new upholstery, and windscreen.

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21. Well, Sophia made it to Noosa with us in April, 2007, and I think she looks great! Nine months from start to finish, and about AUD$20,000 to build. And she also allowed me to spend some memorable time with my Dad. Oh, and my wife and kids think that it's great!

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22. I chose the 50hp Tohatsu 2-stroke because it was the lightest 2-stroke available at 82kg (180lbs), and their fantastic reputation for reliability. It pushes Sophia along at 42mph.

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23. Goodbye! I couldn't be happier ...But I did see a mahogany cruiser at Noosa over Easter, so I might start looking at some of those Ken Hankinson designs...

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This is what it's all about...

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