Jeremy Harris
100 MW
Last year a boat magazine got together with Makita and ran a race for cordless tool powered boats. I built a boat and entered, but my drive leg was damaged before the race by one of the spectators, stopping me from competing. This year I'm having another go, with a new boat. The boat I've chosen to build is a West Mersea Duck Punt. They were originally designed for commercial wildfowling in the Essex marshes here around 150 or more years ago, and carried a large bore duck gun on the foredeck. More recently they've been raced under sail for fun and it turns out that they are pretty efficient little boats, needing very little power to go at a fair lick.
The original boats were made from heavy planks, and even the modern versions are made from 9mm (~3/8") plywood, so they are heavy. Light is always good for a fast boat, so I decided to make a Duck Punt from foam composite. Being a cheapskate I decided to use cheap extruded polystyrene underfloor heating insulation for the core, covered either side with a layer of epoxy resin and glass cloth. The details of the build are on the Boat Design forum, here: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/duck-punt-twist-42466.html#post542515 . The power is supplied by a home made outboard drive leg and home made stainless propeller, driven by a cordless drill.
The race is this weekend, and I've just loaded the finished boat on to the trailer, ready for an early start in the morning. Here are some pictures:
The original boats were made from heavy planks, and even the modern versions are made from 9mm (~3/8") plywood, so they are heavy. Light is always good for a fast boat, so I decided to make a Duck Punt from foam composite. Being a cheapskate I decided to use cheap extruded polystyrene underfloor heating insulation for the core, covered either side with a layer of epoxy resin and glass cloth. The details of the build are on the Boat Design forum, here: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/duck-punt-twist-42466.html#post542515 . The power is supplied by a home made outboard drive leg and home made stainless propeller, driven by a cordless drill.
The race is this weekend, and I've just loaded the finished boat on to the trailer, ready for an early start in the morning. Here are some pictures: