JEM Watercraft

Matt,

If I was to glass both inside and out on the Sabalo, could I use 3mm Okoume. Its available locally and only $35/sheet. My other option is 1/4 inch (6mm) Aquatech (Meranti/lauan, whatever you want to call it) which is marine ply at $45. I'm not too particular on the cost of the plywood, because when adding in the price of epoxy, fiberglass, seats, footbraces, and other rigging, the extra ten bucks per sheet is not much of the overall percentage of the price of the boat. Also, Okoume is much lighter that Meranti/lauan ply when an equal quantity is compared. And in this case, the Aquatech is more than twice as heavy per sheet. My goals are to make it light, but not unsafe.

My intentions are to go off shore in the Pacific Northwest. I may hit an occasional rock or two when trying to catch some lingcod. For the build, I had intended to use 4 oz glass on the inside and outside with another layer of 6 oz on just the bottom of the hull for abrasion resistance (along with graphite).

Thanks.

You could get away with the 3mm because the Sabalo has the internal framing left in it to support the cockpit.

Biggest issue you'll have is keeping it from flopping around while building.

Side track: Kinda funny....the Wadefish was meant to replace the Sabalo because the Sabalo, at the time, wasn't all that popular. Now it's one of my best selling plans.

But when I publish the Wadefish 15-32 plans I just finished, that might change. Oops...did I say that out loud?

I had a hard time choosing between the two, but slightly favored the lines of the Sabalo. I also wanted the additional weight capacity. However, the biggest selling point was Bemm52's photo of it sitting on the beach captioned 'rigged for fishing' in the out and about section of the forum.

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2551

What a beautiful boat. You should use that photo for the Sabalo plans page.

As for the 3mm ply. I figured it was an automatic savings of 25% of the weight of the wood over 4mm Okoume. I figured the hull should be structurally sound and stiff because 3mm plus glass was better than the thickness and rigidity of any plastic SOT. I will try to avoid bouncing off rocks.

I was concerned about the rigidity of the cockpit and tank well which was the main reason for asking. The floppyness of the panels should not be a deciding factor for me. My main concern was structural stability. I may buy 1 sheet of 4mm for the cockpit and tank well, or perhaps just add a couple of 1/4 by 3/4 inch cedar strips on edge to the cockpit bottoms to span the width. Sort of like 2 or three floor joists.

But when I publish the Wadefish 15-32 plans I just finished, that might chang

Also, I'm intrigued by the new model. when wll plans be available?

About a week or so.

I found some 4mm Okuome for $49/sheet. I realized that this is actually 5/32 of an inch thick which is plenty thin for my liking if I'm going to be out on the Big Blue.
That way the sharks will need longer teeth to get me.