Building Boats
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Building boats is an art and a science. You begin with making goals for the design. Answering questions about the size and shape and intended use, how it will handle in the water etc. etc.
Boat Building Articles
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Boat To Fish in
Sandgerði A brand new Boat2Fish.net Seigur boat - Óli Gísla - was sailed to its home harbor in Sandgerði. The boat trip from Reykjavík harbor takes only about 2 hours as the boat is able to go more than 17 knots. Sigurður the major in Sandgerði and Óskar the president of the town administration took part in the boat trip. |
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Óli Gísla - Put To
Sea Óli Gísla is the second in a new line of Boat2Fish Seigur boats. 43 feet long and extra wide and with covered deck. The boat is specially built for laying out fishing lines with angles. The deck is fully equipped with every machine needed for baiting the line, laying it out and hauling it back in with the fresh fish. |
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Boat Building Materials
Until the mid 19th century all boats were of natural materials, primarily wood. As the forests of Britain and Europe continued to be over-harvested to supply the keels of larger wooden boats and the Industrial Revolution cheapened the cost of steel, the age of the steel ship began. In the mid 20th century aluminum gained popularity, being lighter and easier to work with than steel. Around the mid 1960s, boats made out of glass-reinforced plastic, more commonly known as fiberglass, became popular, especially for recreational boats. The coast guard refers to such boats as 'FRP' (for Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic) boats. Fiberglass boats are extremely strong, and do not rust, corrode, or rot.
Fiberglass provides structural strength, especially when long woven strands are laid, sometimes from bow to stern, and then soaked in epoxy (i.e., plastic) to form the hull of the boat. One of the disadvantages of fiberglass is that it is heavy and to alleviate this, various lighter components can be incorporated into the design. One of the more common methods is to use cored fiberglass, with the core being balsa wood completely encased in fiberglass. While this works, the addition of wood makes the structure of the boat susceptible to rotting. Similarly, 'advanced composites' are simply other methods designed to introduce less expensive and, by some claims, less structurally sound materials. Today, many people make their own boats or watercraft out of materials such as styrofoam or plastic.
