We have, amongst the team, been lucky enough to have been given some experience assisting Alec Jordan with the prototype St Ayles Skiff build in his workshop in Leven, Fife. Below is a series of build snaps from that occasion – we will be going through the same build process when we put the first Ullapool Skiff together in a few weeks. These snaps are put up to show how we should be doing it pending logging our own detailed photo record of the Ullapool build, warts and all.
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- Alec supervising the CNC router cutting the planking
- Alec’s magic machine starting to cut the planking
- progress in cutting the planks
- The moulds and backbone set up on the building frame
- mould with the boat frame clamped in place
- Because the available timber was not long enough the Keelson is assembled from two lengths with a scarf joint
- Alecs alignment aid cut into the moulds
- Starting the bevelling of the Keelson, first rough cut with a power plane
- The North Berwick crew giving a hand bevelling the keelson
- cleaning up the glued frames with a hot air gun and chisel
- Parcel tape covers any part of the building frame where glue might cause inadvertant attachment
- Wetting out the garboard with unthickened epoxy
- Making sure that what will be the underside of the frame gets a really good coat of epoxy over the limber holes
- first garboard glued in position
- both garboards glued in place – because this boat will be painted temporary screws are used to hold the planks in place while glue cures
- Fairing the frames – needed for the planks to fit snugly, a number of different methods were used – here a power file makes short work of the task
- Fairing the frames – needed for the planks to fit snugly, – here a shinto rasp takes a bit longer
- Fairing the frames – needed for the planks to fit snugly, – and here coarse sandpaper wrapped round a batten takes even longer
- Marking the bevel line on the garboard
- marking the bevel line for the tuck on plank two at the stern.
- scribing the bevel line on the garboard
- the amount of bevel on plank two near the start of the tuck.
- measuring the amount of bevel for the tuck on plank two
- marking the amount of bevel on the tuck on plank 2
- tuck bevel being cut on second plank, the only bevel cut on the bench
- checking amount of bevel cut at tuck on stern end of plan 2
- initial saw cuts to show limits of frame fairing
- using a fairing batten to fair up the frames, bungy cord acting as third hand
- second plank glued and clamped
- marking off thwart positions on frames, much easier now than when the boat is assembled
- thin polyethelene being fitted between frame and mould – we don’t want unplanned adhesion.
- cleaning off epoxy squeeze out as we go along – surplus can be used further along when planks are being applied in sections to minimise waste
- applying thickened epoxy to the faired stem
- Underside view of third plank clamped in place – some supporting struts were needed to prevent droop between moulds
- Third plank glued and clamped
- Starting to make the gain in the plank end
- A gain just about complete
- partially beveled land across a scarf joint
- clamping an insitu scarf joint in the planking
- checking the bevel at the mould station
- first stage of producing the rolling bevel along the lands
- just the sheerstrake to go
- alignment marks to make sure the plank goes where it should in the rush of glueing
- Epoxy and microfiber mix – good stiff porridge is about the right consistency
- low angle view of the subtle hull form
- stems and keelson faired ready for outer stems and keel to be glued in place
- thickened epoxy on the stem ready for the outer stem to be glued in place
- gluing the outer stem in place
- cutting the scarf for the keel joint
- Cutting the surplus off the keel
- Gluing the keel onto the hull – screwed from the inside with straps holding the ends down
- Fairing the keel into the outer stems
- Faired keel and outer stems ready for turnover
- Turnover day – the completed hull is lifted off the moulds and turned ready for fit out
- First good look at the inside
- general view of the basic hull
To reduce downloading pain where readers have slow connections the build story is continued here

























































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