Boat Builder Central - Builder Forums

I hate to even, as FB is probably responsible for the death of many a great forum, but I can’t help but ask...

Are any of y’all members of a FB boat building Group?

Yes BUT . . .
- Facebook is a very poor platform for technical support or technical advice
- FB is full of self-proclaimed experts that dish out real garbage. I don't even try to correct them. If somebody is naive enough to use FB for anything serious, he will pay the price in wasted materials and labor. From that point of view, Facebook is dangerous.
- Information is spread all over. Anybody can start a group. There must be 100 groups about amateur boat building.
- Many FB posters have bad manners, use bad language
- There is some kind of censorship on FB, I don't like their political leanings.

FB is for short attention span people or moments. It can be good to stay in touch with friends. It is through FB that I learned that Richard Woods boat was damaged in the Bahamas and I use the same group to check on other friends.
I am a member of some groups, for example Trawler Living and Cruising but nobody in his right mind discusses serious technical stuff in that FB group. For that, we go to trawlerforum.com which is moderated and where the fakes ones are kicked out quickly.
For anything technical about building in epoxy-plywood and foam, we have this forum.

Jay Patten's group on fb is plywood boat buiding?

Good group.

Yes, I belong to that one too. Those groups are fine to look at pictures of projects.

jacquesmm wrote: ↑Sat Sep 14, 2019 9:41 am Yes, I belong to that one too. Those groups are fine to look at pictures of projects.

I see your point and couldn’t agree more. FB for pics and hero shots, established forum with knowledgeable base for how tos and advice.

Thanks.

I hope nobody misunderstands: I use Facebook but it has a very different purpose than this forum. I like to read about other peoples projects on Facebook, look at the pictures etc. In the Jaysen plywood building group, there must be 20 or 30 FS18, FS17 and more under construction and I like to see their progress. Most of them also post here in the non-technical section but our forum is more specialized and certainly more technical.
Some days, I am in that "low attention span" disposition and cruise those groups on Facebook.

When I was about to give up on finishing the Spira build (2016?), I read a great post (Spira's FB page) from someone from this forum. They said to checkout the BBC website help area. I had forgotten I had bought plans for the FL14 in 2005(?). Wish I had joined then. So FB did good, but it's who you know and CAN trust..... This forum and BBC has helped so many builders, FB is just for fun!

It's funny some of the advice that is given!
*PT plywood is best for boat building as long as you use polyester on it.*
*Nails or screws of any type will work, they will be covered over by the resin or paint*

I never finished the Spira build, started the FS14 SandPiper and splashed her! Never looked back!

No Russian Trolls on here either!

I'm continually impressed with positive support offered by all, to all on this forum. You all have done well!

FB is really destroying the archiving and organization of content from a great many contributors. Forums are so much better; I'm on some that go back 20 years with plenty of info and how-to that is still valid.

FB isn't indexed or categorized in any way, and anything past a few weeks may as well not exist.

The marketplace has essentially killed Craigslist too. And it is terrible for non-commodity items, which you may have to look far and wide for. At least the groups can condense some of the good marketplace items if you belong to the right ones.

FB is the devil. rant over.

I occasionally post stuff there, usually when I've exceeded three beers and don't have the patience to type up a proper post and upload pics in a structured manner. As a matter of fact I got busted doing exactly that by someone in this very thread.

I realized one big group is run by Jeff Spira which surprised me - I didn't realize that anybody actually built his boats (no offense Captain UB). The bill of materials on those things is basically printed on a bunch of red flags, as far as I'm concerned.

cracked_ribs wrote: ↑Thu Mar 04, 2021 11:21 pm I occasionally post stuff there, usually when I've exceeded three beers and don't have the patience to type up a proper post and upload pics in a structured manner. As a matter of fact I got busted doing exactly that by someone in this very thread.

I realized one big group is run by Jeff Spira which surprised me - I didn't realize that anybody actually built his boats (no offense Captain UB). The bill of materials on those things is basically printed on a bunch of red flags, as far as I'm concerned.

Jeff started posting youtube videos which has been interesting from a technical perspective. I don't prefer his building methods honestly, but he seems energetic.

I love the Spira type boats. Would I build one? No.

Or I might, but I'd be cold molding it on a lighter frame with 6mm-9mm ply then glassing both sides with biaxial. But there's other options.

Well, he's certainly prolific and a couple of his designs have nice lines to my eye.

But I can't get too enthusiastic about the idea of ordering plans, only to re-engineer everything so I don't have to deal with the bizarre building methods.

I do think that, for instance, the Hatteras 19' V-bottom looks quite attractive. One of those out of 6mm side/maybe 9mm bottom, 12oz tape and fabric would be a pretty nice open boat to fish out of. But if I have to figure out the glass and framing and everything, I'm not ordering plans, I'll just draw one myself.

Which is why I'm not building one. I don't think the methods are bizarre; they look like standard plank on frame to me. I like the look of them and there's something salty about them. I admit to being a weird one. I would not build one mainly for the reasons that you allude to. It's one thing to look at a girl and another to jump into bed and have kids.

What I find bizarre is just the insistence on using hardware store materials, and then having to design around the potential liabilities and weaknesses of those materials. I assume part of why his boats are so heavily constructed is that by not spec'ing traditional boat-specific materials, and using SPF 2x4s and exterior 3/4 ply etc, you're dealing with a greater need to build in redundant strength.

So many of those boats could be built much lighter, if they used higher quality materials. Not everybody wants the lightest possible boat or anything but I just find that whole design ethic really odd.

That I can understand. There should be at least some allowances for lighter scantlings.