Stich and glue

[Antony Harvey]

I am about to start a Princess 22, having built one traditionally framed plywood boat. Is there anything I can dowload that explains the technique and materials? Are there many ways of going about it? Am I opening a bag of worms?

[Charlie Jones]

As long as you read Graham's instructions closely and FOLLOW them, you should have little difficulty other than the normal ones of building a 22 footer.

If you have never done a stitch and glue boat before, I think I'd suggest building a small dinghy first. B and B has some very nice ones. I built the Minipaw myself. It's a good beginning and won't take a lot of time or money. Give you some experience with the technique.

I'm in the completion phases of a Princess 22 right now. If you use the search function and use "Princess 22" as your criteria you'll find a lot of pictures I've posted during the construction.

[Joe Nelson CS#35]

Devlin's Boatbuilding book would be a good investment.  It will provide you with basic knowledge of materials and tools, as well as the building process.

[Garry]

It's really pretty easy. Follow the advice given above and you should have it mastered soon. One advantage of the stitch-and-glue method is that you don't want to stitch the seams up tight until eaverything is pieced together. Then you slowly snug each stitch a little at the time pulling each piece into position and making adjustments as needed. If you need to recut, simply unstitch, rework as needed, and stitch it back together. Then you starting the fillet process which can also be reversed, if needed, but takes more work.

The stitch-and-glue process is very forgiving to learn as you go. But I agree that you should pop together a dinghy first before tackling a 22 footer.

To add several thoughts concerning this method, handling mixes batches of glue and fillers for the fillets will take some getting use to, in the beginning. Mixed in bulk or sitting in a mass as in the mixing cups, will kick off quicker than recommended working times. Don't try to do big amounts in the beginning. You will have plenty of working time when mixing small quantities.. We spread it out on a short piece of plywood, or plywood and a slick surface of formica, that helps slow the mixes from kicking, and to allow for you to work the mixes better after the initial mixing of the fillers. Make the fillets as neat as possible, cleaning up as you go. Keep some vinegar around to clean your tools during working times, and have on hand extra whatever that you are using to switch out, if you are working alone.  This one issue has frustarted many new comers when dealing with the expensive stuff in the beginnign of their project.

[Michel Goudeseune]

Just to add to Oyster's comments about mixing quantity: I've found it's much easier to mix two batches of 2 ounces, than to mix one batch of 4 ounces, especially if you're thickening the epoxy.  It doubles your working time, too -- the second batch is fresh, while the first is already starting to thicken.  So you get more time to get things right.

One other epoxy tip: keep a notepad on the workbench.  EVERY time you mix up a batch of epoxy, write down the time, volume, and ratio of thickeners.  Otherwise, you will not remember exactly when you mixed the current batch, and how much working time you have left.  My log entries look something like this:

April 17 -- center frame

17:03         1 floz thin
17:10         1 floz, 4:2:1 epoxy/flour/cabosil
etc

[thin: straight epoxy; 4:2:1: 1 floz epoxy, 0.5 floz wood flour, 0.25 floz cabosil]

Hope this helps,

Michel