Last updated 7/18/05
Contact me (James Jones) at:

May 18, 2008:
It has been quite a while since I've done any work on the boat and updated this website. I haven't abandoned the project, and I hope to get back to work sometime, possibly, perhaps, and will then post new photos and commentary.

The ubiquitous guestbook:

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The Design

Here's a link to Sam Devlin's site, and Dipper web page.

Tom Racette's Dipper

Tom from Wyoming sent some pictures of his completed Dipper:

He certainly did a great job of building! He lengthened it by one foot, and is using a 15hp Merc Big Foot 4 stroke outboard.

Other Builders

Cliff Ruffner (Florida, USA)

Interesting Links

Joel Mill's Stitch and Glue Construction site (Lots of great info there!)

Ye Olde Boat Shop. Formerly a garage. Soon to be again, I hope. J

I live near Olympia, Washington.

A rather expensive pile of plywood. (BS1088 Okoume, from Edensaw.) I must say that Edensaw had the best price around, as much a $500 less than other places around the country. Very nice ply, too.

Preparing scarf joints. Not that difficult, really, with a power plane and a light touch with a belt sander. Each of the hull topsides and bottom panels are 17-18' long, and need to be scarfed together from 3 sections of ply.

The epoxy mixing station. (No real preference for System Three resin; I've also used MAS and West System products on previous projects, and they all work about as well, as far as I can tell.) Note: those "mustard pumps" System Three sells are worthless for mixing epoxy. They suck air and sputter.

The assembled hull panel blanks. Fun to move around all by one's self.

After stitching together the bottom panels (with 14 guage wire -- $4 per 100' roll from feed store) and unfolding.
BTW, a Porter Cable 314 panel saw, with a 4 1/2" blade, is great for cutting out the hull panels.

Adding the topsides panels. If you don't have some help, a good trick is to clamp a board to the aft end of the panel to hold it up at an adjustable height. Then with a sawhorse or two for the ply to lean against, you can take your time putting in the stitches.

After wiring all the parts together, I noticed a bit of an unfair curve at the bow. It looked to me as if the arc on the end of the topsides panels was a bit too much. So... I unwired the ends, except for the upper and lower stitches, and jig-sawed out a less pronounced curve. Which produced.....

.....this, which I think is more fair, and closer to the profile in the plans.

The most tension is where all the hull panels meet at the bow. Had to use pipe clamps and temporary blocks screwed to the hull in order to get the gaps closed up enough to allow tightening the wires.

After spreading and bracing the hull shear to the proper widths at the bulkhead positions, I measured for the bulkheads. Spreading the shear to over 3 feet at the anchor locker bulkhead is a bear, but can be done with a little ingenuity, a pre-cut spacer, some strong clamps and a large mallet.

BTW, if you have limited space, it's really handy to put the building cradle on casters. It's easy then to move out of the way for other work, and to get fresh air and a breeze when sanding. J

Putting in a few more parts -- this is the bulkhead which forms the mount for the outboard motor. The angular dividers form port and starboard lockers, and enclose the motor well.

Speaking of which, here's a picture of the motor well.

All the bulkheads are in -- now for some serious epoxy filleting and taping. J

The fillets on the keel seam. Epoxy, wood flour and cabosil mix, with three sequentially wider layers of biaxial fiberglass on top. Makes for a mighty strong joint. Tried out some peel-ply -- neat stuff! Will save a lot of sanding.

Here's the breast hook, which was laminated from 2 layers of 3/4 ply and sanded on top to match the deck camber. Below is the filleted and taped stem seam. I recommend cutting darts in the cloth before taping a seam with pronounced curve to it. Easier that way. J

Installing the first of three layers that make up the shear clamp. In addition to metal screw clamps and wood clamps, I used these "field-expedient" clamps made from large diameter PVC pipe; each a short section of pipe with a cut in one side. Not as powerful as a screw clamp, but plenty strong enough as a group.

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