Plans For Plywood Boats

Before fibreglass became the most popular boat material pretty well all do it yourself small boats were built from plywood or lumber. This is still the only really feasible method for the home boat builder to build a good boat from vintage plans.

Building a boat or canoe project from fibreglass requires the use of a mold to build the fibreglass hull on. These molds can be quite expensive so they are not for the person who is going to build just one DIY boat. The cost of the mold makes the total cost far too high. If you intend to build a number of boats the cost of the mold is less important of course as it can be spread out over the total number of boats.

Building a plywood boat is the easiest and least expensive way to build a boat or canoe from vintage plans. You can use ordinary exterior plywood from your local building supply store or lumber yard. A small dinghy project can even be built from just one sheet of plywood making it the lowest cost boat possible.

DIY plans for plywood boats were published in great numbers in the 1950s and 60s and many really good boats can be built from these vintage plans. They are just as good today as they were back then. You can obtain many of these plans free to download from my website Vintage plans