My Background
I am an amateur boatbuilder, fitting shop time in between work, family concerns and an excitement for rock climbing. In 1995 I attended the Northwest School of Wooden boatbuilding in Port Townsend, Washington, and subsequently have built 6 boats, from a McKenzie River Drift Boat to a Joel White designed Peapod. There has almost always been a boat in my shop, some taking residence there much longer than anticipated, but upon completion I have not kept any of them much beyond a couple of months. Alas. But this allows me to keep building.
The intense job of assembling a wooden vessel from a stack of mostly flat materials does not come easy to me. My boats are not showstoppers, but probably pretty representative of what a dedicated and patient backyard builder can produce, given sharp edge tools and first rate lumber. In other words, what you will see here on these pages, most of you should be able to reproduce with success. I have some skills in other fields of woodworking, but my passion is with boats.

Why the CS 17?

I had just finished a glued lapstrake project, the closest us contemporary, epoxy wielding wannabe's will ever come to real boat building, and was looking for something less hectic. Of the 3 designers of small sailboats that intrigue me the most, Oughtred only does the lapstrake method, or clinker as he probably would say. That leaves John Welsford (Navigator etc) and Graham Byrne. Right when I had to decide about the next boat to build, SCA ran an article about the Everglades Challenge, with the now legendary CS 17 sidebar. That, together with a stunning color photo of Green Heron on a trailer prompted a call to B&B Yachts and plans were purchased. Later I discovered a very active internet forum with lots of advice and many finely built Core Sounds. Also, since the amount of money that will be poured into this boat is rather significant (a cause of concern for certain family members), ease of reselling down the road was a point to consider.

Tools & Shop

The easy way to finish this section of the article would entail a complete list of all big and small tools from the latest mail order catalog. Go ahead, set up shop! But, unlike furniture and cabinets, boats actually comes out quite nice without a huge tool inventory. Especially these modern stitch and glue jobs, like our subject boat here.
So this is what we are going to deal with: First there's 12 sheets of smooth, sanded marine ply which will be cut into a bunch of shapely parts. All you need in this department is a pencil, a jigsaw and a block plane.
Then comes a selection of mostly long skinny pieces of solid lumber. These are a bit more complicated. The stock you start out with will likely not have the specified molded and sided dimensions, and therefore need some advanced treatment. If you have a table saw no further need to be said. But wait, maybe it is not altogether that simple to rip a choice 2x12 of a mere 16' in length, on a underpowered bench top saw in a small shop. Did I mention the absence of helpers? Better save the money for the much heralded table saw and instead buy a cheap thickness planer and a good skilsaw. Position the aforementioned piece of lumber on a couple of sawhorses, snap a line, saw, and then plane to finished dimensions. Painless.
In the handtools realm of things, you will find use for some interesting stuff: Japanese saws, rip and crosscut. Bevel gauges, large and small. Planes, block and smooth. Chisels, 1/4" to 1". And also a few less appetizing contraptions like sanders and a cordless drill. Oh, don't forget clamps, lots of clamps.
Now, there's one more item of great importance in the tool kit. It cannot be purchased, but you will need several of them. It is a boatbuilders special called a batten, namely a thin, long piece of wood that will bend to fair curves for laying out and marking boat like shapes. Here's what to do: Get hold of the longest piece of clear one-by pine you can find. Promptly rip this costly board into 3/4" strips and scarf (more on this later) them together to produce 2 strips of flexible battens, at least 18' long. Plane one down to 1/2" square and keep the other one fat for gentle runs like keel profiles. Out of the remaining stock you can make an assortment of skinnier battens for tighter curves of various lengths. Until needed, lay them all ceremoniously to rest on a fully supported rack out of reach of young boatbuilders.
If you want to add just one expensive stationary tool make it a bandsaw, the shipwrights best friend. I just added this because we are a nation of insatiable consumers, not because you NEED it for this project.
The shop itself can be anything as long as it is dry most of the time and has some sort of electricity. Wrestling with the initial assembly of this particular boat looks like it might require a fair bit of space, in addition to agility, so let's say that 12x24 is a reasonable foot print for this boat.

Plan Review

The plans for the Core Sound 17 are typical of modern boat building, meaning no lofting necessary here.
What, lofting? This strange word implies generating a complex set of full size drawings penciled down on a vast floor space, and then lifting the shape of the boat from here. A near forgotten art, removed as far from stitch and glue as you can get. In fact this package doesn't even contain a lines drawing, that universal visual language used by boatheads for comparing and debating all the various aspects of boat design.
What we do have here is 14 sheets of 11x17 paper, densely packed with information. Another dozen or two of legal sized paper deals with material and hardware lists, sourcing of parts, privacy and copyright issues, and a terse suggested building sequence.
There is a lot to read and many, many drawings to study. Fascinating, but at first rather overwhelming and not just a little confusing. Taking a day off and retiring to a quiet space with notebook and sharp pencil at hand should eventually bring order to chaos. It will also uncover a few mistakes: Ttwo different measurements for boring the wire holes. Side stringers stated to be 18' long when in fact they are just under 15'. The beam of the boat changes on various sheets. And other details like that.
The computer generated diagrams illustrating construction details, cutting procedures and perspective and hull overviews are obviously the work of a skilled draftsman. No awkward vanishing points or fat messy lines here. Unfortunately the overlay of numerical dimensions and general notes are done with a large, burdensome font that sometimes obscures these drawings to the point of confusion. Also sections of the text could use a little proof reading and editing for clarity.
Byrne have gone to the trouble of graphically showing the precise layout of every part on its respective sheet of plywood. This is a huge help which makes cutting into a stack of expensive Okoume less daunting.
Building a large boat like this one with standard 8' sheets of planking material necessitates joining these very sheets into longer lengths. The building guide focuses on butt joining reinforced with fiberglass tape, and certainly does a good job explaining this method. However, it mentions in passing 3 other ways to accomplish this crucial maneuver and point to an 'auxiliary sheet' describing these alternatives. This piece of paper was not included in my package. Much more on the subject of lengthening plywood planks later.
So, overall I'm very happy about the quality of this plan set, and it is certainly reasonably priced at $65.00 including shipping.

Plywood & Epoxy

Please give your reverence and awe to the two magic ingredients that make this and just about every other amateur boatbuilding project of today possible: Marine Plywood and Epoxy.
Given the ubiquitous nature of these components, I will share what I have learned over the years.
Man made sheet materials comes in a plethora of configurations, most, off course, completely unsuited for boats. Only really daring builders will choose for example common exterior grade plywood for their scheming, and not being one I will assume you're not either. This leaves us with the marine varieties. These are assembled with waterproof glues, sports many thin plies with few flaws and near perfect face veneers. They are also expensive, as you probably would suspect. Which brings us to the first of the Big Debates: Fir or Okoume?
Plywood made from Douglas fir is domestic, less expensive, but generally has fewer plies in a given size and supposedly checks under a finish. Mostly bad news here.
Okoume is an African hardwood in the Burseraceae family. As a species it is not particularly durable or stable, possibly not very rain forest PC, and certainly with massive embodied energy (cut in equatorial Africa, processed in Israel or wherever, shipped to a terminal in New York, and finally trucked across the country to my shop). Karmic issues galore.
But, being a stoic, I shamelessly vote for the latter. I even insist of having my Okoume manufactured to the highest standards, BS1088.
So why Okoume? The plywood made from this species is simply higher quality, and this quality is reliably present in batch after batch. Edges don't splinter, it can be tweaked it into fair curves (for plywood), you can finish it bright. The math for always choosing the best materials work out for me: I will have, for example, 20 hours invested in every sheet of ply that goes in the boat (estimated building time of 240 hrs divided by 12 sheets). Wy try to save a few bucks when my time is worth far, far more, and then even risking quality issues down the road? Nope.

Epoxy. First a warning: When using epoxy one must wear gloves, long sleeves and pants, plus socks if you hippies work in sandals. You can smear this sticky compound on your bare skin only so many times before developing a lifelong sensitivity that will effectively end your boatbuilding career. So ignore that itchy nose when your latex gloves are coated in messy goop. On the other hand the VOC contents is relatively benign. Good ventilation should suffice.
Currently I use System 3. WEST and MAS are other good choices, the rest I know nothing about. System 3 has a well written, down to earth manual which alone makes that brand very attractive to beginners.

Here's an introduction to the most important tasks. It is just an appetizer until you get a hand on the manufacturers tech sheet:
1. Pot life of mixed epoxy is variable depending on ambient temps and choice of hardener. Examples: If you work on the coast in the Northwest get the Medium one for year-round use. A Florida builder in August would use Slow, and here in the mountains only Fast hardener does it come winter. You don't want to get confused about this. Fast hardener in 90 degree weather will cook and belch and smoke in the mixing jar in no time, hopefully before you apply any of it to wood. A typical workable window to aim for is 20-30 minutes. Once the epoxy is mixed, don't drag your feet. Work efficiently and make sure to prep well beforehand.

2. Gluing with epoxy is for me a two stage process. I have developed a routine for all my bonding:
Prepare the surfaces. Mirror smooth or dense wood will glue better if roughed with a rasp. Small parts may even benefit from gouging out a concavity in the center to trap epoxy and minimize squeeze out.
Dry fit and get your clamps ready. Predrill for drywall fasteners if applicable.
Don your latex and mix an appropriate batch in a reused food container, and coat all surfaces with clear epoxy using a disposable brush (do not attempt to clean and reuse sundries). This first coat is designed to wet out the wood so the thicker subsequent application won't be robbed of resin.
Okay, now back to the mixing table. Grab some wood flour and turn the rest of the batch to the consistence of peanut butter. Smear this on one of the surfaces and join the pieces with moderate clamping pressure. Too much will squeeze out all the expensive sludge and starve the joint. If possible scrape off all the epoxy that oozed out, and save time sanding down the road.
Toss all the brushes and mixing sticks, then carefully slither out of the sweaty gloves without touching the exterior. Check your clothes for drips and spills, turn off the light and take the dog for a walk.

3. Filleting. Funny word. Epoxy language for creating a radius of thickened material along an inside corner, say a chine or bulkhead. This is done to strengthen the joint and prepare it for a strip of fiberglass that otherwise would pull away from the tight curve of a 90 degree bend. You will get plenty of practice filletting when building this boat.
Do most of the procedure in #2, except the thickened batch must be sculpted into shape. A thin piece of scrap ply cut to the appropriate radius is perfect for running down along the messy strip of wet epoxy.

4. Glassing large surfaces. Wet out the entire surface to be glassed. Always wet out bare wood when working with epoxy. Remember this if nothing else. A yellow plastic scraper is the tool here. Let it go 'green', the early non tacky stage of curing where the epoxy will still achieve a chemical bond to subsequent coats (miss the window and you must sand to continue). See the manufacturers specs for timing. Lay down the glass smooth. Saturate with clear epoxy, taking care to squeeze out air bubbles, but without shifting the cloth. Walk the dog again.
Fill the weave when green, using a filler product called colloidal silica (dustmask time when mixing).
One last comment: When wetting out a large surface of bare wood, stop and look around first. If the temperatures are rising (morning for instance), the wood will exhale through its pores and create hundreds of little annoying bubbles. The opposite happens when the temps are dropping. Use this to your advantage.

In the next issue we will start cutting out parts and putting the hull together. Yep, it's that easy to get a boat shaped carcass on the shop floor when doing the stitch and glue thing. But much work will remain.