Fishaholic

Thanks for making me welcome here and the words of encouragement. Martin, I'm doing it all myself, no outsourcing - i even built a sheet bender out of two big I-beams, angle, pipe, some RHS offcuts, and a couple of hydraulic jacks. As for my background, well, my dad (boilermaker and allround nice guy ) taught me to weld when I was 12 years old.... and I used to build model airplanes, some of which survived their first flight The only other relevant character trait is that I have a tendency of biting off more than I can chew and then just chewing like buggery.... and I'm waaaay too hard headed to listen to everyone that said I can't do it, to them I just said Byron, the most important part of the preparation work is coming up with a plausible explanation to get it past the missus.... and you really have to learn advanced 'creative accounting' so she doesnt notice the 50 - 70 grand you're about to embezzel from the family budget. I'll let you in on how I did it but it'll cost ya several Seriusly tho, I started planning for this project about 5 years ago. I went off to TAFE part time to learn how to weld aluminium properly did a lot of research and learning on structural engineering, jig building, sheetmetal work. I got 415 volt 3 phase power put in and bought myself a kickass industrial pulsed-MIG welder and just got stuck into a heap of smaller welding jobs for whoever needed anything welded, got a mountain of scrap aluminium and practiced heaps untill I was putting down near perfect welds in any position. I built the carport you see in the pictures so I'd have somewhere to work, and I started a savings account for the project. Joe, I'll dig up a bunch of photos for ya. Cheers, Gab.

G'day Pete, I can't really say how long before she's finished. I'm aiming for 12 - 18 months from now but it just comes down to finding time to put into it. Cheers, Gab.

Hi, There seems to be quite a bit of interest in boats under construction here so I thought I might share with you my current project. Some of you may have already seen it elsewhere but for those of you that haven't she's a 25ft (7.5meter) wheelhouse style monohull gameboat in plate alloy. Designed by the same naval architect firm that builds most of the pro tuna boats in Port lincoln. She is beyond survey requirements, and definately 'over engineered' for recreational use - just the way I like it I got her in kit form - NC router cut and flat packed onto one huge pallet, and am slowly welding her together. She will be powered by a Mercruiser 4.3 MPI (220hp) and carries 400lt of fuel in one tank. I'll also be building the trailer. I've been working on her for about 9 months already (in my spare time) with anywhere from 1 to 2 years to go before she's finished. Here's a few pictures, if anyone's interested I'll post a few more as work progresses.... Cheers, Gab.