Glala needs a dinghy. In the 1930s she had a 14' motor boat and an 8' rowing boat on deck, but that took up a lot of deck space. I need a single boat around 12', It needs to be easy to row and able to take a small outboard, and it needs to be stable, seaworthy and capable of carrying a load. The answer is one of Iain Oughtred's designs, the Guillemot. It's something like a 19th C ship's boat.

In some ways it is built fairly traditionally, but the planking is ply and held together with epoxy. This means that construction will be fast and, when it is living on the deck in the sun, there are no seams to open up. It will also be quite light. A very practical boat. The drawings come direct from the designer and to make things easy I have ordered all the planks, pre-cut by computer, from Jordan Boats. The ply is Robbins Elite. I will be building the longer 12'2" version.

The planking and moulds have arrived from Jordan Boats - Preparing the building frame - Making the transom out of Utile.

Scarfing the planks - Before putting the moulds on the building frame I used it as a long workbench to glue the planks together.

Setting up the moulds - Laminating the stem out of White Oak - The hog is also Oak - Then the garboards go on.

Planking. Lots of clamps, pegs and wedges.

Nearly there.