After Aurora II I had decided to have a bit of a break from the boatbuilding and see if there might be some sort of profit in restoring something and in my experience … there isn’t. I bought a Coronet 21 cabin cruiser which I set about restoring, I didn’t much enjoy that one (especially paying for it) and soon decided to sell it on before the expense got too much.
Next in line was a little tender, I bought myself a mould on eBay for a simple 10′ boat and, after taking a 5 day fiberglassing course at the Boat Building Academy in Lyme Regis I set about building my first all fiberglass boat. After that I’d pretty much decided that wood was the way to go for me, much more friendly to work with so I think that’s the way it will be from here on out.
Lady S came next on the list, sourced from the same plan archive as Cobra and Jazz Baby she was born from the Playboy set. Again construction is ply on frame but built with a little more attention to detail this time around. I felt like I had learnt from mistakes and slip ups on the previous boats and was more determined to focus on a better finish standard this time.
There is a wide selection of woods used mostly taken from the bits that I had lying around the workshop, in fact I almost considered calling her scrapie! The keel is piranha pine, stringers are ash, all rubbing strakes are oak, as is the windscreen, the seats are mahogany and ash and the comings and dash are made from 1.5mm teak laminated veneers.
Here is a slideshow of the whole build which was just finished in time for summer this year, there is also some video footage at the end.
I was determined to get some use out of this one as I had spent a bit more time perfecting it than the others. As a result we have had many nice days out on the Thames (dodging the awful summer weather we have had this year). I’ve also taken her to a couple of events organised by the Classic Motor Boat Association. They are a very friendly bunch running events all over the UK as well as having members further afield and they are certainly worth checking out if you are into your classic speed boats. They have a brilliant forum which helped me out no end when trying to revive my old Evinrude Fastwin 18 as it’s full of knowledgable boatie types.
Building Boats 
May 26, 2014 at 8:17 pm
This looks fantastic- I’m in my (now later) 20’s and considering building a myself a cruiser- something like the Rivierra on the svensons website. Dan- where do you source your materials and what (forgive me for asking) was the build cost of your project?
Keep up the great work, can’t wait to see what you come up with next.
May 26, 2014 at 9:05 pm
You should do it it’s very rewarding! If you like riviera you should have a look at some of the Ken Hankinson designs on Glen-L for some similar designs too. I would say this one cost me about £1500 not including the trailer and engine, most of my timber was recycled from various places so that cut costs a little but Robbins timber is who I usually use, a great source for boat building timber! I generally try to use the best timber that I can afford but it can still be done on a budget! Here’s my current build https://www.facebook.com/rockethydroplanebuild
I’ve not written about it on here yet, just been updating the FB page as it’s a bit easier, still a design from the svensons site though.