Topsail Adventures Ltd

Steps 1 & 2 - Wood and Lofting (Jun - Oct 2007)

A bit like an Ikea wardrobe; building a Pilot Cutter starts with a pile of wood, some fixings and an almost incomprehensible diagram. Admittedly the wood pile is a bit bigger than your average bedroom furniture pack but the instructions definitely have shades of "insert tab a into slot b".

It also pays to get someone along who had a go at this before and make sure that you've got some decent power tools to hand. A bandsaw, a couple of chainsaws, and a bunch of other potentially limb seperating equipment certainly seems to speed things along.

Steps 3 & 4 - Make the frames (Nov 2007)

Having bought and seasoned the wood and laid out the template on the build shed floor it's time to get cracking on the main structural members of the boat, the frames.

Steps 5 & 6 - Keel and Framing (Nov - Dec 2007)

Then it's time to assemble the skeleton by attaching the major structural members together.

Step 7 - Planking (Feb - May 2008)

With the skeleton formed it's time to seperate the inside from the outside by putting a skin over it.

Step 8 - Deck (Jun - Aug 2008)

Ok, so at the same time as step 8 was starting Andy was still finishing Step 7 - Planking, but Amelie Rose was definitely heading towards water-tight now...

Step 9 - Bulkheads, Bulwarks and Bowboards (Sep - Oct 2008)

With a deck on top there's suddenly an inside and without pause the chaps start dicing this up by fitting the main bulkheads. Meanwhile, on deck, bulwarks and bowboards begin to appear.