Stitch and Glue

Because stitch-and-glue boat construction uses a relatively small number of wood pieces a boat can be build in relatively short order. Because plywood is inherently quite strong for its weight the resulting boat is quite tough and lightweight with a minimum of additional reinforcement.

While the technique quickly produces a boat, that does not imply that it is necessarily easier than strip-building. The shape of a stitch-and-glue boat is largely determined by the shapes of the plywood panels. If the panels are not accurately cut, the resulting boat may be quite badly distorted.

This makes stitch and glue designs very well suited for kits.

"Stitch and Glue" refers to "stitching" together panels of plywood with wire and then gluing the joints. A stitch and glue boat uses carefully cut panels of thin plywood which when joined together bend into the desired 3 dimensional shape. It is the geometry of how the panels must bend to create a tight joint that defines the shape of the boat.

This method of building goes together quickly because there are relatively few parts that must be assembled, however because the panels of plywood are relatively wide there is typically a hard angle or chine between the panels. This somewhat limits the variety of shapes possible, but does not detract from the performance of a well designed boat.

I've decided to make the plans for my Stitch & Glue Guillemot available to internet users as "share ware". If you end up building this boat please send me a photograph of the results.

If you don't want to deal with lofting from the offsets, I have full sized drawings available.