®1985 The Center for Wooden Boats - Volume 7, Number 2- March-April 1985 - 25¢
Designer's Notebook: FLASHBOAT — A LIVELY 15-FOOTER Story and photos by Paul Gartside Soon after moving to this area about 18 months ago, I found myself living just a couple of hundred yards from the beautiful sheltered water which lies on the east side of Vancouver Island's Saanich Peninsula. The need for a boat was dire, and there was considerable doodling of vessels which might suit the time and budget available. The situation was complicated somewhat by the busy road which separated the house from the water's edge. It seemed to me, though, that with a light enough boat and a good sense of timing, it shouldn't present an obstacle. Plywood construction seemed the best way to go both for light weight and because I already knew how powerful the sun is in these parts during the summer, and could foresee problems with a planked boat kept on wheels by the house, even if there was time to build one. The difficulty with plywood is to get a good enough shape without cutting it into such small pieces that conventional planking would have