Hi,

I'm considering building a runabout and therefore I have some
questions:

Generally I stumbled over 2 plans: The plans from glen-l and the plans
from woodenboat. Glen-l suggests using the cold molding technique
(using a lot of epoxy - and I'm not trule a fan of that) and woodenboat
suggests using the batten seam planking (the Bermuda and Palm beach
boat). So far it seams like most are using the cold molding technique
(by searching the internet) but somehow the batten seam planking
appeals to me because it more looks like "real" boatbuilding. In by the
way I suppose that batten seam is this:
http://www.freewebs.com/woodenboatbuilder/101main.htm. Does anybody
know what material/wood the batten is made of? Has anyone some pictures
of a finished batten-seam planking boat/runabout because I wood really
like to see how it looks. Are there any good books on batten seam
planking?
What would you recommend? How did the old Hacker Craft and Chris Craft
guys build their boats back then? I just have to figure which plans I
wanna buy.

But correct if I'm wrong: If a wanna build a cold molding runabout I
need a lot of plywood. If I wanna build a batten seam boat I need a lot
of "real" massive wood.

Traditionally runabouts have been built using mahogany. Are there any
alternatives for that wood? I mean if the boat gets 10 coats of varnish
anyway - how important might the rotting properties of the wood be?

Regards, Lucas Jensen