Doug,
Your question is not so silly, but it is impractical. Welding long aluminum seams would cause way too much distortion. The
thickness of the aluminum in a boat that size could not be more than 2 mm at most or it would be too heavy. Using less than 2 mm
would make the boat susceptible to corrosion that would be too expensive to repair economically. Lapstrake construction would look
silly at 2 mm or less scantlings. The shape you want is achievable with both aluminum and steel sheet, but would be very labor
intensive and that labor would have to be very highly skilled sheet metal people. They are very scarce and expensive. Those are
the reasons they are not made. People would not pay those costs for the end product.......but as a hobby, you could do it in about
10 years, after you gained the required skill set.
Steve

"DougC" wrote in message ...
Recently I have gotten the urge to build a small rowing boat. The size would be 15 feet or less, as I want it car-toppable.

I like the looks of the wineglass-transom rowing boats, but so far haven't seen anything that quite matches what I think I'd
want.

This web page shows one example of something that is /somewhat/ similar to what I'd like:
http://www.clcboats.com/boatbuilding_classes/59.html
-although what I want differs greatly from this.

I may eventually hang a very small engine on it, but only 2 or 3 hp or so.

---------

One question I have is if the individual strips/planks usually change in width from one end to the other. On most boats it
appears they do not, but on a few (such as the one linked above) it looks like they do.


Another matter I've noticed is that boats using this "strip" construction are always wood. I would think that I would rather use
welded aluminum for easier maintenance, but I cannot find any commercial or amateur boat manufacturer using this method for
these plank-style boats. The aluminum boats all look like the plywood boats -- using large fairly-flat pieces with simple
curves.
.....
Is there some reason that strips of aluminum cannot be joined this way? -Aside from requiring welding a lot of thin pieces of
aluminum, that is.


Lastly if there's an online site that shows photos of the different types of boats, it'd be real nice. What other sites seem to
call a skiff or a dory, this page calls a yawl.
~