"Who's going Fishing?" One of the most impressive aspects of the Gulf Explorer 16 is its 'fishability'!. With plenty of room, huge storage areas throughout, and an all-round performer in sheltered and offshore conditions, the Gulf Explorer 16 will certainly live up to its name, ....
                     Meaning you'll be everyone's best mate!

If you were going to create a sign to advertise the Gulf Explorer 16, it might be the following: ....FISH BEWARE!

Big boat attitude in a small easy package easiliy describes the Gulf Explorer 16 in perfect detail. Truth be told, the Gulf Explorer 16 is simply a great all-around boat.

The Gulf Explorer 16, a stitch and tape plywood composite design has a large open 12ft x 6ft ( 3.65m x 1.82m) cockpit providing you with plenty of fish fighting room, storage areas in the aft compartments and also under the raised front deck, and a console with tons of room for electronics and the capacity for a 50-75 litre fuel tank for those long days. Overall, the Gulf explorer 16 is packed with features that is limited by only your imagination. Easy to maintain and trailer, the Gulf Explorer 16 will provide you with years of family fun and fishing memories.

Construction

Built from marine or boatbuilding plywood and completely fibreglassed in an epoxy matrix both inside and outside, the Tropic 14 is designed for very easy building: no compound curves, no unnecessary complications, ease of construction, easy maintenance and a long life.

The 1/4" (6mm) panels, cut flat from our expanded plates dimensioned drawings, are bent around the 3/8" (9mm) frames and fastened to the transom and bow with stitches

The plans show all dimensions needed for each method: accurate expanded plates dimensions and all bulkheads and transom dimensions with spacing for building on strongbacks if desired.

With no lofting, beveling or scarfing required, the sides and bottom panels are cut from standard 8x4 plywood (1.2m x2.4m) and joined with a simple fiberglass butt block. All seams are then taped with fiberglass and epoxy (see our "Boatbuilding Forum " section for details.) As these epoxy joins are much stronger than the plywood, the assembled hull is then completely fibreglassed for extra strength and easy maintenance, resulting in a boat with less maintenance and a better finish than a production fiberglass hull.

Required Skills:

All our stitch and glue boats are easy to build. No woodworking skills or special tools are required. The plans include all dimensions and patterns to cut all the hull parts flat on the shop floor.

Materials

The following list of materials is approximate and intended for calculation of approximate costs. We offer no guarantees of accuracy. The list is for all timber in the construction of hull, deck and interior, including building stocks, temporary bracing etc. Allowance has been made in the quantities for about 10% wastage. These figures allow for building with 1/4 in (6mm) Marine Ply for the hull and side deck, 3/8 in (9mm) plywood for the bulkheads and joinery and 1/2" (12mm) for the cockpit sole. Resin & glass quantities are only approx.

GABOON /OKOUME MARINE PLYWOOD
6mm (1/4") - 8 sheets
9mm (3/8") - 12 sheets
12mm (1/2") - 4 sheets
 
RESIN & GLASS (for coatings and reinforced areas)
FGI (R-180, H-180) Epoxy resin & Hardener - 48kg
450g/sq.m Biaxial fabric - 50 sq.m 
3 kg glue powder (Cabosil-FGI)
4 kg Q-Cells (fairing powder)