Lucas is building a side-by-side version of the Laker 14. He's working in the state of Washington, USA.

"[Here]'s a picture of my workspace with my tunnel sides sitting on top of my college beer pong table which is now my boat building table."

"I glued together four .75" x 3.5" x 74" white oak boards for my transom beam, and 3 for my bow beam. I will be using douglas fir for the middle beams. I'm using systems three epoxy with slow hardener. My plywood is 6mm certified okume marine ($96/sheet holy cow expensive). I'm pretty lucky there's a boat building store about 40 minutes away from me called Edensaw Lumber who specializes in boat building material. I guess Washington is the place to be for boat building."

The tunnel sides joined together with glue blocks.

"Next step is... fairing them up for a nice even curve."

"I have the bulkheads attached to the tunnel side and layed down the center battens. Everything on the boat is held together with bronze wood screws and epoxy. Instead of pulling the screws out of the wood after the epoxy was done gluing I simply counter sunk holes.... I filled all the screw hoes with epoxy and sanded smooth."

"I added extra wood to the bulk heads where the battens cross them."

"I wanted to put an SST60 motor on her but I have since changed my mind. I figured since the plans allow for and 300lb motor and i will be strengthening the boat... I would build an SST100 motor. The motor has a 12" midsection and weighs about 280ish lbs..."

"It's going to be awesome!!"

The tunnel plank installed, the first piece of planking.

The sponsons sheathed in plywood, now lots of sanding to be done.

The hull is turned over, some deck battens over the sponsons are installed.

The view from the stern. The motorboard bolted into place, notched for bracing pieces and awaiting the coaming.

"Been working on it for a while now it's been a slow process because I only get a few hours a week."

"I used black dyed epoxy to coat the wood before I laid the glass and I have been using black dyed epoxy on the layers thereafter."

"... I have the bottom almost completely fiberglassed with 10 oz weave."

"I have about 20 more hours of epoxy works and sanding before the bottom should be done and ready for flipping."

"I have also found a motor to mount on the back of this bad boy.... It's a 2.4 Bridgeport spinning a left turn super speed master #6 with a 4/5 direct drive ratio. Should push the boat fast enough to scare me."

"Thanks again for the awesome plans and great skills learned along the way!"

"Been a while now. I think I'm on year 4 of my build. I'm really slow."

"Wet sanded the [Interlux] primer then...

"... applied 3 coats of single stage Interlux Saphire Blue. I wet sanded the blue down to 3000 grit and applied 3 coats of wax. Then flipped her."

"I had to move the transom inboard and attach it to the rear oak beam. With the transom all the way to the rear the motor stuck out too far and would have waterlogged the engine through the exhaust when I stopped."

"Planning on painting the topside Saphire Blue as well with wood accents."

A further note on the motor: "It's an old 2L Merc race motor I bought in pretty rough shape. I cleaned her up and she's ready to drop on."

Purchase Laker 14 plans