I made a big flat work table like 4 feet wide by 13 feet long.  Supported it with six or so horses, made it as level as possible.  In retrospect, I thnk the only advantage was having something to measure off of to check twist before you set everything in epoxy.  It did make gluing up the bottom panels and doubler a bit easier but if your floor is nice and flat that is fine.  That being said, if I build another one, I think I would just use some very levelled out horses.  One on each side at the transom, one or two to support the bow and middle.  The best thing I made with the wood from the table was a big dolly platform to push and pull the boat in and out of my shop to sand, it also came in handy to move the boat around in my shop while working on other projects. I went overkill with big casters, I could have moved a house on them! I guess you could just build the dolly platform to start, it justs needs to be perfectly level.  If you have a big shop and dont plan on moving the boat around and can sand inside, then just go with some good horses.  I do have a 20 foot long work bench which is nice for gluing up the long strakes and wales but, again, additional horses properly placed at the joints is fine to get the job done.  Have fun with your build!  its a great boat!  I have had mine out fishing in the ocean!  Email me at [email protected] if you want to see how I made the dolly, table, etc.

   I used movers dollies from Harbor Freight. Gives you the ability to move the boat if you have limited room. After I flipped the boat I screwed plastic kitty litter buckets to the dollies and filled them with sand and rested the boat seats on those to give me clearance to do the fiberglassing.

This makes the boat rather low when you work on it so I got a wheeled machanics stool (Harbor Freight) so I could scurry around it w/o a lot of bending.

   I made various sized sawhorses to support the boat at varous stages of construction.  When we first started, we supported the bottom of the boat on two sawhorses and let the bottom sag.  When we stitched the sides to the bottom, there was enough flexibility in the bottom to allow the hull to take on the necessary curve. Thanks to whomever in this forum originally posted that idea, it worked out very well.

Flipping the boat is quite easy - just get two large load straps (I got two 20,000lb straps from Lowes for about $25 - they are 3" wide and 30' long) and loop them around the boat and and hook the ends to some rafters.  Use the ratchets to lift the boat and when it is clear of the supports, it rolls quite easily.  The boat is around 400lbs so most rafters should be able to support such a load.  My 14year old daughter and I were able to flip the boat several times to do all the necessary fiberglass work.  I could have even flipped the boat myself if I had needed to.

Kendall,

When we built my Reeler Skiff, we went through a series of platforms as the build progressed.  Our two guiding principles were comfort for the two no-longer-young builders and low cost.  As we progressed we went from:

1. Two folding tables with very cheap 3/4" X 4' X 8' sheets of plywood screwed down on each of them.  That gave us work surfaces at the right height to prepare the parts for assembly.  Then we:
2. Removed the plywood sheets and fastened the two tables end to end.  That gave us the surface to wire the parts together and filet and tape the seams (bit did no install the foam and seats).  Next we:
3. Took the pallet that the kit was delivered in and screwed 4 18-inch, carpet-wrapped, pieces of 2X4 to the plywood side of the pallet far enough appart so the boat's bottom skids would just fit between the.  After moving the boat down to the pallet, we installed the foam and the seats.  The we:
4. Flipped the boat upside down on the folding tables. installed the skids, and classed the bottom and the skids.  We painted the outside of the hull and the bottom (after masking the area where we would be gluing the outwales).  We then:
5. Flipped the boat right-side up and placed it on the carpet-padded pallet and finished the remainder of the boat.

As mentioned at the top, two old men's comfort was a primary objective. This link will give you visual clues to the process: http://cumulus.aunt-mary.net/images/peeler/

Cheers,

Dick