Birth Of A New Custom Welded Aluminum Boat

[Chasin' Dreams]

My good buddy from Sooke is building another boat and I thought it would be a good idea to share this build with the forum here since there's been a lot of talk about welded aluminum boats on the forum lately and I know how much I enjoy and others enjoy threads on the forum about boat builds.

Derek is an amazing fabricator. I've seen his work and fished next to his boats in horrible Gale weather off of Sooke and they kick butt, fish well and his craftsmanship is top notch. He has built boats for VCI Lodge on the island as well as a custom 65' welded aluminum ocean vessel.
Every inch of every boat is hand fabricated with no corners cut and completely custom to however the customer wants the build.
This current build is for a customer who has a whole fleet of boats but this one will be his own personal boat.

I don't want to make this a spam advertisement for his business so I'll leave those details out but if you want more information about him, his business, etc please feel free to message me about that kind of stuff.

I'll also post up some other pictures of some of his past completed boats too so you guys can see what his finished products look like but this thread will be mostly a continuous diary of his current build which is a 27' x 10' pilot house with twin 200's... any questions about the build itself shoot away and I'll do my best to answer all of them.

The beginning..sections cnc router cut outs then the laying out


Starting to go together

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*edit to correct spelling and added some info

 

[Chasin' Dreams]

One of his finished past builds




And his 65' ocean Chinook
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[Capt_Ed]

Wow, I absolutely love the lines of the hull on the sport fisher. Looks so much better than some of the production boats that are out there. Personally I would have brought the cabin back just a little more and changed the rear angle of the side windows. Nice to see the talent here in BC

 

[fishin solo]

Hey @Chasin' Dreams do you have any pics of the deck and interior you could share please of the 27’

 

[Texadafisher]

Derek sure does a great job. I'm glad to see him getting a shout out. However, that means I'll probably have to wait a little longer to put together the boat we have been designing for me, lol

 

[Chasin' Dreams]

Wow, I absolutely love the lines of the hull on the sport fisher. Looks so much better than some of the production boats that are out there. Personally I would have brought the cabin back just a little more and changed the rear angle of the side windows. Nice to see the talent here in BC

Yes I was just at the boat show looking closely at all the welds on the cookie cutter and the custom welded boats and it just blows my mind honestly on some of the stuff that is getting built and sold out there and especially for the kind of money. Derek made two of those boats for the lodge and he builds them 100% custom how the customer wants them so those two the lodge wanted them with more deck space for the customers to be getting into fish. The cabin simply was a transport pod for them to get to and from the fishing locations not for a lot of time to be spend in the pilot house. If a customer wanted larger cabin, bigger deck, different shapes/sizes of windows etc then that's what they get. Everything is drawn up pre build by architect, autocad etc. to the customers requests then built when everything is agreed upon.

 

[Chasin' Dreams]

Hey @Chasin' Dreams do you have any pics of the deck and interior you could share please of the 27’

You betchya and if any very specific pictures you want ask away and I can see if they are in his records too. So as mentioned above these ones were made very specific to the lodges requests where their objectives for the layout may be very different than if the boat is built for say a more of a cruiser combined with fishing for just a couple of people.. then it could be build with less seating, more space for luxuries in the cabin and less space on the deck etc.. everything is done how the customer wants it so things can vary drastically from customer to customer. I'm looking very forward to seeing how this next one comes together as it has very specific requests for layout in the build by a customer who really knows his stuff with boats as he has a whole fleet himself.

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[Chasin' Dreams]

Derek sure does a great job. I'm glad to see him getting a shout out. However, that means I'll probably have to wait a little longer to put together the boat we have been designing for me, lol

Oh lol yes it's nice to give Derek a shout out for sure. He's a great guy, hard worker, great family man, very talented and loves to build/design with his hands. He also lives on the ocean on the island and loves nature, boating, fishing too so he has a lot in common with guys like us here on the forum enjoying those same things from life.
Well hopefully you get your boat built from him! Myself I love my boat (Weldcraft 260) but had I known Derek prior to buying mine I absolutely would have had Derek build mine from scratch. It would be so much more of a personal thing designing and being part of the build of my own boat. They are possessions that should last a lifetime and many more if treated right. Never know I may just end up getting him to do a build for me down the road My buddy is looking for an open concept 23' center console welded aluminum so I've been talking to Derek too lately about perhaps getting some ideas together for that build.

 

[Chasin' Dreams]

It's been awhile since I updated this thread. Finally got some updated build pics from Derek to post up here. Boat is coming along nicely. Very cool to see it built right from the start.

 

[halimark]

Wow

That looks awesome, some really good ideas with use of space. I like the riggers on the gunnels, no side rails or added metal around the bow because boat was designed right and used for what it was built for. When I win the lottery I will have to add a name to my short list.
HM

 

[Roast]

Awesome looking build, any more updates?

 

[Chasin' Dreams]

Awesome looking build, any more updates?

I just messaged him for an update and more pics. He is fishing out of town right now but said he will send some when he gets back.

 

[Aquaholic]

Did Derek build a Cope 18' CC a few years ago and have it on Kijiji Victoria for sale back then?

 

[Chasin' Dreams]

Did Derek build a Cope 18' CC a few years ago and have it on Kijiji Victoria for sale back then?

Nope he's built four 27' x 10' and a 65' He won't build anything smaller than a 22' right now.