The HAPUKA 5.3m has been designed for aluminium construction with a plywood conversion. The vessel has been designed as a pleasure or commerical fishing boat with excellent load carrying ability, generous freeboard, a high bow and maximum cockpit area with the hull fully self-draining. Generous fuel capacity has been shown on the plan for offshore fishing and a payload of up to 1 tonne can be carried. The construction is over aluminium frames 76 x 6mm at 914mm centres; four fore and aft girders up to floor line width are cut from 3mm plate and flanged on their top face to accept the floor. The hull plate is 4mm plate, 3mm sides with a 3mm deck and internal structure.

This vessel has been designed for aluminium construction by people experienced in aluminium welding but with no previous boatbuilding experience. With the plywood conversion the hull is double skinned in 2 skins of 6mm and the sides 2 skins of 4mm. The floor is of 12mm sheet ply bonded into place with fibreglass. This ensures a very robust timber hull for those that wish to use this method.

The plan includes FULLSIZE TEMPLATES of the frames, stem and transom, plus detailed working drawings for both aluminium and plywood construction plus written instructions. The plan gives metric and imperial measurements.