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I live in Kotzebue, Alaska, which is located 30 miles north of the Arctic circle.  I  have turned the upstairs of my house into a wood-working shop and some years will build a build boat up there, which is what I decided to do again this past winter.

After looking at all of the different boat designs available on the web, and in thinking about a design that would allow me to do some eco-tourism work up here, I decided to build a Glen-L Hunky Dory 23′.

As my upstairs room is only 19′ long, and the jig calls for it to be ’20 long, I built two 10′ jigs, first building the bow to the middle of the boat on one jig, and then from the middle to the stern on the second jig.

In early June, I dropped the two jigs out of the upstairs, leveled both, spliced them together, and then reset the ribs, transom and bow on the now 20′ jig, and then went to work building the boat.

Given the size of the boat, and the conditions necessary to do epoxy/glass work in the short Arctic summer, I thought that it might take two summers to finish this project, but we had a warm, dry summer, and I just kept working away at it–I probably put 5-8 hours in on it every day over the course of June, July and into the middle of August. 

I launched the boat on August 21st, and I just love it. It’s a great boat, as fun to drive as it was to build.  There is still a lot of  work yet to be done on the boat to put it into the “finished” bucket, but that work can wait until next summer, for now it’s a good, serviceable boat and I’m just so pleased with how well it turned out.  Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful design with us!   Doug Neal, Kotzebue, Alaska September 13, 2018

Due to the space constraints of my upstairs room, I could only do the frame work one half at a time.

Back half of the boat jig being lowered to the ground

With the jigs level, and spliced together, the boat is taking shape

To give epoxy the best opportunity to setup, I placed Visqueen over the boat after most epoxy/glass jobs.

Splicing plywood sheets together.

Plywood spliced together and ready to be installed on ribs.

The first side of the boat attached to frame.

The bottom getting glued to the sides

Glassing the bottom to the sides.

Bottom done!

The jig coming out, the boat being flipped over!

The boat right-side up and looking good!

Interior coming together!

Installing motor and running gear.

Hunky Dory 23′ boat in the water!

Launching Party!

Heading out in new Hunky Dory 23′ 2″ boat!