The honest how-to
So you want to
build one.
Somebody said “you can build that,” didn’t they? Welcome to the club. Here’s the whole road from a stack of plywood to a tugboat with a face — the plans, the shopping list, the order to do things in, and the mistakes you get to skip because Adam already made them.
Get the plans
Everything starts with the CANDU E-Z plan set from Berkeley Engineering & Research — Berkeley Eastman’s very first design, drawn in 1986 and still sold by the Eastman family today. It runs about 65 pages: the lines of the boat, photos of every build stage, a materials inventory, a summarized build sequence, and dimensioned drawings for every component. No lofting wizardry required — it’s amateur-buildable on purpose.
Get the plans at berkeley-engineering.com ↗The shopping list
What actually went into AWOOGA — the real quantities, not the optimistic ones:
- 24 sheetsmarine-grade Meranti plywood, ½″ and ¼″
- 21 gallonsepoxy (Raka) — ~16 went on the boat, ~5 went to waste. Buy more than the math says.
- ~125 yards6 oz fiberglass cloth — about four layers on the bottom alone, plus tape on most seams
- Thickenerswood fiber, silica and glass microspheres for the structural fillets
- Stainless fastenersmost pieces screwed first, then locked in with thickened epoxy
- Marine paintKirby Marine throughout — medium-blue hull, yellow cabin, russet-brown gunwale, sand trim
- Powerthe plans call for a 10 HP electric or small outboard; AWOOGA runs a 20 HP Tohatsu
The order of operations
AWOOGA came together in roughly ten chapters over three years. Yours will too — here’s the sequence, condensed from the full illustrated timeline:
- The bottom — panels cut, faired, seams taped, water side glassed
- Keel & side keels — built, foam-filled, sealed and glassed
- Hull assembly — skins cut, interiors glassed, sides bonded on
- Structure & systems — stem, motor well, deck stringers, forward deck
- Exterior finishing — two layers of cloth, fairing, primer, paint
- Cabin & helm — walls, roof beams, visor, helm station
- Motor & mast — outboard hung and wired, folding mast rigged
- Cockpit & fit-out — seating, motor cover, windows, flooring
- Launch day — decals, registration, bow pudding, held breath
- The personality — eyes, horn, bubble stack. Optional. Not really.
Paid for in sandpaper
Mistakes you get to skip
The lessons from AWOOGA’s build and from decades of CANDU E-Z builders before her — each one learned the hard way so you don’t have to.
Wet the surface before the cloth goes down
Fine-weave fiberglass won’t saturate on a dry surface. Adam laid the bottom cloth, watched it refuse to soak, then ripped it all off, sanded it down and did it over. Wet out first. Always.
Plan the motor hole like a heist
The scariest cut of the whole project — and the one to plan the most. AWOOGA’s motor box also needed notches on each side so the outboard could swing all the way. Measure everything twice, then once more.
Foam-fill the keel while it’s open
Multiple builders reported water finding its way into the hollow main keel. The consensus fix, straight from the designer’s newsletter: fill it with foam during construction. AWOOGA’s is — and glassing it was “not a fun task,” so do it early.
Glass the caprail, add the scuppers
Two more from the old builder reports: the caprail rots unless it’s well fiberglassed along with its stringer, and the plans originally left out the 1″×4″ scuppers that drain the forward deck. Don’t skip either.
Build the mast as a lever
The TooT TooT trick, handed down hull to hull: instead of folding at the roof, make the mast reach down to the cabin when folded so it works as a lever. Raising and lowering becomes a one-person job.
Buy more epoxy than the math says
21 gallons bought, 16 on the boat, 5 lost to mixing cups, drips and honesty. Estimating epoxy is harder than it looks — budget the waste up front and you’ll only be disappointed once.
Want all of it? The full Q&A notebook and decades of transcribed builder reports live in the Builder’s Blotter on the Build page.
The question you’re avoiding
What’s this going to cost me?
AWOOGA’s ledger is public — every receipt, charted and searchable. Study the real numbers, then load your own crates and price the tugboat you’re already secretly planning.
One last thing
When she floats, tell us
Every CANDU E-Z is family — that’s not sentiment, that’s policy. When your hull hits the water (or even before), send a photo and claim your spot in the fleet next to TooT TooT and AWOOGA.