Quote from chris_horre on 13th October 2026, 6:53 pm

I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Chris, and I’m from Belgium. I’ve been building model aircraft for more than 20 years.

In my day-to-day life, I’m a woodworking teacher, mainly specialising in furniture, windows and doors. We’ve already made epoxy tables at school with our students, and I think we have access to just about every woodworking machine you could imagine, including a large CNC machine and a Shaper Origin. We also have a spacious workshop at our disposal.

I’ve now set my sights on building a Playboy Runabout myself. I’d also like to involve my students in certain parts of the construction process. Building a boat is new territory for me, but I’ve already worked with most of the individual techniques involved.

Unfortunately, building an entire boat doesn’t fit within our school curriculum. However, demonstrations and occasionally helping out with a particular technique would still give my students a valuable learning experience. And who knows, perhaps there’s someone out there who shares my enthusiasm and would like to help build it!

I’ve already taken William Jackson’s original drawings and redrawn the plan view in AutoCAD, making a few small modifications along the way. I’ve given the dashboard a slightly more rounded shape, added a small rear seat, and shortened the original rear seats, which I’d like to build using a framework of wooden strips rather than a solid panel.

I’ve also incorporated some storage space behind and underneath the rear seat. Hopefully, these modifications are feasible within the original design?

I’d also love to give the windscreen an elegant, flowing wooden frame. The steering wheel will have a custom shape and will also be made from wood.

As for the deck and floor, I’d like to do something a little different. I’m thinking of creating a hexagonal veneer pattern, although I haven’t figured out exactly how to achieve this yet. Do you think it would be feasible? We’ll see how things develop!

This week, I’m taking on my first major challenge: sourcing all the materials. I can’t get hold of mahogany, but I do have access to sipo and sapele. I believe these should be suitable alternatives.

If I can inspect the timber tomorrow and everything looks good, I’ll order the plans from Dan so that I can get started in a few weeks, beginning with the CNC milling.

Initially, I had the opportunity to buy a white boat from someone, complete with all its equipment and a trailer. However, he owns two boats and is only willing to sell them as a pair. That’s a bit more than I’m looking for, and the boat also needs some restoration work (see the attached photo). so i won't do that

I’ve included a few photos showing some of my ideas.