Fall of 2000 I sold my 1965
Columbia Defender 29 sailboat in the Summer of 2000 
after a solo passage of 3200 miles from Mexico to Hawaii;
I decided to build Puffin with the proceeds, and give motor cruising
a try for a change.
After ordering the study plans and consulting with Stambaugh, I decided this boat was just what I was looking for. I ordered the full plans, and after several months of poring over them, I developed my material lists. I also lofted the boat full-size in the (where else?) 18' x 32' loft over my woodshop. It was tight, with a foot or two of space at each end of the lofting. But now I could see the boat full size! There were only minor corrections needed to the Table of Offsets.
A friend in
Florida had a Yanmar diesel engine that had not worked out in
his Columbia 31 sailboat. The engine had only been installed several
years, but had never performed properly, and he was looking to
change it out. He determined the reason it didn't work for him
was because the transmission was geared for a large (18"
or bigger) prop, as in work boat use, not for auxiliary sailboat
use. It was a perfect engine for my Puffin, as the plans called
for a 30 hp engine turning an 18" prop; the Yanmar is an
HM35, rated continuous duty of 35 HP. In October of 2000 I drove
5000 miles round trip from Arizona to Florida to help him remove
the engine, and bring it back to Arizona.
I also bought all my epoxy supplies--twenty gallons of epoxy and many rolls of FG tape, as well as other supplies-- from FCI (Fiberglass Coatings Inc.), just down the street from my friend's house. It was enough to get me started.
Now I had my engine, I just had to build a boat around it! I ordered 83 sheets of imported marine plywood from Edensaw Woods in Port Townsend, Washington, to be shipped motor freight. I bought about 400 board feet of Honduras mahogany locally (Tucson) for framing and timbers. The plans called for Doug fir throughout, but I could not get anything locally, and good stock from the Pacific Northwest costs more than the mahogany! And instead of using dimensional timbers for the keel, deadwood, stem, etc, I opted to laminate the timbers with 1-by stock and epoxy.
The stem/gripe/knee assembly was completed first.
Over the winter I also scarfed up long boards
for the sheer clamps, and laminated the keel/skeg (or deadwood),
complete with prop shaft alley.
I determined I wanted several intermediate temporary frames to go between the rather far-spaced bulkheads, which act as the building form, so I made up about four of them as well.
I decided I'd add a shed roof on to my shop and build the boat outside under roof, keeping the shop floorspace open. The boat could have been built indoors, but it would have left no room for material storage or fabrication of parts. The 18 by 32 foot metal roofed shelter was a job in itself. Ceiling height is about twelve feet at the outer end, and about fourteen feet at the building. The 10 x 10 foot roll-up door visible in the picture (right) leads directly into the shop.
While waiting for the plywood to arrive, I constructed the strongback building form, and erected the stem and temporary frames (right). There is old household carpet laid on the ground under the strongback, to make crawling around easier on old knees; helps when small parts or tools are dropped too--they don't get lost in the dirt.
The vertical 2x4 by the stepladder is one of a pair, with a wire stretched between them, which represents the building baseline. Measurements are taken and double-checked by measuring both down from the wire and up from the building form. The wire also serves for aligning the frames and forms, by dropping a plum bob, keeping everything centered longitudinally. A larger picture of the early framing is below. From left to right are the laminated stem, anchor locker bulkhead, temp frame, partial bulkhead with hanging knees, then two more temp frames. The transom has not been erected at this point.
Once the plywood arrived, I started making the permanent bulkheads,
which as I said, act as the frames. 
The picture to the right shows the Station
12 bulkhead and its floor timber. This bulkhead separates the
pilot house from the main cabin. It's about nine feet wide and
six feet tall. Notches on the edge closest are for the chine and
sheer clamp. The large mahogany floor timber (center right) supports
the pilot house sole; you step down and thru the opening in the
middle of the bulkhead to go forward into the cabin, where the
galley and head are located. A V-berth is further forward, as
the plan on the previous page shows.
The boat is a hybrid between conventional construction, with timber backbone, ply on frame construction, and epoxy/composite construction. There is an inner keelson, connecting the stem and knee assembly and bent over the floors and bulkheads; there are chine and sheer logs, but no conventional frames. The 3/4" plywood full and partial bulkheads, spaced on stations separated six feet, act as the building form.
The plywood skin is glued on to keelson, chines, sheer clamps, and bulkheads. Epoxy fillets and FG tape strengthen all the contact points at the bulkheads. The bottom is four layers of 1/4" ply, while the sides are two layers of 3/8" ply. The 3/4" plywood soles, longitudinal stringers and interior furniture complete the structure. The decks (1/2" ply) and 3/4" ply superstructure are pretty conventional, except the cabin and pilot house roofs are laminated out of three layers of 1/4" ply, with no beams, to achieve a fairly rounded camber.
Work progressed, and as the picture to the left shows,
by mid-April 2001 the full framing is well under way; the keelson
is started, the transom is in place, along with all the bulkheads
and floor timbers, and I've started on the chines, two 1x4 sticks
laminated in place to form the 2x4 chine log.
The first bulkhead aft of the stem separates the anchor rode locker
from the forecabin--the hole is for access to the rode.
The transom is two layers of
3/4" ply, with an additional perimeter framework on the inside
of 1x4 mahogany. It was heavy! The odd-looking pointy thing
sticking out to the right is simply a support to hold up the 30-foot
long chine while being fitted....I'm working alone.
After the boat was framed up--bulkheads installed, chines, sheer clamps and keelson installed and faired, it was time to lay some plywood to the sticks.
The sides are constructed with two layers of 3/8" (16mm)
Okoume marine ply, giving a finished thickness of 3/4", or
18mm. First to go on was the foremost piece fitted to the stem
rabbet. Rather than scarf the sheets into long pieces, which would
be difficult or nearly impossible to fit alone, I elected to use
butt blocks. The first eight-foot sheet clamped in place is shown
below. 
The first piece was used as a pattern to cut the piece for the other side, then glued and screwed on. The other side was done next to keep stresses on the hull even.
It's starting to look like a boat now!
Planking continued on to the stern, alternating on sides, using
about three and a half sheets per side, per layer. Yes, after
the entire hull sides were planked up, I got to do it all over
again, adding a second layer over the first. The second layer
went more quickly. Sixteen 4 x 8 sheets were required in total.