Boatbuilding ideas

I just posted  an article about a possible business in the wooden cruiser category. The thing is, I have a customer now with an old “Folkboat” that he wants to sell. He is willing to sell to me at a lower cost because he knows the boat will live on and be well cared for. The only thing is the money (as it always is) and if I had a source of cash that I could spend on the boat, I would get it cause I know the condition of the boat and what is needed to make her ready for another 20 years.

It would be cool to have this 26′ boat because I have been reading about Folkboats for years and their reputation is impeccable. This boat needs some ribs sistered and I will do that with steam bent white oak. She’ll be stronger than she was new, when I am finished. She is bright finished as well but, does really need to be stripped and re-done to make her look perfect.

An afternoon wine and cheese cruise would be fun in this boat and the fact that fuel would be a minimum cost to keep her going is a plus. I’ll have to write her up as an option for a charter boat. In the past, the current owner did in fact charter her during the evenings on weekdays and on weekends. He loved sailing his own boat and giving some history lessons on board, while getting paid to sail his own boat. Sounds good if the customers are agreeable and not too uptight.

Well, just finished a day in the shop, pulling fasteners, removing butt-blocks that were suspect and plugging old fastener holes. Next week, we will have her sanded inside (below the water-line), sealed with penetrating epoxy to harden up any soft spots and painted. Then the new ribs go in and any cosmetic work can begin. She’ll look like new if I have my way.

Back again soon,

JFH

Just got off the phone with an owner of  a 1958 Chris Craft 31′ boat that I maintain every once in a while. The boat would be a great venue for a choreographed tour of our local “inner bay”. The bay has many historically significant areas, islands and marinas to see by boat. It is also one of the best small mouth fishing grounds in the world.

Connected to the Long Point Biosphere Reserve, our inner bay would provide “birders” and nature lovers some great vantage points to observe all sorts of water-foul. I could put a local historian on board, serve some locally made “spirits” and cheese as snacks, dress all staff in “1950’s nautical” and make the trip a wonderful experience.

One of the spots to stop and take pictures is the “Millionaire’s Islands”, which are not accessible by the public. We could anchor nearby and be served a wonderful lunch or dinner from a local restaurant. This meal would be transported by another wooden boat (Garwood, Grew or another Chris Craft).

If I could get the Garwood finished, she is the oldest boat that I own and would be something to see and here as well as ride in (if customers wanted that little extra speed).

I’d love to have the “Streamliner” for the dinner transport. They would here me coming and going for sure. Heads would turn and cameras would be snapping. Only problem is,….I don’t own the boat. I would have to build another.

If only I had the time…

Business plan is next and then we’ll see what happens.

I have a theory about working on a series of boats that are steeped in tradition. I’ve looked for them on the net and found versions of this boat that were pretty much always sold fast when put on the market.
They are boats that were designed in the 30’s and used for racing. Two people can fit into the small cockpit and they are treated to a thrill of speed and sound on relatively smooth water.
Yes, I’m talking about a 16′ hydroplane called the Flyer 135; with her smooth sheer lines and stepped underwater, hull. This boat would be powered by a 4 cylinder marine engine with hydraulic transmission. Crandall designed the boat and as far as I can find on the internet, only two people have actually built the boat. I know it has been built before but, I just can’t find any more pics than the two that I have on file.
One is from an historic picture collection of a Shephard boat, built in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. The other was built in the States somewhere by a builder who e-mailed me about the boat’s progress. I do not know if it was ever finished and used but, she sure looked good.
Now there are plans for a larger version called the “Super-Flyer”. This version seems like a good idea but, I’m a little skeptical about stretching a smaller boat and putting more power in it as a hydroplane.
I’ll stick to a smaller, more original version for now.
I would love to have a commission to finish what I have already stated but, with some pinching here and some saving there, I may be able to afford it for the summer and then sell her as hull #1.

Man, I wish I could post pics here. I just need to find out how….

Till next time…

Well, I was amazed at the lengths that an  insurance company will go to get out of paying up. I have a customer who had his boat sink (he left the bilge pumps off) and the boat was pumped out and saved with very little problem. I do have to replace about 2 ft. of planking because she rested on a steel cradle and was pinned under the dock in the boathouse hence, the leak.

The insurance company cashed the check for the premium and promptly discontinued coverage. They sent down a “surveyor” and in his “pre-determined or pre-instructed” wisdom, he managed to put the boat on a “black-list” and now the customer is having a hard time getting insurance.

The surveyor even thought that the boat was made of inferior exterior plywood. The boat was made by Chris Craft and made of fir, marine grade plywood. I guess the next step is to get her surveyed again by someone who knows what his is doing and then we can get this mess sorted out. The boat was put through a total and robust restoration and is better than new. I just cannot believe that someone who is supposed to know about boats would suggest that the boat was not even made of marine plywood. She is a lapstrake Corinthian Express cruiser.

I’ll be after this guy for a while and approach Hagerty insurance.

Outta  here for now

I saw a wonderful boat in the new Wooden Boat Mag. She is a B.B. Crownshield day sailer that is 40 ft. long. With an 8 ft. beam and a schooner rig, she would be very fast and quite a fun boat to sail too. She is in Chicago and has plenty of documentation, film done of her and stills too.

What a boat to have in the shop. I would love to be working on her as my own. I feel this way every time I see a boat that has this pedogree and has some hope of being restored.  She reminds me of Pirouette, when we first saw her at Piney Narrows Yacht Basin in Maryland.  I really didn’t appreciate her until I finally got her in the shop and started to peel off the old fiberglass to find solid mahogany instead of rot. Needless to say, she was easily put back to her former self, once the ballast and centre-board were fixed. All I needed was some elbow greese (ok quite a bit of it) and a few determined helpers like my wife and a couple of employees.

I may just e-mail the chap and let him know that I would love to have her and would definately work on her as my own but, I would need a couple of years to get the job done.

The boat’s name is “Fame” and she is a real head turner. Check her out in the back of the magazine or on line at:

www.woodenboat.com    I’m sure there will be a pic there somewhere.

Cheers for now

I have a part of my web site that shows how we restored a 1958 Munroe Cutter. It took a few years to complete and during that time I expanded my business of building and restoring wooden boats to a much larger piece of property and a much larger, more modern shop with 3 large bays. I needed a spot to properly restore our beloved boat and she finally rolled in during the second year of business. That was the only time I could fit her in because of all the other boats that I had lined up to do.

She turned out well and we shipped her to Florida to finish and officially launch for the first time in 5 years. I took about 3 weeks to get her ready with new plumbing, refrigeration, and electronics. The engine had to be hooked up and so did the life ines. Once all that was finished, I had her launched and found a leak right away. I told the fellas at the marina to leave her in the slings out of the water while I investigated. The culprit was the new thru-hull provided with the new depth sounder. It only went through about 1.5 inches of hull and I had a hull that was almost 2″ thick. A quick cutting of an inner ring on the plastic nut that tightened things down did the trick.  I really am wary of such things through a wooden hull but, it was the only possible way to get the new electronics working properly. I will keep an eye on it and probably replace it with one that will go through fiberglass. Then, I’ll have to put a glass patch in the boat and mount the new depth sounder there.

We had very little sailing during that time in Florida because we simply ran out of time and got tired of how damn hot it was down there so, we had her shipped home in early June and she has been sitting there beside my shop since.  We did not put her in last summer because we have been very busy trying to sell the house to move down to the new property with the new shop….   This year, we’ll put her in anyway and if the house sells, it sells and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t…

She was a real joy to see in the water and we even took her back to the original window configuration with mahogany on the cabin sides as she was in a picture of her in the Bahamas. Our first night on her in the water was a joyfull occassion. We had a wonderful meal and drank some champagne. The boys were very excited about putting out the Canadian flag and they paraded up and down the dock singing the anthem while we played with the manatees off our stern. The manetees love fresh water so, we fed them the stuff and got to pet them and take some photos.

Our sailing was confined to the bay off Cape Canaveral and was fun but, not as satisfying as taking off on a real adventure. The trip was short and sweet. We loved the time we had together as a family and the boys really want to get out and sail longer and farther. We will go this March to the keys and charter a boat for a week to give them a taste of what Pirouette did for the last 40 or more years. She was made in Miami and part of the Coconut Grove area for the first part of her life. The Biscayne Bay Yacht club still had a very large picture of her on the wall as you walk in the building. We couldn’t believe that we were looking at our own boat. She was owned for a short time by a french fellow and then sold to Ralph Ride of Rider  Trucks. Then Mike and Joan Stevenson bought her and they had her for 35 years before we aquired her. Pirouette is a boat that we grew to love and we just couldn’t bear to see Mike upset because we didn’t want the boat. Once we learned about her historical value and the adventures she has had, we just couldn’t resist. I had a cradle made up for her and she was shipped north to Port Dover. After she arrived, we had her shipped to the family farm and built a bow shed around her to start the restoration. What a job getting the centre-board out.

I figured it took me almost 300 hours of work (hard work) to remove the ballast and free the cast iron centre board from the 3500 lb. ballast. Once free, the boat could be saved. There were many times though, when I thought of re-casting everything in lead and bronze. The cost stopped me of course, and with air chisels, muratic acit and sandblasting, she came loose. What a feeling that dark evening, when she broke free. After that amount of time and all the “expert” opinions on how to do the job, my solution worked and I proved once and for all that anything can be done with lots of will power and sweat equity.

I’ll try to remember to get some pics up. I am using my wife’s laptop to type and she has no pics on file. I do have a whole collection on photobucket though. I think it is under Hammond somewhere.

Enough for now, the beer is getting warm and I need to go downstairs to watch tv with my family.

Tomorrow is the first day back to school….  Yes, I teach full time this year and the boat building has to wait for a little while. I hope that I can take the afternoon off next semesterl, starting in February.

Cheers,

JFH

Gotta try some new stuff today. I really need to get to work on my adjenda for working on the many restorations that are in the shop. I have one cedar strip boat in the”home-shop” right now that a customer brought me to “pretty-up”.

Geisler boats are an old established design that are made with inferior fasteners and a mix of red and white oak. The boats are well build but, could sell for more than the 4 grand that they charge for a 18 footer. This is the price of a bare boat of course, and one I am done, replacing fasteners to the keel and keelsons, giving the bottom a coat or 3 of epoxy and 6 oz fiberglass cloth and 6 more coats of varnish, she’ll be water proof and beautiful. Ya, I know, varnish on the bottom?  This is a really dumb idea but, the ower insisted so, I charged him for the extra work and cost of materials. I guess his wife wanted to see the bottom on the trailer and use the boat for shows.

The inside was sealed with penetrating epoxy and has at least 8 coats of varnish. The decks and seats are also done without the aid of epoxy. The owner wanted “glove-boxes” in the walk-throughs so, I put two in (one on each side) with hidden hinges and some nice locking hardware.  This cedar strip will be as good as any out there and should last a good 20 years before any rot appears. The original Geislers last only about 10 years if they are purchased and not taken care of right away.

The other boats are in my “big shop” and will be attended to by myself or a hired boat builder (Lisa) in the near future. One is supposed to be an insurance job and the other is a re-ribbing of a folk boat. The ribs that are in her are good but cracked beacause of a drop with a lift a few years ago. The folks sistered the originals with some inferior wood and glue that totally delaminated and rotted. The original cracked white oak ribs are just fine but, have the cracks. My next phase of the job is to get a couiple of logs cut up by a local sawyer and prep the wood for the newly made steambox.

The hard part of course, is putting the new ribs in when I am surrounded by floor timbers and settee frames etc. I think the plan will work once I get setup. The removal of the old fasteners was a real pain but, I used a plug cutter that fit over the original bungs and will re-plug with the next size up before re-fastening.

I’ll be back tomorrow, if I can.

It’s new years day 2010 and I am up without a hangover. I must be getting old. Still can’t get the wooden boat building bug out of my head. I guess that is why I started a business years ago.

The possiblity of hiring back one of my principal boatbuilders is growing now and I really hope that she can help me gain some momentum on building a Flyer 135.  The plans have already been purchased and I  have all the wood for the frames and the planking stock for the bottom. Topsides will be mahogany but, the bottom will be 4/4 cut old growth red cedar that I purchased for  special boat building project years ago. I also have some nice teak that will go into the build.

Every wood boat built that is a gentleman’s runabout or a step hydro-plane on the net a few months back were sold so, I think it’ll be a good investment in time and money to have one to show and play with and ultimately sell.

With the boatbuilding economy in the wooden boat world at a slower pace than normal, this might be the chance for a wooden boat builder to experiment with such a streamlined craft. I found a site that wanted information about the streamliner look of their step-hydro plane, made in the 50’s.  The site was under Shepherd Boats of St. Catharines.  I live about an hour and a half west of them. The boat looks like it has the same lines and a stepped hull.

http://www.shepherdboats.com/features.asp?id=3   This is the site that had the pics of the Flyer 135 class hydro when it was sitting in the channel and racing. Quite a boat!

Well, time to go.  Happy New year.

I’ll try to keep up with this. It is helping me to stay motivated.

I have finally started the CNC work for the flyer 135. She’ll be a 16′ step hydro made of wood and epoxy. I have always loved the lines on this boat and hope that anyone interested in seeing her come to life will spread the word that Inner Bay Boats is building a wooden boat that is rare and should be very fast. The motor will be a 4 cyl GMC based block and I will have to purchase a new transmission. I have the old motor sitting in my smaller shop at home and  have always wondered what to do with it so, this will be the motor’s new purpose after a little re-building.

I am not sure how this blog works.  Really just getting into it so, that it will improve my site’s traffic. My first web-site had tons of traffic until Google took over everything and now it seems they can decide who has the traffic and who does not.

Anyway, Gotta Go.

I’ll try to get some pics up and let all you know how things are going up here in the great Canadian white north.

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