Background: Bill (Jolly Roger) laid up the hull for me with a mold he borrowed from Brian. The hull's length is 52.5 inches with a beam of 11.8". Bill did a fine job making this sturdy hull. I had planned to leave the Marlin Blue gel coat as the final finish below the waterline but the boat takes too many bruises during building. I'll paint the entire hull with Klass Kote epoxy paints. The finished boat will look something like this:

http://www.rumerys.com/T38main.html


Building began with the installation of the inside sheer spruce stringers. These are 1/4" x 3/8". I had to laminate the area along the curve of the stern. It's all held in with epoxy glue and 0-3/8" brass screws which will be covered by the (as Royal Lowell calls them) sheer guards. I call them "rub rails".

The skeg for the rudder bolts through a maple block which is epoxied deep into the keel and sealed in with epoxy resin. A putty dam kept the epoxy from running into the hollow keel which might later be filled with a lead shot/epoxy mix if the boat needs the ballast.

The rudder is made from .052" stainless and is silver-soldered to a 3/16" dia stainless shaft. I used a BenzoMatic Oxygen/Propane torch to do the soldering. The super-hot flame really flows the solder. Some of the aft rudder will be trimmed off if sea trials show that the boat is too sensitive to steering input. The rudder shaft rides in flanged Oilite bearings.

The spruce deck beams have balsa crowns which will make for easier long-board sanding when it comes time to true up the beams prior to deck sheeting.

Ed

Target looks great.
Very nice hull too.
It's in good hands.

Nice!

Is that a fence I see on a jig saw?

Looks like maybe a bandsaw to me. Nicely equipped shop tho, wish it was mine....

Hi Ed, Fellow Modeler's , boat is looking great & coming right along nicely,
target is perfect, nice find bill aka Jolly Roger 1

Ed, If you need some buffing compound just let me know

Hi Ed, a close peek at the rudder on your target, this is a rough idea of what is needed argh, bill

Tom, you have an excellent eye for background details. The fence is for the bandsaw. The jigsaw is just a convenient rack for the fence.

I bolted a channel to the fence so I can make thin cuts close to the blade without having to raise the guide blocks. Better cutting control that way.

Bill, your rudder looks about right. A balanced rudder would be more scale but it's tough to get the stub that fits into the skeg exactly in line with the upper rudder shaft. Tried it once and dropped the idea.

Ed

Just how I do mine, I use a dremmel cutoff wheel to cut the ss shaft slot for the rudder , the beautiful thing about a removable skeg, & ss is soft so you can crimp the blade with the shaft ends while in the hull bill

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attac...mentid=3241744

Thanks for the tip on the fence Ed. I will adopt that idea myself.

Bill, your rudder installation looks scale.

Here's the method used by the Lowell Bros. in their Yarmouth ME yard:

Ed I think that rudder looks fine as long as it doesn't stick out beyond the transome. With a long boat like that you may find you'll need the long rudder for good control. It certainly won't hurt anything like it is and you can always cut it back if you have to. That's a really nice looking boat. Pete

Most of the framing is finished. Next comes the 3/32" ply sub-decking.

Man...that's some fancy framing. Looks great.

Your idea of a string attached to a screw at the bow to make sure the bulkheads are equidistant both sides is a simple, elegant solution to a problem I've had for a long time. I've been stuggling with a carpenter's framing square and a tape measure for years. Duh!

Thanks for the comments.

Here's an easy way to install 2-piece bulkheads or knees.

I used an inside mic as a spreader bar to keep the knees tight against the hull while the glue sets up. I drilled a small hole in each knee with a countersink tool to accept the tapered ends of the mic. Then I extend the mic's bar and lock it. Twirling the mic dial a few turns puts pressure on each knee.

A stick, clamped to each knee, keeps the knees square to the keel.

Ed

Neat tool, what's the model number?

Ed, That's a great idea using a set of inside mics to set the knees
Nice! your attention to detail is mindboggling . bill






Ed, on the port quarter I see a whole lotta sanding & fillin just above the boot line
is this the area we spoke of ?

Woodybob,

I inherited the mic from my Dad. It must be at least 50 years old. You could make a similar spreading tool with some threaded rod and a matching sleeve from Home Depot.

Bill,

Yes, that's the area we talked about. A little bondo and Piranha Putty faired it in.

Ed

Ed... A quick question.

I've been trying to track down a set of plans for Ken Reilly's
tunnel hull the "Mongoose".

I built one of them many, many years ago and now that I'm
retired I'd like to build another.

Might you still have a set of plans or know where I can find
them ????

Thanks, Bob
renosmith991@msn.com

Bob, I might still have the plans. I'll get back to you tomorrow.

For curious forum members, here's the Mongoose:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1021734


Ed

Major design change. The target is now a Hinkley picnic boat.

Hi Ed, your Model is looking Good, Hinkley builds some sweet boats bill

Ed, Do you have any pictures of what the finished boat would look like? I like your building practices and gain more information every time I see some of the new building pictures. Great progress. Your progress spures me on to get my boat painted and in the water. Jerryj98501

Here's the Hinkley Picnic Boat.................

I love it, it has a very classic look. Good luck with the change. Jerryj98501

The upper structure is almost done. All of the wood was covered with light FG cloth using Aeromarine epoxy and the playing card squeegee method. After a light sanding, a coat of epoxy thinned with denatured alcohol is brushed on. Even with thinning, the epoxy coat dries with some low spots so I sand the wood with wet 180 grit and fill the low spots with Piranha Putty.

I epoxy as many surfaces as I can before assembling them. Makes final sanding a lot easier. Where there are screws, I putty the screw heads then apply the FG cloth.

Hi Ed, Sweet, Nice Job looks just like the real- McCoy ;-)

Typical awesome work Ed!

"The entire drive system will be removable in case the propulsion system gets changed down the road."

Always a go way to go.

woodybob,

I still have that OS 61 4-Stroke Marine that might power the boat some day. Much easier to unbolt everything than having to chisel out glued-in motor mounts, etc.

Ed

Here are some great photos of the Hinkley Picnic Boat. Just look at that all that mahogany! The cabin door is a work of art. Where can I find cabin ports like that?

http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listi...oat_id=2220308

"The entire drive system will be removable in case the propulsion system gets changed down the road."

It's a good thing you're going this route. You realize you're gonna' have to go with a "water jet" drive now!!

The Hinkley is a beautifull boat. I've seen a few at the Annapolis boat show. A "little" pricey tho

Looking forward to seeing the rest of your boat build.

werlec,

Maybe the next boat will have a proper Hinkley hull and jet drive. This boat will be the mock-up for cockpit layout, etc.

The pics show a few of the parts getting glassed. There's the captain's pedestal, port seat, table base, aft seat and misc. parts. The jigs used for glassing will also be used for painting.

Finished planking the deck with 3/32" x 1/4" mahogany planks. Small nails, set about 2" apart, were used to keep the plank spacing as consistent as possible.

Next step: Caulk the seams with a paste made of West Systems epoxy and 423 graphite powder.

Bill (Jolly Roger), do you recall how Brian's hull sat in the water? I'm wondering if the bow section, as slender as it is, might tend to set a bit low, requiring the batteries to be positioned way aft.


Ed

Such perfect lines!

Thanks, Tom, but you're too kind.

Anyway, at 50' from shore, the lines will look pretty good.

Ed

What a beautiful boat, both the full size and the scale model. How fast was the real boat with the 6 cylinder diesel. She had to be pretty good on fuel with the run of her hull.

By the way, do they call them torpedo sterns up north, because down on the Chesapeake they call them Drake tail sterns.

Originally Posted by frankg

What a beautiful boat, both the full size and the scale model. How fast was the real boat with the 6 cylinder diesel. She had to be pretty good on fuel with the run of her hull.

By the way, do they call them torpedo sterns up north, because down on the Chesapeake they call them Drake tail sterns.

Hi Rich, Brian called it a torpedo stern "as known down-east" & when I laid up the hull I just followed suit, but you are correct it is a Drake tail
Ed your model is looking great! Looking forward to the next set of pictures
bill aka jolly roger 1 arrgh

Bill (Jolly Roger), do you recall how Brian's hull sat in the water? I'm wondering if the bow section, as slender as it is, might tend to set a bit low, requiring the batteries to be positioned way aft.

Hi Ed, I had only a few pictures to go by when I laid up the hull
that is why i marked the boot line "Rough Guide Only!" as you can see in the attached photos Brian has a rather large wet or jel battery in the stern Guessing the best bet is to as Grumpa Tom aka kmot, said, is to use a DTTF, to get an accurate Boot. Wish I had the answer for you but the best I can do is the photos jolly roger 1 arrgh

one more , dead on

Hi Ed, Just wondering if you got the Marlen Blue gel coat That I included with the hull when I shipped it? or did ups hold it back?

frankg,

Here are the engine specs on a 2005 Hinkley. I suppose they're typical of the 36' picnic boats:

Engine Brand: Yanmar with water-jet drive
Engine Model: 6LY2A-STP FWC diesel
Cruising Speed: 25 knots
Maximum Speed: 29 knots

Bill, the gelcoat was included in the box.
Looks like I might be correct on needing aft weight. That's quite a big battery in Brian's boat. Thanks for the pics.

Ed

WOW Ed!! That’s 33 + MPH at full speed. Pretty good clip!. Do you have any idea how much HP the motor is putting out.

Originally Posted by frankg

WOW Ed!! That’s 33 + MPH at full speed. Pretty good clip!. Do you have any idea how much HP the motor is putting out.

Frank,

Here is one:

http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listi..._id=16344&url=

440 big ones almost $1K per hp

BTW - I'll be posting some pix of my BB soon - the outer "planking" is almost done

What ever you call it. The lines are art work.

Looks really good,
The stern vaguely resembles the English Slipper launch.

Nick

Originally Posted by nick_75au

Looks really good,
The stern vaguely resembles the English Slipper launch.

Nick

It is a 57 footer with twin 1,300 HP MAN's. built in Coecles Harbor- Shelter Island NY by CH Marine. The owner had it built custom for him. He also owns the boat yard. He didn't make his money in the boat business. He wrote a few songs ,sings and plays the paino.

"Drake Tail" fits the design better than "Torpedo Stern". Pleasing lines, either way.

The deck is coming along and is just about ready for the first coat of epoxy. That'll cover all the bare wood and I'll be able to do some wet-sanding on the hull.

Looks great.

Thank you.

Royal Lowell's book, "Boatbuilding Down East" goes into great detail on making toe rails and sheer guards (rub rails).

The guards and rails will be held in place with 0-1/4 screws while the epoxy glue sets up. The screws are run across a wax block before inserting and are removed before the epoxy hardens.

To get the proper cross-sections, I grooved a block which fits under the drum of my thickness sander. Sure speeds up the job.

Ed, your looking better and better all the time. When I was growing up there was a sportfisherman in the river that was a draketail called the ''TOOTSIE''. It had a cabin with a flying bridge and a pulpit on the bow. Last time I saw it, the owner had cut the round stern off and built a flat stern on it. Only problem with a draketail was a following sea or backing down hard.

Charlie,

A major construction challenge, (for a model boat and probably for the full-scale boat) is making the aft rails and trim moldings for a draketail.

I had to make the rub rail around the stern as a 3-layer lamination. The mahogany molding around the aft combing will also have to be laminated. The aft toe rail also took more time than just laying down a straight piece of wood.

Is there a functional reason for a draketail design or is it just a matter of style?

Ed

The Drake Tail transoms are defiantly cool looking and when you add the compound curves from the shear to the chine along with the rounded transom into the sides of the hull, can be a bitch to build. As for a specific reason for the transom, I know not. The one thing I do know is I would not want to be off shore and loose power in a following sea, because it would roll right up the transom into the rear cockpit. I think the same would happen if you chopped the throttles real quick.

Hi Ed, Well I have to admit that rolling the air out of the tail was a ton of fun
Your model is looking very fine indeed bill

This thread added to WOODIES: Wooden Pleasure Craft Build Logs listing.

Path: RCGroups -> Boats -> Scale Boats ->"WOODIES..."


Really nice work!

Ed, I don't know how it came about either but it seemed to develope from the old lobster smacks when they went to gasoline engines from sail and found a following in the Chesapeke Bay also. The Maine Maritime Museum has a good collection of older lobster boats, they may have the info on that type of hull.They could get a bit wet at times if that stern dug in. The old USCG 40' utility boat had a flat stern with not much freeboard and you back that down fast you got very wet so a sloping stern like the drake tail could only compound that some.

tell you something kind of funny. I have to rebuild the 25 foot personnel boat belonging to my first ship (after the CPO put it alongside a stone quay wall without fenders), he tore better than half the rub rail off the side and along the bow. Eventually we had to hand make the rubrail from solid mahogany (three smaller thicknesses) to make up the almost 2 inch thick rub rail. One of the references we ended up using had almost the same illustration in Lowell's book (although all we got was the figure so I do not know where it came from). The full thickness rub rail was nearly inflexible and impossible to bend to the curve of the hull, we had to buy three lengths (which the CPO mentioned above screamed about the cost), band saw then to a smaller thickness, borrow something like 50 clamps from the base woodshop, and laminate the curve from the flat side around to bow. We made a smaller piece for two feet of the bow from the stem to either side, both laminated and pieced together.
Foo

Bill, when you said "...rolling the air out of the tail....", I assume you're talking about the difficulty of using a small paint roller to roll the glass cloth onto the mold at the stern, right?

Craig, thanks for listing my build log on your "Woodies" thread.

Charlie, I'll check with the museum on the origin of draketails. Thanks for the tip.

Foo, not much difference between real and model boat build/repair techniques. Since I had no way of clamping the stern rub rail, I screwed the first lamination to the hull, let the glue dry, then screwed plank 2 and 3 through the same holes. I'll use the clamping method when I make the molding for the aft combing. Thanks for the post.

See http://bayweekly.com/old-site/year01.../lead9_41.html and drop down to the draketail discussion. An excerpt:

"Ironically, it’s that beautiful draketail at its end that might have brought the boat to its end. The rudderpost was hard to get to for repair and maintenance, resulting in rotting around hull-post fittings......"


Ed

Bill, when you said "...rolling the air out of the tail....", I assume you're talking about the difficulty of using a small paint roller to roll the glass cloth onto the mold at the stern, right?

Hi Ed, I gave up on using felt rollers on models several hulls ago, instead I use chip brushes to wet out the surface. Following with dry material then I use my micro air roller to wet the meterial's out & remove any trapped air.
Another thing I do is I only lay up 1 station at a time. On your hull I had 4 stations + the stern. the trick is to get it all wet out before it kicks off.
skinning out the prepped mold's was fairly easy as the hull halves were apart, but once the 2 parts came together it was a different story as to tieing the halves together in the stern at the chine & the turn of the transom all at once & the air roller is 1" long X 1/4" thick bill

The deck looks awesome. Great craftsmanship.

Thanks. Here's the first coat of Minwax Helmsman Urethane.

I had to make four mahogany window frames; two outside and two inside. The jig is a piece of plywood with some wax rubbed on the edges to keep the glue from sticking to it.

My wife taught me a trick, get a roll of parchment paper from the kitchen, nothing sticks to it and it is opaque so you can see plan lines though it.
Foo

Good tip.

Finally installed the toe rails. 55 clamping screws in/out. 55 mahogany dowels to fill the holes and to secure the rails.

Beautiful Ed!!

Wow

Amazing stuff!

Very nice.

Nice deck! It is actually beautiful. Well done A-37.

Pete

Originally Posted by MILLERTIME

Very nice.

Great Job Ed, bill

Sweet!

Thanks for the comments.

Here are some pics of the battery packs (12V total) and power set-up. Batteries are 5000ma D-Cells.

Ed

Hi Ed, Nice, very nice bill

Have the grab rails done and finished with three coats of MinWax Helmsman Urethane.

Here's my method:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...1113173&page=5

Drop down to the Jan 3, 2010 post.

Ed

Really nice work Ed! Harry

I'm with Harry on this...really nice work.

H i Al, fount the post & moved it up for you argh argh bill

Some mahagony and brass details;

Hi Ed, Wow, That is really awesome work. bill

Thanks, Bill,

Here's a view of the hatch.

Ed

Very nice.

Excellent hardware work ! where did you get the door handles Sir ?

I made it from brass plate and rod.

The collar for the handle was made in the lathe and tapped 1-72NF. It screws onto the handle. The handle goes through the hole in the plate and screws into the door. There's plenty of purchase for the handle's threads because the mahogany door is built on a 3/32" plywood backing.

Ed

That's outstanding fabrication ! they appear to be formed, tapered ...
An inspiration.

Some photos showing recent details:

The quarter guards (crash guards?) are finally done. They were too stiff to follow the hull contour so I had to add a wedge to the aft end. The forward part of the guards are secured to the hull with #1x3/8" brass screws. The aft area, where there's no access to screws from the inside, is held in place with 2-56 stainless screws threaded into the hull.

Anyone here missing some windshield wipers?

Tom, I save everything!

Here's a pic of my marker buoy. The bobber will be attached to a float-away cabin hatch.

The bow section is filled with in-place foam and the stern is filled with foam blocks. Still not enough flotation so some means of recovery is required.

I tested a similar system on a tug in the neighbor's swimming pool. As long as the bobber clears the sinking boat, it'll work. If the boat capsizes, there'll be a problem.

Ed,

This is a great build.

Ed Crowell

Truly a great build, very inspirational, beautiful detail. I use those bobbers when I go fishing. Good idea. Joel

Hi Ed, Looking at your chair pedestal & storage box & wondering if they are the air intake's for your Satio engine bill
boat is coming along nicely , argh

Bill,

Sure looks like Saito parts.

The painting phase has been on hold for a month because of this unending NE OH rain and cool days. I have all of my Klass Kote epoxy painting materials. Even bought a new HVLP paint gun.

Ready to prime when the weather breaks.

Ed

Hi Ed, Sure looks like Saito parts, The thing I am asking is are the louver vents in the storage box & seat base, open for air supply to the engine.
I am thinking that is a very cleaver way to allow an air supply to the bilges.
on the big boys we build a snorkel shaped inlet box under the wash boards just forward of the stern deck on both the stb. & port sides, this also works well for keeping the bilges nice & dry.
The weather here in Downeast Me. is not cooperating much either, for out door projects. argh, bill

Bill,

In your first sentence, do you mean "motor" and not "engine"?

This boat doesn't have a Saito engine. The previous boat (Lowell cruiser) is the hybrid with a Saito .45 and an Astro Flight 40 back-up motor.


http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...1113173&page=9

Originally Posted by A-37

Bill,

In your first sentence, do you mean "motor" and not "engine"?

This boat doesn't have a Saito engine. The previous boat (Lowell cruiser) is the hybrid with a Saito .45 and an Astro Flight 40 back-up motor.


http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...1113173&page=9

Hi Ed, Boy have I got my bait in the wrong tank
I thought the Saito .45 was in the Drake tail guess now I understand
argh argh, bill

The nav lights (Graupner GR687.35) are from Harbor Models. I replaced the
3V bulbs with Radio Shack's 12V bulbs and machined the stand-offs for a press fit into the light.

I'd have used LEDs but need to use up my old bulb inventory.

Ed

Sweet nav lights, are they really from graupner??? well you write so im not calling you a liar, but they just seem so sweet...

Standoffs and mounting adapter......nice.

Originally Posted by green-boat

Standoffs and mounting adapter......nice.

Yessir

Finally had good painting weather so I primed all the parts, 21 in all. I used Klass Kote 2-part epoxy primer.

Next comes some spot-putty to fix any imperfections then some light sanding followed by the top coats. White above the WL and dark green below.

Getting close...........

Ed

Hi Ed, that is a sweet gun, the model is looking good too, cant wait to see her finished.
argh,bill