Wooden Whaler?

[Bob Aberton]

...Boston Whaler, that is.

A friend of mine just dug a beat-up old boat out of a dumpster. Haven't seen it yet, but according to him, it has a hullform like that of a Boston Whaler - the very distinctive W-hull.

Thing is, it's wood. I haven't ever heard of a wooden Whaler before...has anyone else?

[Art Read]

Wasn't there a Rhode Island boatyard that built something like that? Hickman "Sea Sled", I believe? I seem to remember that "Boston Whaler" bought the rights for the design from them after the war.

[nedL]

I believe the Hickman Sea Sled was an inverted "V" shape, they were build in Mystic CT. Gona post some pictures for all of us?? :D

[Keith Wilson]

Here is interesting article about the development of the Boston Whaler (http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/13/originalHullDesign.html) . It says that the Whaler was based on Hickman's Sea Sled, with the center protuberance added to prevent air from getting to the prop at below-planing speeds.

Here's a link to a page with pictures of an original Sea Sled (http://www.acbs.org/Public/Rudder/Winter01/SeaSled.htm), although you can't see the hull shape very well. It looks like a deep-V hull cut in half vertically along the centerline, with the halves reversed and stuck back together. There was a good article in WB a while back about Hickman.

[Bob Aberton]

Sorry, no pics for now - I won't have a chance to get a look at it until Monday.

All I have is my friend's description, saying that "It looked like a Boston Whaler."

Quite possibly it is a Sea Sled.

Thanks for all your help, everyone.

[Thaddeus J. Van Gilder]

From what I remember, the boston whaler was designed from a sea sled...