Powerboat designs?

[Keith Wilson]

I’m looking for advice and suggestions. I’m (gasp) actually thinking of building a powerboat – for a longtime sailor, this is pretty radical, but it seems to be better for some local conditions and uses than sail. It’ll be used on lakes and rivers in central and Northern Minnesota for messing about and low-intensity fishing. Maybe Chequamegon Bay or the Apostle Islands (southern side of Lake Superior) in very good weather.

Design constraints:
- Modest outboard power, say a 10-20 HP Honda, preferably in a well with good sound insulation
- It’ll be kept on a trailer, so maximum weight should be maybe 1500-2000 Lb.
- Shallow draft is good.
- I prefer plywood lapstrake construction, or something that can be adapted to that method without too much difficulty. (stays tight, minimum googe, minimum sanding)
- A semi-planing hull that also behaves nicely at slow speed would be good. 20 MPH is plenty, 15 is OK
- It would be nice to carry a crowd occasionally, but that won’t be a normal condition.
- It would be nice to have a cuddy cabin in which to keep gear and a portapotty. Enough space for tired children would be nice, but not at all essential.
- It needs to look nice in a traditional sort of way. A Bolger “Idaho” or equivalent would work well, but is just too funny looking.

Boats I’ve considered:
- Pete Culler’s powerboats, especially the gorgeous 24’ one (I finally managed to get a copy of Burke’s book). Pete’ll probably turn over in his grave if I build it out of plywood, and planking the forefoot might give trouble, but it sure is pretty.
- John Gardner’s 16’and 19’ semi-dories (from The Dory Book). No cuddy, but that can be remedied. Easily adaptable to plywood.
- Thomas Firth Jones’s “Puxe II” from Low Resistance Boats. The shape of the bottom may not adapt well to wood construction – it was originally built in foam-core ‘glass with lapstrake topsides, but it’s another very good-looking boat.
- Harry Bryan’s 18’ Handy Billy (I think originally a Wm. Hand design). Looks like it could be adapted to ply lapstrake relatively easily, and the motor’s completely enclosed.
- B&B Yacht designs “Miss Stephie” design. I don’t know much about this one, just the picture so far, see: http://www.seaislandboatworks.com/Burritt%20runabout.htm
- I’ve looked at Stambaugh’s Redwings, but they look awfully boxy, at least on paper. Pure displacement hulls, too. Maybe they look better on the water? The “Skiff America” in the latest MAIB doesn’t really excite me either.

So: Any other ideas? Feedback? Suggestions? I don’t know much about powerboats. I’m also going to get the Atkin catalog, and check out Weston Farmer’s designs (he was local, after all)

[paladin]

Build a nice sharpie, and if you get tired of puttin' around, put a sail on it. Requires low power to run, shallow water boat, can put some folks in it if you have a mind to do so.

[G. Schollmeier]

Keith
Not a lot of us stink pot people around. Your list of constraints is hard to fit into one boat. I play with ideas of the ideal trailerable boat for this area all the time. Something that might help is to go longer with less beam. Also if you have any type of cabin, put it aft. Then you have something between you and the motor. And this will allow easier beaching. Nelson Zimmer has one boat I like, Porpoise. But it has a displacement hull and won't get the speed you want. It has a very traditional look. If you find the one your looking for let us know.
Gary

[Alan D. Hyde]

A lightly but strongly built lapstrake sea-skiff type might answer most of the needs you expressed.

I would put the outboard in a well at the transom, with a full-height bulkhead forward of it.

Maybe 1/2 inch plywood strakes over steam bent white oak, 7/8 by 7/8?

Alan

[JoJo]

Check out plans from Glen-L. They have a wide variety of designs in all sizes. You might be able to find something that fits all your criteria. They are on the web at www.glen-l.com. (http://www.glen-l.com.)

JoJo

[Rob H]

I notice you mentioned Weston Farmer. You might check out his "Trumpet", an 18' lapstrake seaskiff that can handle a 40 hp outboard. It's a sweet looking hull, designed for fishing the Carolina coast. Plans are in his book,"From my Old Boathouse", as well as from Ken Hankinson.

[DougWilde]

I like another of Weston Farmer's designs, Hoocares.

http://www.cox-internet.com/wilde/Images/Hoocares1.jpg

It is a bit different, but contains a lot of space. Hitting 15 mph may be a bit of a reach.

Doug Wilde

[Ian McColgin]

Cpt Pete's boat that you're looking at has a really interesting bow that I'm not sure you can torture plywood into. Part of it's cross planked. But the upper strakes could be gotten out with plywood and the bow could be a modified ashcroft dual layer, suitable for cpes sealing and epoxy bonding so it would stay tight on the trailor. He drew them for real planks since they were meant to stay in the water and if built as designed might leak a bit if she lives on a trailor between trips.

I wish George Kelley were still alive to comment. It might be a surprise. He once whispered to me that Pete once recommended a glassed plywood deck for one project.

A lot of Pete's attitude towards plywood was shaped by it's lack of abrasion resistance. It just won't take the same licking and keep on ticking. And I doubt cpes was even around, so keeping a workmanlike finish was harder back then.

Also, his skill was astounding. He could make a cedar lapstrake dink or bateau or whatever lighter than the ply equivalent when he set his mind to it.

All in all, I think his OB boats like Osprey could be adapted to a kind of composit construction if you're careful. But you wouldn't be able to hit the beach or scrape the rocks so hard.

By the way, glass over wood can have some advantages regarding impact resistance, but glass is not all that abrasion resistant either. If you're gonna be dragging her into real thin water, perhaps you'll sacrifice some lightness and but a real wood sacrifice pad on the bottom.

G'luck

G'luck.