Bob Herrick
09-05-2005, 12:05 PM
Greetings from Texas,
Introduction time, as this is my first post on the WoodenBoat Forum. I have been lurking and learning for awhile.
I like to build boats watertight without any fiberglass or epoxy coatings. I do not want the extra weight that coatings have. I am old school when it come to boat building, I do however carry this as far as practical as there are many improvements, both to tools and materials.
I use the best marine grade materials available to me here in Texas. Its a far cry of the choices I had in Maine, but if you look hard enough you can find usable stock. Sometimes I have it shipped to me.
I was born and raised on the coast of Maine (Belfast and Rockland) and spent plenty of days hanging out at boatyards, bothering the old-timers (read real craftsman) with a million questions.
Each and every one of the old-timers, while acting like they were less than pleased, would always take the time to answer them once. We always had to pay attention to what they were telling me, you haven't been reamed thoroughly until you ask a craftsman how to do something a second time!
I asked one man why he did not use fiberglass over the wood. He simply said it was cheating, if you can't build a boat watertight, don't. Good enough answer for me.
Here’s the question.
Has anyone on this site ever built the Blitzen by William D. Jackson NA, from The Boat Builder Handbook?
I would guess the plans are from the 1940’s or 1950’s, but I am not positive about that. It is 11ft 2in long with a beam of 4ft 7in, weight around 185lbs.
I like building small vintage hydro’s and runabouts from 8ft to 14ft from before 1960. I use vintage outboards on all my projects.
If anyone has any tips, tricks, or advice they would share, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks in advance
Bob Herrick
Plano, Texas
Introduction time, as this is my first post on the WoodenBoat Forum. I have been lurking and learning for awhile.
I like to build boats watertight without any fiberglass or epoxy coatings. I do not want the extra weight that coatings have. I am old school when it come to boat building, I do however carry this as far as practical as there are many improvements, both to tools and materials.
I use the best marine grade materials available to me here in Texas. Its a far cry of the choices I had in Maine, but if you look hard enough you can find usable stock. Sometimes I have it shipped to me.
I was born and raised on the coast of Maine (Belfast and Rockland) and spent plenty of days hanging out at boatyards, bothering the old-timers (read real craftsman) with a million questions.
Each and every one of the old-timers, while acting like they were less than pleased, would always take the time to answer them once. We always had to pay attention to what they were telling me, you haven't been reamed thoroughly until you ask a craftsman how to do something a second time!
I asked one man why he did not use fiberglass over the wood. He simply said it was cheating, if you can't build a boat watertight, don't. Good enough answer for me.
Here’s the question.
Has anyone on this site ever built the Blitzen by William D. Jackson NA, from The Boat Builder Handbook?
I would guess the plans are from the 1940’s or 1950’s, but I am not positive about that. It is 11ft 2in long with a beam of 4ft 7in, weight around 185lbs.
I like building small vintage hydro’s and runabouts from 8ft to 14ft from before 1960. I use vintage outboards on all my projects.
If anyone has any tips, tricks, or advice they would share, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks in advance
Bob Herrick
Plano, Texas