Market for new wood runabouts?

[lewmiller]

Have a new restoration project entering the shop this weekend, a 1962 Thompson Sea Lancer, that so far appears to be in pretty good condition. Best feature of all is that it was "free to a good home!"

So off and on for years I've tinkered with the notion of building a new wood runabout. Just didn't come in contact with a hull I liked enough. Restored a 1961 14' Penn Yann a few years back, took off the lines, but decided it was too short.

This Thompson is just right for tooling about the Apostle Islands. A good addition to the "fleet." So we'll use it that way.

So I'll take off her lines during the restoration. The notion of building a new wood runabout is back. But only if there was a buck or two to earned.

Is there any market for new wood runabouts?

[Dan McCosh]

Last I looked, there were about four companies producing new wood runabouts. I'm not sure about copyrights for specific models such as Thompson, Lyman, etc., however. HackerCraft, Grand Craft, and Van Dam come to mind.

[Texasgaloot]

There is a very good market for inboard runabouts such as the Chris-Crafts, Gars, and Hackers, and they are fetching some bucks. I would guess there is a pretty good bracket for those who would love one of those already mentioned but don't have that much moola.

[Lew Barrett]

I'd suspect you are right, but the problem might be that they still cost what they cost to build. I don't see a boat matching the quality of the boats of the early fifties being a cheap proposition.

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

There are a lot of smaller builders beyond the ones mentioned above, but as Lew says, they cost what they cost... if anyone can buy a good restored mahogany runabout for 25k or less, you certainly cannot duplicate a boat of 20 feet in mahogany with an inboard for anywhere near that. If you check the prices of Grand Craft and Hacker, they are far more expensive than their frozen snot equivalent

[Bob Cleek]

Don't bother. The less runnabouts, the better. They are noisy, produce annoying wakes and are good for nothing more that to provide yahoos a way to disturb the peace and quiet of the world. The only enjoyment anyone ever gets out of a runnabout is being in one... everybody else wishes they'd go to hell. A runnabout is just a bigger jet ski.

[Dave Williams]

Yep,

What Cleek said and to add to that, they are a waste of good wood.

Dave

[Tom Lathrop]

Guess I will have to go out and set fire to mine. My friends and neighbors had thought it was great fun and all the admiring comments must have been tongue in cheek, or was that Cleek.:p Does that mean that I have to give back the "best in show" award:confused:

http://www.bluejacketboats.com/Scamp%201%20R.jpg

[Bob Smalser]

Don't look for continued supplies of Honduras Mahogany in the future. It's not a renewable wood in that it won't grow in plantations without massive doses of carbaryl to control the borer that kills seedlings, which is both expensive and ungreen. A neighbor in the music wood business imports cants for resawing, has already experienced shortages lasting as long as 6 months, and expects all his overseas sources to eventually dry up.

I don't know what the future is for Khaya in Africa, but I've never found it as easy to work, and that adds expense.

[Remax]

Get in touch with columnist Joe Soucheray from the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Wood boat enthusiast and man who knows everybody [or knows someone who does know someone] in your neck of the woods.

[pcford]

Have a new restoration project entering the shop this weekend, a 1962 Thompson Sea Lancer, that so far appears to be in pretty good condition. Best feature of all is that it was "free to a good home!"

<snips>

Is there any market for new wood runabouts?

I do runabout restoration...
Lapstrake runabouts are neat...the Lyman 30s go for a chunk of change sometimes.

But as I said on another thread, building is the easy part, selling is the hard part.

[Cuyahoga Chuck]

Don't know too much about runabouts but I know that Bayfield County is paddlers heaven. Last time I was there I got to launch at Meyers Beach, paddled the sea caves for more than 2 hours and NEVER saw anything with an engine. Is that great or what?
Three months later my cousin in Washburn sent me an e-mail that the thermometer had hit -30 so often his well and his septic system were both frozen and Lake Superior was frozen almost out to Eagle Island.
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
Even tho' my personal knowledge of classic runabout knock-offs is meager I am going to visit with someone who is very knowledgable. I will ask.
In the meantime buy something at the Washburn IGA. They're my relatives, too.

[lewmiller]

You couldn't be more right Cuyahoga Chuck, Bayfield County, WI, and of course the Apostle Islands is paddlers heaven. And a heaven for sailors too - which is one of the reasons we chose to retire here.

We buy all we eat at Washburn IGA!

As concerns the anti power folks - sorry, but anything that floats is cool and we coexist quite well in these parts. I love watching a hand made wood kayak slip along the shoreline. And often the paddler will say nice things about my 68 year old schooner and we will return the favor about his craft.

Got the Thompson flipped yesterday - and mostly stood around the beauty admiring the lines. She is a big boat! And I've lost my parking spot in the heated garage/shop for who knows how long.

Major storm here. Removed over eight inches of the stuff from the drive this morning and another eight to twelve is due before it is over.

Thanks for all the comments!

[Lew Barrett]

I'm not anti-power by any means, Lew. By the way....love the spelling!
I also think it's hard to beat the esthetics of the past so I'm all for resurrection of old designs. I just think it's not possible to do them on the cheap; more power to you if you can. I also expect that if you'll be building to Thompson's style, the availability of mahogany may be less an issue, apart from trim which you may be able to do in other species. But those costs are still going to be a bear.

[Dale R. Hamilton]

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d725b3127ccebae9356e731e00000040100QZtGLhw3bsY Well guys- I building these. Does that qualify?

Dale

[George Roberts]

Honduras Mahogany - my supplier always has a large supply of wide/long boards. The price is reasonable.

[Lew Barrett]

It qualifies, but it's mighty small, isn't it?:D

[Bob Smalser]

Honduras Mahogany - my supplier always has a large supply of wide/long boards. The price is reasonable.

Just keep those blinders torqued down tight and the slash-and-burn methods used to get it for you will never be a bother. Well, for a little while longer, anyway. ;)

Google "illegal mahogany logging" "mahogany drug trafficking" "Hypsipyla robusta Swietenia " and "mahogany endangered species" and see what ya come up with.

Honduras (Bigleaf) Mahogany is endangered in Bolivia , some regions of Brazil , Colombia , Costa Rica , Guatemala , Mexico , Nicaragua and a few smaller countries. In Brazil alone, around half of the produce of illegal mahogany logging is sold in the US. And Brazil is just the tip of the iceberg.

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/mahogany-trade-of-power-corru

[Bob Cleek]

I expect that the poor peons south of the border are going to keep on slashing and burning till there's no more to slash and burn. Perhaps it isn't such a bad thing to at least put some of that wood into good boats before it is all gone anyway. There is little point in making environmental "statements" by refusing to buy wood products which may be unsustainably harvested while the underlying causes, poverty and social injustice, go unaddressed.

"The high value of mahogany timber helps to explain such destruction. A cubic meter is worth from US$1,200 to US$1,600 on the international market, where it is known as green gold. By contrast, in the Amazon the profiteers pay around US$20 per tree to the indigenous people who cut them down. "