anyone with any hints on how to get rocker on a skiff?

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  • wallacethegreenmonster
    Senior Member
    • Jan 2005
    • 189

    anyone with any hints on how to get rocker on a skiff?

    Building my second old wharf dory lumber yard work skiff and the plans call for the bottom part of the sides to be cut so that there is a very gentle concave curve with the idea i am guessing that when you flare the sides out the bow then turns upward and you don't have a downward pointing bow. Problem is I'm a novice and screwed this up the first time and now I'm about to put the transom in on this next skiff and it still won't get rocker. I'm cranking in the windlass and have a 2x4 beam in place to spread out the sides. Should I just bring in the transom and then cut a flare in the front of the boat after i put it together? Thanks for any help out there. WGM
  • KylBak
    Junior Member
    • Feb 2006
    • 18

    #2
    Re: anyone with any hints on how to get rocker on a skiff?

    WGM, I'm building a 16' Old Wharf skiff and had the same trouble. I ended up building a small model of the boat to mess with to figure it out. Giving the boat more beam, with the side panels cut as shown in the plans, will increase the upsweep of the bow. Putting more flare in the sides will do the same. However, on the fullsize boat, no matter how much I increased the beam or flare I couldn't get the bow right. Anyway, I was able to finally get it right by taking the weight off the bow. I just attached the transom, put in the spreader and then built a simple cradle that attached to the spreader that I jacked up until the stem no longer had any weight on it. It worked great. Without the chines or the bottom installed the side panels sag a surprising amount under their own weight. After I put the bottom on I let the bow back down and everything was fine. What boat are you building? The "sport" version? 16' or 20'? Just curious. Hope I helped.
    Kyle

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    • Thermo
      Senior Member
      • Jan 2008
      • 352

      #3
      Re: anyone with any hints on how to get rocker on a skiff?

      I think the bow will flare up '"on it's own" a bit from being pointed, but the stern will need some help by tapering it upwards aft, like in the bottom of this pic:



      Which, on the boat, gives a rocker like this (assuming you're still building this one):


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      • wallacethegreenmonster
        Senior Member
        • Jan 2005
        • 189

        #4
        Re: anyone with any hints on how to get rocker on a skiff?

        Kyl-thanks so much, sounds like you found something with this getting the weight off the stem. I wondered about something similar because I build the thing upside down with a lot of extra 4x4 stem sticking out on the upside(the part touching the ground when building) and it seems like this stem just sticks in the ground and doesn't allow the bow to come up and at the same time cause the sides to sort of maintain this bad concavity. So you are saying you essentially lifted the boat off the ground with this cradle taking weight off the stem? Was the boat unstable while you were then working on it? I am building the 16 foot standard version. What are you going to power with? Thanks.

        Thermo-I finished the summer breeze with some key points you provided. It was a great success and I use it for rowing quite often.

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        • KylBak
          Junior Member
          • Feb 2006
          • 18

          #5
          Re: anyone with any hints on how to get rocker on a skiff?

          Yeah, all I did was strengthen the spreader and basically gave it "legs". Then I lifted the bow, put some blocks under the legs, and lowered the bow back down. The stem was now off the floor. Then I blocked under the stem just high enough to keep the boat from rocking. It was plenty stable to work on with it blocked up like this. Not sure what motor I'll use yet. Evinrude's new 25 and 30hp E-Tecs look promising though!
          Kyle

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