Brockway type build by a true Amateur!

[chuckp]

I grew up in a fishing community and owned a small wooden boat with a plank bottom at an early age - a family relative gave me an old 5 hp Evinrude so we spent all our time on the local river in Bon Secour, Alabama. Later when I thought I wanted to be a commercial fisherman, I purchased a used 18' wood mullet skiff that was built locally near Mobile, Alabama. I wish I had never sold that boat although it was a long time ago! The man who built the skiff was Floyd Bosarge, he passed away in the late 90's and his boats are getting scarce.

In recent years I've been looking for this type of commercial/recreational wooden boat but have not had much luck and started getting interested in building one after a lot of Internet research where I found the Brockway type skiffs that had been being built by high school classes. Mr. Brockway was generous with his boat building knowledge along with the folks who helped put the manual together at The Sound School. The informational part of the manual is a great read.

I've built birdhouses and worked on a roofing/construction crew for a few weeks and that's about it so this will be an interesting build! The help I've gotten here on the woodenboat forum has been much appreciated!

This is the second bow stem, the first one split all the way down to the center a couple of weeks after getting beveled. Can't find any 4x4's other than pressure treated in the local lumber yards.




Transom in work




Butt blocks curing on the sides (no MDO in the lumber yards around here - or the sign shop)




Bow stem curing




Sides pulled in around the mold




Boat in the shop waiting for the transom




Ran into a problem installing the transom - when installing I could never get the center line to line up on the mold after running a string from the bow stem to the transom. I tried moving the bow and stern around to get the mold to line up with no luck. I did discover the mold is out of flatness by 1-2" so I will probably rebuild the mold with some straight 2x4's and try again.

Chuck

[Auroradan]

She looks good Chuck!! Keep up the good work and take lots of pics. Take pics of mistakes too, it helps the rest of us get over ours

Dan

[chuckp]

Rebuilt the mold today and got the center lines in better alignment - the boat seems to have more of a "bow" towards the stern than other Brockway types I've seen?!

Center lines




Starboard side at the stern - no problem




Port side at the stern - can't pull in gap any more




Starboard side at the mold




Port side at the mold




Seems like the sides bow in more in the stern area than other Brockway types I've seen such as Dan and Greg's.




Chuck

[chuckp]

Couple more photos

Port side, stern




Starboard side, stern




Chuck

[Peerie Maa]

Have you measured half breadths from the centre line to the sides in between the moulds? That may give you a clue about what is going on. Also measure diagonals from the stem to the mould at chine and shear, to ensure that there is no twist there, then from the centre of the mould back to the transom corners to check them for square . If all triangulates out symmetrical, run a hand saw down inside the ply to re-saw the bevel until the sides fit.

[McManusBoatWorks]

It is hard to see from the pictures but could it be that your spanish windless is a bit too far forward and it is pulling the curve out of the plywood on that side.

[Peerie Maa]

It is hard to see from the pictures but could it be that your spanish windless is a bit too far forward and it is pulling the curve out of the plywood on that side.

This could be right, if you don't have pipe/sash cramps, put some two inch batten under the spanish windlass at chine and sheer to avoid bending the ply sides.

[chuckp]

Thanks for the tips guys, I moved the windlass strap further aft and adjusted the transom a bit and got the gap out.

Port side where the gap was




Transom installed




I made a mistake while bending the keel, I was bending it with weight in the middle on top of the board with the ends supported underneath and unrestrained. That allowed the board to warp along with bending it so now I have it setup like the manual shows with the board over some blocks towards the middle and the ends weighted now - looks like the warp is coming out!

Chuck

[cboat]

Chuck, keep up the good work and keep the pictures coming.

[chuckp]

Well, it sure is hard to find any kind of decent wood for the chines and rails... all we have around here so far is treated 5/4 x 6 x 16 decking which seems too stiff. Can't find any mahogany, cedar or anything else... going to check with a local saw mill and a boat builder tomorrow to see what they have. May have to rip something to make it work or start bending some more lumber!

Chuck

[Hunky Dory]

Most lumberyards carry mahogany planks for decking we have used it with good results for skiff building.

[Auroradan]

Well, it sure is hard to find any kind of decent wood for the chines and rails...
Chuck

Chuck,
For my internal chines I used a 20' 2x6 from lumber yard. Then I spent most of an afternoon setting up bandsaw in the driveway to split it. Band saw setup Pic here: http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t...f/PICT4256.jpg Took a lot of digging to find a board with least amount of knots. I hope you're doing an external chine, internal real pain in the backside.

She's Looking Good !!
Dan

[Greg Stoll]

Looks good Chuck! Glad you got it 3D. Keep it up, you obviously have a better workspace than I do, you may end up finishing yours before I finish mine!

Greg

[chuckp]

I doubt that Greg, things are moving slow here - finally found some cypress wood for chines at a saw mill/lumber yard about 1.5 hours away from here... think I'll just use some treated 5/4 x 6 x 16 decking from Home Depot. My little truck would make a long trip home with another 8-10 feet of board sticking out the back bouncing around!

Good to hear from you Dory, wish we had some mahogany decking around here but so far no luck.

Dan, I was looking at your photos and noticed it looked like you ripped your boards down - I'll probably do something like that soon.

Chuck

[jclays]

Did you screw down your butt blocks or did you just weight them down? Im building a 12ft skiff in the similar style. I'll be glueing up one of the sides tomorrow after work and am debating if I should screw and glue or just weight down the butt blocks till the epoxy cures.

[chuckp]

Hello Jdays,

I glued and screwed the butt blocks - about 40 screws on each side.

Chuck

[jclays]

Building a similar style boat but in a 12ft version. How long after attaching the sides to the stem do you allow the epoxy to cure before applying pressure and draw in the sides with the Spanish windlass. I dont want to pop the sides from the stem by applying pressure to soon.
Thanks
Jim

[chuckp]

Hello jclays,

After I glued and screwed the sides to the bow stem, I waited two days before I started getting serious about drawing in the sides at the transom.

Chuck

[Soundman67]

It is hard to see from the pictures but could it be that your spanish windless is a bit too far forward and it is pulling the curve out of the plywood on that side.

if you have more of the same ply that you made your sides from you can clamp it over the sides to extend them and move your spanish windlass to behind the transom. Hard to describe here without pictures but if you dont get it I will try to draw a picture.

[chuckp]

Hey Soundman,

Makes sense, I'll keep that in mind!

Chuck

[chuckp]

Hey Folks,

I found a local lumber yard that can order some 1 X 6 X 16 treated #1 lumber - should be here early next week... so I can't work on the boat this weekend and then we're traveling to see our daughter about 4 hours away early next week... I'm having building withdrawals!

Chuck

[Greg Stoll]

Will you be ripping it in half for the chines, or will you use one per side?

Greg

[chuckp]

Hey Greg,

Depending on how flexible they are, I would like to use one per side - I'll find out hopefully on Thursday!

Chuck

[chuckp]

The chine looks a little wide, think I'll cut them down to 4.25"!

Chuck

[jclays]

Two inches would be more than enough. I would save the 4 inches for the shear clamp up top.

[Greg Stoll]

Hi Chuck,

Just checkin' in on your progress... Chines can be ripped down to 3.50" wide.. and still provide protection and good look..

3.5" is what I used on mine, but that's just me. The Brockway is fully customizable ;-)

Greg

[chuckp]

That is my kind of boat!

Chuck

[wallacethegreenmonster]

awesome to see some people building Brockways! i have built three of these over the last 4 years and found them to be really fun and satisfying projects. like you guys are saying you can have them look however you want and you can change the plans and use different stuff for gunwales, chines, benches inside, cupboards, you name it. the first one i built took 7 months and i was painstaking in the process trying to make everything just right. it was a 16 footer and i kept it for a year and just did not like the way it rode so i sold it and in 6 days built a 14 footer of the same design(same height sides too) paying little attention to faring everything down and it rode 100 times better. the 14 footer i had all together and was about to put the bottom on and didn't like the way the rocker looked so I just took a marker, drew a line similar on both sides, and hand sawed a new shape. This boat has been in three years and has not had a single problem. These boats can be made rough hewn or to perfection and all styles seem to work. I think Earl Brockway cut wood, tarred everything, pounded nails, and sent the boats on their way.

[wallacethegreenmonster]

Putting up a recent picture of a skiff built in 6 evenings of work. The external chine was the key in making this project doable in such a short time. Just let the thing run off the ends by a foot and then trim them down. Doing an internal chine is a "wrestling match" as Walter Baron would say. I did my first internal chine in 15 degree weather and that was painful. Quahog skiff.jpg

[chuckp]

Hey Wallace,

Nice looking skiff!

Chuck

[Greg Stoll]

Putting up a recent picture of a skiff built in 6 evenings of work. The external chine was the key in making this project doable in such a short time. Just let the thing run off the ends by a foot and then trim them down. Doing an internal chine is a "wrestling match" as Walter Baron would say. I did my first internal chine in 15 degree weather and that was painful. Quahog skiff.jpg

Wallace,

That sure looks a lot like my Brockway; what design is it?

Greg

[chuckp]

Making some progress on the skiff this weekend:



You guys were right, the 36 grit sanding disks do take material down quickly! I used the 36 grit disk on the transom and a 7" plane on the chines. I was a little nervous cutting off the stem and grinding that area down but I think it will work out.

The center lines came in just fine after both chines were installed so I'm looking forward to getting the rest of the bottom going next!

Chuck

[Greg Stoll]

Looks good Chuck! Keep at it!

[chuckp]

Hey Greg,

I like the floor timber jig you built - I think I'll try them out.

Chuck

[Greg Stoll]

Hey Greg,

I like the floor timber jig you built - I think I'll try them out.

Chuck

I still have them, want me to ship them down?

Greg

[chuckp]

Thanks, don't you need them for your next boat?!

Chuck

[Greg Stoll]

Thanks, don't you need them for your next boat?!

Chuck

Eh, prolly not. Or you could make your own, they're pretty easy.

Greg

[chuckp]

Hey Greg,

I really appreciate the offer - I'm gonna put some of my scrap wood to good use and try to make a couple.

Thanks!

Chuck

[chuckp]

What would you guys say is the largest gap that can be filled with adhesive (PL Premium) while installing the bottom at the transom and bow stem?

Transom:



Stem:


Chuck

[Greg Stoll]

I'm not positive, and there's a lot of anti-PL prejudice on here, but I'm sure it'll hold those joints together fine. Don't forget the mechanical fastenings though! (belt and suspenders approach)

Greg

[chuckp]

Oh yeah, lots of screws!

Chuck

[David G]

PL Premium will fill those gaps just fine... as long as you put enough on in the first place. And - it doesn't shrink any great amount, so you don't have to worry about it drying out and shrinking away from one side or the other.

[Auroradan]

PL Premium is good stuff and cheap. Before filling the gaps at bottom of stem and transom, soak with Anti-Freeze. That should prevent any rot from starting.

Dan

[chuckp]

Thanks for the tips guys!

Chuck

[chuckp]

Hey Guys,

Sorry for the slow posting, work and home life have kept me busy although I have worked on the skiff some!

I have some time off coming up and am looking forward to working on the boat a bit more often, below is a link for some photos of the progress:

http://s1221.photobucket.com/albums/...1960/12-16-10/

Chuck

[simonmags]

It's all coming together chuck. How long would you say you've spent working on it so far, and what's your best guess of how much time you need to spend to finish her off?

[chuckp]

I'm kinda slow and have had to remake/rework a couple things (new bow stem after the first one split to the center, notching butt splices, shaving down the chines, bow stem and transom, etc.). I would say I have about 30 hours in it now and really don't know how long it will take to finish, maybe another 30-40 hours at my pace!

Chuck

[Auroradan]

Chuck,

Pics and Brockway looking great! Keep up the good work, cannot wait to see her plowing through the waves!
Curious, what plans if any do you have for her interior layout? Open, benches, top ect.

Dan

[chuckp]

Hey Dan,

Very open plan right now, most likely a seat towards the middle for the young lady and that is about it right now. On our old 18 ft fishing skiffs (Bosarge) we had a open fish box in the middle and would sit on the sides at the motor! I'd like to add more later but am impatient to get on the water!

Chuck

[chuckp]

Got the bottom on the skiff, time to start trimming!

Chuck