Author Topic: Double planked runabout
SEANPEAVEY
posted 06-25-99 10:14 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If I were to build a 1930's style runabout with traditional double planked construction, what would you recomend as a waterproofing membrane between plank layers instead of the white-lead impregnated canvas originally used?

Hazen Kent
posted 06-25-99 03:56 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey Sean, some folks will cut a matching piece of 4oz fiberglass cloth and epoxy it in. Go to the site below and you will see a photo demonstration. If the first address doesn't work, try the second. Once on the Home Page, click on Restorations. Then scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "how to flip a boat" then scroll to the bottom and click on "How to keep a boat from leaking" and you be there.
http://members.aol.com/runabouter/bo...storethree.htm

and if that doesn't work then go to...

http://members.aol.com/runabouter/

Holler if you are having problems...hak@gate.net Good Luck. Hazen Kent


SEANPEAVEY
posted 06-25-99 05:07 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks Hazen. I knew the runabout question would get your attention! I have seen how everybody here is pretty much anti-epoxy at least for carvel hull construction, but what about for double planking? Does the same stiffness vs. flexibility question come into play since the outer planks are not acting as the water barrier? I am still investigating as to whether a traditionally double planked hull or a cold molded hull is superior. I have seen two examples of cold molded hull failures from a reputable runabout manufacturer and it has me worried. What do you think about a cold molded hull that is finished in varnish only as opposed to one which is epoxy sealed and varnished?

Hazen Kent
posted 06-25-99 08:40 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey Sean, I would be curious to hear whose boats went bad...for the same reasons as you! I am considering doing the same with my CC Sportsman. The debate is endless between today's methods and the purists. And in defense of the purists...you will find many traditionally built post war wooden boats still in good shape! But, for most today, the trend is to atleast epoxy/cold-mold the bottom. Now the problem many folks have is they think they can just build the boat and then roll on two or three coats of epoxy. The problem is, water always seems to find its way in. And once water gets trapped between the epoxy and the wood, your wood will start to turn black which is a sign of rot. So most encapsulate the wood before it is even put into place. This will include frames, gusssets, battons, the stem, keel and the planking. Then they will Glue and staple the wood to the frames in cold-molded/diagonal fassion. They will pull out the staples and apply a second layer of wood with each new layer covering any staple holes left behind. With the finish product being a totally encapsulated bottom. Then they will roll on two or three more coats of epoxy, sand and bottom paint. And it really can make a water proof bottom. Now the big issue I have noticed comes with the freeboard area between the sheer and chine. Some will epoxy the sides (WEST 207) then lay on the varnish, while the purists will stain the wood, seal and varnish. The problem with using epoxy on the side is the inability to use the better filler stains. I just spoke with the WEST Systems guys today and they informed me that the product in the stain used for filler will negatively affect the adehesion of the epoxy. Therefor many folks use a water based stain which can prove tricky and messy! He did say some oil stains will work but make sure the filler product is not in it. The jury is still out on doing this to the side of the boats.
The main concern when encapsulating wood is making sure the wood is dry enough prior to covering. If it is still relatively damp (a reading which can be performed with a moisture meter...and they ain't cheap!)and you encapsulate, the wood could rot from within. And then you really will have a mess on your hands.

I have also heard to stay away from oak and even ash with regards to encapsulating. Both are strong and often used for frames and gussets but tend to be less rot resistant than say Fir or Mahagony...again, this from the guys a Googe.

With all this said Sean, I am going to cold mold my entire boat, bottom and sides, with four layers on the bottom and three on the sides. I will also encapulate the entire inner structure. I will roll expoxy on the bottom...but will I roll do so to the exterior of the freeboard? I can't decide.

Finally,you had mentioned cold-molded boats without expoxy...Well, the inventor of the diagonal cold-molded method, Frank Huckins built wonderfully fast motoryachts in this fassion in the pre and post war era up until the early seventies...and used the glues of the day. He also build some of the fastest PT boats during the war. Today, you will find many Huckins Yachts in excellent condition. However, Huckins has restored many of their boats using epoxy.

I suggest you get the book "Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction". It really is a good read and full of good info. Also Glen Witts book, "Boatbuilding with Plywood" is also excellent for those interested in the "runabout" size boat.

Sorry for the excess pros. Hazen


Hazen Kent
posted 06-25-99 09:27 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey Sean, one more thing concerning flexibility. The more epoxy used, the less flexible the boat. Again, this where the debate between the Purists and Techno's takes place. The traditional hulls will soak up water, the wood will swell and gain some water weight and become heavier in the water. As the boat gets used, the wood will tweak a bit, loosen a tad, and the boat will give you that "wood" feel that everyone boasts about. But remember, that wonderful feel is a sign that planks are loosening! Alot will depend upon how much you will be using your boat. If you live in the northeast where water time is limited to a few month's, I would use minimal epoxy. I live in the southeast and on the Atlantic/Intracoast waterway and will be using the boat year round in salt water conditions. I am sacrificing that "wood" feel for durability and longevity therefor, epoxy will be used throughout the boat. Essentially I will have a plasitic boat...but you know, It will still be the best-lookin' **** user boat in the area! Hazen

Miller, Robert W.
posted 06-26-99 01:59 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To be sure Sean P., were I to hear the Pipes o' though locks and build a dream. I would no foget the plan of my clan. Post here the color of your tartan. Bob M.

Bob Cleek
posted 06-26-99 02:12 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm no runnabout man, that's for sure, I just admire them. However, I can tell you that double planking has been around for a long, long time. The finest of the Herrshoff and Nevins built yachts of the golden age were double planked. I was surprised to learn, reading an article in the new Maritime Life (great mag... get it) that the Thames barges, large lee board sailing craft designed to carry tremendous loads and to take the ground when the tides were out, were double planked in the 19th century and many are sailing still. Their use as cargo vessels put great strain on the planking (imagine sitting on the hard with a cargo of building stone!) and because they had to carry cargo that had to stay dry, like wheat, etc., they couldn't leak a drop. They used horsehair and pitch between the planks and it's still working on the surviving examples! Hershoff used muslin and heavy cut shellac. I've heard of guys using 3M 5200. Certainly, as Hazen said, glass and epoxy is a good option, as would be Dynel perhaps even better, owing to its facility to stretch and conform to odd shapes. On the other hand, I think I'd opt for plain old googe, epoxy resin thickned to peanut butter consistency. I just saw a particularly difficult twisted garboard hood end laid in three layers with this method and you really have to look closely to tell that it's laminated. Of course, there is the problem with epoxy not being waterproof (hence, I am skeptical about "encapsulation"). Water does permeate it, you know. Also, read what Larry Pardey has to say about epoxy repetitive stress performance parameters, strength loss related to temperature, and degeneration over time. These considerations may affect its suitability for a runnabout hull which has to be light and take a licking and keep on ticking. If Pardey's data is accurate, and it sure seems to be, a gap filling resorcinol like Aerolite would be the best choice because it is waterproof.
By the way, I would like to know more about the concern that encapsulated wood will rot from within. The research I've read indicates that encapsulation's main benefit is in slowing down the permeation of air, not water. Rot spores need both water and oxygen (albeit stale air) to thrive. It doesn't matter how wet the wood is, if there isn't oxygen. That's what is excluded in the necessary quantity when wood is encapsulated, so why would the moisture content make any difference, except as to the wood's ability to absorb the epoxy resin? One of the main advantages of CPES over epoxy resin as an encapsulation material is that the solvents in it are designed to drive out the moisture in the surface of the wood, making the moisture content less of an issue. (It's also a heck of a lot easier to apply than resin!)

I'd think about double planking with Aerolite gap filling resorcinol, which is waterproof, and then slapping on an all over coat of CPES, then varnishing over that, if you want the best, and most authentic, job. But... as a sailor, what do I know?


SEANPEAVEY
posted 06-26-99 06:35 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I wish to make it clear that I am not pointing fingers here, I am only telling it as I saw it. Also, this observation is not only based upon my personal experience but more importantly upon the experience of a restorer of all sorts of wooden boats for the past twenty years. The manufacturer I referred to is Hackercraft in Silver Bay, N.Y. on Lake George. Sorry Hazen, I know this is going to hurt.
After reading all the boat building books I could get my hands on for the past year, it was finally time to get my hands dirty. For the last two months I have taken a number of boat building and refinishing courses at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, N.Y. Consequently, it has been my good fortune to have met a number of well known and knowledgeable wooden boat builders, refinishers and restorers.

For ten dollars the museum will take you on a sixty mile per hour, half hour tour of the Thousand Islands in the Saint Lawrence River on a two year old 29' (I believe) Hackercraft. For years I have been a great admirer of John Hacker and his designs and more recently Bill Morgan (the current owner of Hackercraft). Well, one of my instructors pointed out an on going problem with this two year old runabout. He showed me blackened areas where water had infiltrated the wood and started rot between longitudinal plank seams and butt joints all along the top sides. Unfortunately, an up close examination to check for epoxy cracks was not possible as the boat was in the water at the time. Apparently this problem had cropped up last year. Over the winter the boat was pulled, sent back to Hackercraft and replanked. When I saw the boat this year, it had been in the water only two months before the black stains had reappeared!

Last year I had the opportunity to visit and tour the Hackercraft facility. They apparently use two layers of 1/4" diagonally layed plywood strips stapled and epoxied before laying on the ½" Honduran Mahogany planks with Stainless Steel fasteners (I don't know if the ½" planks are epoxied as well). This three layer system is for the bottom only, the top sides have only two layers. I have been told that the entire hull is then coated with epoxy; I don't know how many coats. I understand that these boats have been built in this fashion for at least the past fifteen years, with the exception that at one time the top sides were built with just the ½" layer of Mahogany. I was told they found that additional strength was needed. I don't know when the change over was made, but it was a few years ago.

Well, you see the predicament I'm in. Here I would like to build a Hackercraft like runabout based upon some of John Hacker's designs but would like to execute it using the best of today's proven technology. I thought I had the answer but now I'm not too sure.

Now Hazen, what you just found out from the West boys could very well account for what I saw. However, I can't see this problem having occurred recently and I can't imagine this has been on going for fifteen years either; unless of course Hackercraft has recently changed their filler/stain!? I also don't understand the advice not to encapsulate Ash and Oak because they are prone to rot; isn't that the point of epoxy encapsulating???? I too will be using the boat in salt water and it will be getting a hell of a pounding with all the chop we have here by the Atlantic. I initially favored the additional strength of a cold molded hull. Maybe cold molding is not the issue here, just whether or not to epoxy coat the hull.

As for Robert Miller's non boating tangent. My clan is McKenzie, my tartan consists of a green field with red and white pipping and I wear the Kilt with a Prince Charlie jacket every chance I get. Erin go braugh.

Bob Cleek, thanks for the suggestions on a replacement for white lead impregnated canvas. As stated above, I do not know yet whether to go with the traditional double planked hull or the West system. I am always one to find better ways of doing things as long as there is enough of a track record to bear that out. However, as you said double planking has been around a lot longer and more often than not I find myself going back to the old ways of doing things.

Ultimately what I am looking for is to have a boat with the elegance, beauty, strength and ride of wood but with a minimum of care. A tall order to be sure but I thought that I might at least get part way there.

Does anyone have any experience with the UV blocking Polyurethane (I believe, I don't have the literature in front of me) varnish that the Gougeon brothers recommend to be put on top of their 207 coating epoxy?

Also, has anyone seen the black rot mentioned above in any other boats that are cold molded or epoxy coated?
Thanks all

[This message has been edited by SEANPEAVEY (edited 06-26-99).]


Hazen Kent
posted 06-26-99 07:44 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey Sean, upon visiting Connecticut two weeks ago to pick my project boat, I too had heard that the Hackers were having some problems as well. I know I'd be bummed after forking out 40 grand for a wooden speed boat! I had not heard the specifics but the gentleman I purchased the boat from had also mentioned he had seen epoxy covered hulls, at least the portion above the water line turn black within two year period...these were boats that were epoxied on the outside and then varnished over... Now I am stuck too!!! Help!!! I too agree with each of you with the encapsulating process and the questions that have come up...and Bob is far more knowledgable than I (and a great help to me as well!) Heck, I don't know what to do either. You know, the one negative about too much epoxy, if the boat does show signs of problems, I would imagine it would be real difficult to fix without having to rebuild! Sean, I purchased some videos out of Traverse City, based on runabout restorations...there are nine of them and I forked out the $375 or so for them all...and they have been of great help! You will find them for sale on the CC Club website, in the "Trading Post" section, right column. Hey, if you hear any info outside of this website, please let me know. My address is hak@gate.net. I will be patterning and rebuilding my gal for quite a while, so the finish work is definitely down the road...but any info you get, holler. Good luck. Hazen.

Classic Boatworks - Maine
posted 06-27-99 07:58 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just as a matter of curiosity, how many of you guys have actually built a double planked hull using the method that you are promoting? How many have built a cold-molded hull?

Hazen Kent
posted 06-27-99 10:38 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So What's Your Point? I think it is obvious we could use some help here...as stated, our knowledge is based on what we have read/heard...so rather than question our knowledge in what appears to be in a condescending way...why not offer your experience and advice! The forum is for helping...you restore and build boats...how about lending us a hand? Hazen Kent.

J.Cajune
posted 06-27-99 01:03 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Huh? I'm lost in cybersea! That'll teach me to rant on and then try and edit for more...
[This message has been edited by J.Cajune (edited 06-29-99).]

[This message has been edited by J.Cajune (edited 06-30-99).]


KM Bever
posted 06-27-99 10:54 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm sounding like a broken record. But check out Danenbergs method in Classic Boating a few issues ago. He uses 1/4 plywood for the inner planking, 3M5200 for the membrane / adhesive and outer planking as orginial. That what I've done, it's simple, easy, and messy. KM Bever

SEANPEAVEY
posted 06-29-99 08:36 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
J.Cajune, thanks for your insight and experience. It sounds like cold molding is the ticket but without the epoxy coating. Just out of curiosity, since everybody is so up on CPES, have the Gougeon brothers o.k.'d it's use with their system?

Hazen Kent
posted 06-29-99 09:50 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey Sean, I spoke to the folks at the "Rot Doctor" yesterday regarding this very subject (they are sellers of CPES) and I was informed that CPES and WEST are compatible. Go to the site at www.rotdoctor.com and take a look. There is some good info on CPES. Also go to the Q&A section. You will find alot of good info there. Finally, I wrote the folks there concerning my boat with some of the same questions as you and if you would like I will e-mail you his response to me. You may find the info helpful. If you would like the info, give me a holler I will be happy to send it on. Hazen Kent hak@gate.net

John Gearing
posted 06-30-99 03:50 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A few thoughts....
You mentioned you plan on using your boat in the Atlantic. I may get whomped for saying this, but I don't think your varnished boat is going to be too happy living in the ocean. If you built it traditionally you'll use thousands of brass screws. They look great under the varnish but I'm willing to bet they well corrode all too readily in salt water. Also, I don't know how reasonable it is to subject a varnished hull to a steady diet of salt water and marine growth. As I recall the mahogony speedboats of old were mostly used on lakes, or on rivers or other non-ocean waters. I think some of the great races of the past were held on the Detroit River and Seattle's Lake Union. So, regardless of how it's built I'm not sure a mahog speedboat is the right boat for the ocean. I expect the folks at Classic Boatworks will correct me if I'm wrong, and why not as they have a lot more experience than have I.
But back to the issue of building methods for a minute. Batten-seam construction was one of the traditional methods. This is like carvel except that there is a full length batten let into the frames behind every plank seam. The batten makes the planking watertight and removes the need to caulk plank seams. If I were to build one of these I'd be mighty tempted to shape each piece to a dead fit and then coat all surfaces with CPES (and let cure, since CPES is a sealer not an adhesive) before installation. But the stress of use can make a batten seam boat work and leak so they say, hence the rise of methods which make for a moncoque hull, like cold molding. Take a look at the speedboat designs by Nelson Zimmer. They are in one of the Woodenboat design catalogs. One of his designs is definitely batten-seam, but I recall that a couple of the others are molded. As far as I can tell they were never the subject of the "Designs" column in the magazine proper.


SEANPEAVEY
posted 06-30-99 08:21 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John, I didn't mean to imply that the boat would be used "in the Atlantic", merely that I was on the Atlantic. We have quite are large protected body of water here between us and the ocean. But yes, salt water is a consideration. I didn't plan on using brass screws or leaving them exposed, ala Baby Bootlegger. I am going to use Silicon Bronze screws and bung them.
The marine growth should only be a problem below the waterline and a good ablative bottom paint should take care of that. I too am slightly concerned about the wearability of varnish in a salt water environment. I have seen it work here when used in small areas but I believe that the greatest concern comes from the Sun (U.V. and heat) than from the salt. If anyone can enlighten me on this fact please do so.

Thanks for the Nelson Zimmer reference. I believe he was a protege' of John Hacker and I am familiar with the designs you mention. I too am becoming a fan of CPES. Thanks for the input.


Art Read
posted 06-30-99 12:03 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Varnish and salt water incompatible? Hmmmm... Seems to me I've seen plenty of bright hulls in salt water on both coasts. Some quite large. We had a couple of clasic Cris Crafts giving tourists "speedboat rides" when I was growing up on Cape Cod. They were finished bright and always looked great. I guess maybe the maintenance schedual was a little steeper than Lake Tahoe's "concourse" boats, but after all, we all have wooden boats because we "love" maintenance, right? The brightwork on the rails and deck furniture of a schooner I used to run was regularly inudated by green, salty stuff every time we buried the bowsprit. A bucket of fresh water and a chamois was part of every day's routine for putting her "to bed" for the night. (right after washing the decks down with buckets of seawater...) UV will be your biggest problem, and the sun don't care if you're sitting in salt or fresh.

Scott D. Rosen
unregistered posted 06-30-99 12:11 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There's no need to avoid varnish just because your boat will be used in salt water. Salt water, alone, will not damage the varnish; but salt water left on the boat may intensify the effect of the UV light, i.e., sunlight.
Salt water, when left on your varnish will dry into a crystal form. The dried salt crystals act like millions of miniature magnifying lenses to strengthen the effect of the sunlight. There are several solutions, all of them workable:

1. Keep the salt off your boat. This is easy; just hose off the boat with fresh water after you are done using it or anytime the boat gets sufficiently covered with salt water.

2. Keep the sunlight off the boat. You can do this by covering the boat or by keeping the boat under some shelter that provides shade.

3. Use a high quality, two-part varnish that will resist UV damage much better than a traditional one-part varnish. Rivale makes such a product, which is reportedly used by some of the best boat builders like Riva and Hinkley. Call Yacht Systems, Inc. at 508 758-4488 and ask for Court or Georgia.

We gotta kill these varnish myths whenever we can.

[This message has been edited by Scott D. Rosen (edited 06-30-99).]


Miller, Robert W.
posted 06-30-99 11:24 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Top "o" the day to you Sean! I see as usual that the pundits blow smoke at you when they have no hard advice to give. What to use between the planks? the same thing the guys who could not read used. Old varnish or shelack(sp ?) cut with red lead if you can find some. Lay the outer planks wet over unbleached musilin set in the goop. When decide to fair the hull, just use oil based seam compound in the screw holes that get the bronze racing paint. Bung anything that gets clear finish above the paint line. Now for the stuff that will kill your boat. Salt water(especialiy cold sw) won't. Any finish that will not allow water to leave as fast as it allows it to enter will. Bob M.

Scott D. Rosen
unregistered posted 07-01-99 09:21 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank God for Miller. Reading your posts is such a humbling experience. At least there's one person on this forum who can read English and knows all of the answers.
[This message has been edited by Scott D. Rosen (edited 07-01-99).]


Bob Cleek
posted 07-02-99 01:09 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, I'll weigh in here. I've been doing a lot of research (including the kind that gets epoxy under your fingernails) on modern epoxy cold molding techniques as well as adapting epoxy for use in traditional construction. I'll say this much. You have to commit to either a monocoque hull, i.e. cold molding a single structural unit, or to traditional construction (separate bits and pieces fastened together). You can't take a traditional hull and framing structure and then put a bunch of sheathing and epoxy over it and hope to have a boat that is never going to need maintenance. The traditional boat will move, and the epoxy sheathing won't. Another limitation that is often overlooked is that only certain hull shapes are suitable for cold molding. Traditional hull shapes were not designed solely within the limitations of the sea, but also within the limitations of materials and construction techniques available at the time. Modern designs intended for construction using epoxy cold molding methods are best for this technique. Classic designs with hard chines or sharp reverse curves very often do not lend themselves to cold molding and are better built the way they were intended.
As Miller notes, the traditional way to double plank is with white lead or heavy cut shellac and muslin between the planks. This will permit the planks to move while still keeping things watertight. If you use epoxy between the planks, you are creating a monocoque hull, at least from the rabbet up. The whole hull is going to swell and shrink, not just the individual planks. While I am considering this approach, I keep finding myself less enthralled with it precisely because I can't reconcile the conflict between a monocoque hull skin and a traditional rabbeted caulked seam between the hull skin and the backbone. I think that this may well be the cause of the high incidence of garboard seam problems with traditionally framed cold molded hulls. Too much stress on that one rabbet. If you can bring the cold molded hull skin all the way around and just tack a fin keel on her, it works, but if you are talking a traditional keel, I worry. I have a hunk of life oak from a tree on my place that is drying right now for turning into a caulking mallet... and I may end up sticking with the tried and true assembly methods after all, even though epoxy makes a great adhesive in traditional construction.

By the way, I've found that one really slick use for epoxy adhesive is to laminate planks, even if they are going to be caulked. Saw one garboard on a hard chined clipper bow with a wicked, wicked, twist. No way that one inch hood end would tuck in without splitting. The solution was to laminate three layers with the twist build in by just screwing them one on top of the other. Pulled it off again to clean up the edges and a good caulking bevel was made.


John Gearing
posted 07-02-99 03:17 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gawd, did I really say that about varnish? And that from a guy who has seen a bunch of speedboats living in salty water! Sorry one and all. My only excuse was that the hour was late--I must have suffered a brain phart. Some of the historic speedboats did have lovely brass fasteners which I still think would be ill-advised in any boat destined to see much salt water. What Bob said in his most recent post to this thread is corroborated by googe guru Jim Brown (of trimaran fame) who doesn't recommend epoxy for laminating thick pieces of wood.

SEANPEAVEY
posted 07-02-99 01:06 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob, point well taken. As a matter of fact I have just finished the Gougeon brother's book and in there they do away with the garboard rabbet entirely. If memory serves, they bevel the keel so that both the port and starboard garboards come together in the center of the keel. This then gives you one half the width of the keel on which to fasten/glue the garboards. The point at which the port and starboard garboards meet is then capped off with a sort of false keel. This certainly comes closer to achieving a monocoque hull as well as providing a much larger surface area for the garboards to be fastened.
By the way I was surprised by your statement "the high incidence of garboard seam problems with traditionally framed cold molded hulls". This is the first I've heard of this. Can you provide me with any more information or direct me to someone who can?


J.Cajune
posted 07-02-99 10:39 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amen brother, to Bob's passage. You cannot immobilize a large chunk of wood with epoxy and/or sheathing. In most boats there seems (no pun intended) to be a good and easy decision to be made as far as traditional vs non traditional wood construction and the presence of a large keel/backbone assembly might be a natural factor to turn the tables toward one technique or another. With a small exception to the notion of hard chines or reverse curves being solely traditional areas, though. A monocoque Rozinante is entirely possible while still being a wood hull. It's not the same boat but still a worthwhile afterstudy. If I were to attempt a cold molded (loose interpretation) ChrisCraft I would look to the type of construction used in the offshore racer type, Endangered Species, featured in WB a while back. I like the idea of wooden boats reclaiming the title of cutting edge from the plastic fantastics, so I have no prejudice about new techniques if they apply. And I think to a small, fast runabout they could apply, with great results. Cajune

[This message has been edited by J.Cajune (edited 07-02-99).]


John Gearing
posted 07-03-99 05:07 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the article about Abaco dinghies there's sort of a sidebar about Abaco runabouts and their fine qualities. Doug Hylan or someone took the lines off one the builder considered his finest and the magazine offers plans for either a strip planked or cold-molded version. A sweet-looking boat! If I ever shake the sail/row/paddle bug I just might build one of them for myself!