Henrietta: The Columbia River Gillnetter turned Downeast Lobster Boat

[lukes]

Still looking for suggestions for the 'glass' in the hatch. 0.375" Plexiglass? Is a heat gun going to get it to to match the curve? I'll give it a try next week and report back.

In the mean time, I had planned to cut the curve in the pieces by hand, but there's some really crazy grain in these pieces, and I wanted an excuse to use the new to me belt sander, so a few minutes later:

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That's about as far as I'll take it before I glue the pieces together. The tips of the dovetails went a little low on the belt sander, so the entire sides have about a 1/16 to go which I'll get with the RO. Next up is cutting the reliefs on the bottoms, drip edges, rabbet for the glass, and I need to sort out the hinges. I've got some on the way, and want them in hand before I cut the back edges.

If i were to do this again, I think I would cut the curves before i cut the dove tails. I made them pretty tight at 1" thick and then sanded a whole lot of the joint away. I'm still plenty happy with them, but they would be tighter if I cut them now. I think I could overcome the difficulty of layout on the curved surface, but who knows... Next time.

[cstevens]

I have no experience bending plexi that thick, but I'm not sure a heat gun would give you an even enough heat across the full sheet. It looks like the panel would be small enough to go in the oven though. I'd start there.

For more info on heat forming plexiglass than you could ever want, try:

https://www.plexiglas.com/export/sit...ing-manual.pdf

in particular, page 11 provides temperature ranges for bending 2-dimensional curves depending on the type of plexiglass being formed.

[SaltyPete]

Nice boat you have there!
I’ve been lusting after a local 32 foot aft house for some years now.
The guy is ready to sell, I hope to do the deal this week!
Do you know the weight of your boat? I need a trailer and can’t find any info about gross weight.
What do you think is the proper hp/ gear reduction for your boat? The one I’m hoping to own soon has a Chrysler 360 and the current owner says it will get up on its shoe. 18 knots. I’d be more comfortable at 12 I think.

[lukes]

Thanks Pete! She's a fun one for sure.

I'm guessing yours will have been a bristol bay boat, no? You're a long way from the Columbia...

The travel lifts around here have fairly crude scales that usually put me right around 8000 lbs. Keep in mind I'm 29 ft long, I've got a massive cast iron diesel for and engine and I carry 100 gallons of diesel.

I'd bet a similar boat at 32 ft would be close to 10,000 lbs.

My engine is rated at something like 90 hp and is more than enough. Originally these were powered by little 1 cylinder engines, but if you want to go 12kts i'm thinking 50 or 60 hp will do you. Others here might have a better idea.

As for gear, you'll need to do the math for your engine, transmission, prop. You need all three to be right to get the right performance. If you look back in this thread, my original transmission spun the prop too fast. This mean that at idle, I went too fast, and I could never really open the engine up without going way too fast for the hull, (like 18kts with more to go...). I swapped for a different gear, and now I idle slower, and at wide open throttle I'm around 16 kts, which is still too fast, but at least I can work the engine through a larger range of RPM.

Mostly I can troll for salmon now without constantly bumping in and out of gear...

Got any pics of your boat? Good luck on the sale!

-Luke

[SaltyPete]

Thanks for the info
yes she did fish the bay. That’s encouraging news about HP, I like the new Yanmar 57 hp/ 155 ft# torque, good flat torque 1200 to 2400. Same weight as the Chrysler,550#. We have a very good prop guy here who will tell me what reduction and prop size is best.
What are your thoughts on seaworthiness? My main purpose will be jigging around the corner out of kachemak bay 60 miles one way, unprotected for the most part. I’m a little concerned w the low freeboard.
I’ll figure out how to post pics and send the two I have.

[SaltyPete]

Fat lady was the original name.

[lukes]

Yours will be a bit bigger than mine, but I mostly stay in protected Puget Sound, and only go out on nice days. My boat is pretty tender, so it doesn't take much on the beam to make her roll pretty hard. If I wanted to be out in rougher water I would almost certainly put paravanes on her, but she suits me just fine for how I use her. I don't know your area very well, so hard to say how'd she handle it. 2 ft of chop here will be all wind waves spaced close together and are no fun. 2 ft out there might be 10 seconds apart and hardly noticeable.

My gut feeling about my boat is that I'm going to be very, very uncomfortable long before I'm actually in an unsafe situation. It's that narrow beam and rounded bilge that will get ya, long before the lack freeboard becomes an issue. I do wish the cockpit was self bailing though...



That yanmar sounds perfect. If my engine ever showed any signs of trouble, that would be at the top of my list.


That's a nice looking boat. Do you know where she was built?

[cstevens]

How's Henrietta doing Luke?

[lukes]

Hi Chris,

She's doing great. I can't seem to post pictures right now (this has happened before...), but we've had a good summer. Never made it to the islands, but did spend a socially distant few nights tent camping for a birthday on Blake. The two, 4 hour each, shrimp seasons were a success, crab and salmon have only been fair, and we've been too busy to really put the time in. I hear the ocean run Coho are in now, so all of you moving at less than 4 kts in the sound should be trolling a lure... (pending a detailed read of the voluminous rules and regulations and check for last minute changes)

We hauled out in June for paint and zincs, and pull a couple fasteners. Everything looked great. Finally got some paint on the house and decks. Got some much needed varnish on the very few bits of bright work. Found some bits of soft wood on the house, repaired them. She's in as good a shape as ever. If I can ever post picks again, I'll show you the house in bright white instead of the cream she came with. I think I like it.

I think the one and only time I'm not envious of Skookum Maru is when I sand my entire hull in just a few hours... SM is looking great by the way. I always enjoy the updates.

I still need to finish that foward hatch project, and of course now SaltyPete has me thinking about putting poles on her.... The main mast is already there, it wouldn't be THAT much work, right? I think she'd look pretty good with some nice wooden outriggers and some little paravanes... I should probably just go fishing instead...

[lukes]

There we go...

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[cstevens]

Ah! She looks great. I like the white cabin sides. They set off the black hull nicely. And yes, I have had the thought on several occasions recently that a slightly smaller boat would be a lot less work... Henrietta seems pretty much the perfect boat for how you use her.

[lukes]

Yup, she's about right. Not quite a cruising boat, but plenty adequate for camping, and a far sight better looking than the sea of aluminum and fiberglass I find myself fishing next to with regularity.

And like SM, I finally got her name put on after a year or so of anonymity. It's just vinyl, but it'll have to do:


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I'm sure she's less work, but it hardly feels like it. Even a simple haul out like this years leads to frantic trips to fisheries before they close to get the thing you didn't know you needed to fix the problem that cropped up to get the last slot on the travel lift schedule for the day so the seams don't open up any more.... But you know how it goes. This is the first time I've ever launched with dry paint!

The comments about blue tape on your thread reminded me of the last time I was at Canal. I launched with wet paint, as usual, and didn't notice the paper that Ivalyo used on his slings, now stuck to my hull, until some nice kayakers in the locks pulled them off and handed them to me. Only a little embarrassing. It was also "opening day" which, not being a PNW local, is still a foreign concept to me. When is it ever closed?

[cstevens]

Yep, any haulout is a chore for sure! Glad yours is done. As for Opening Day, I guess it's mostly a tradition for the yacht club crowd. I've done the parade a couple of times but never really got into the whole thing. As you say, when is it ever closed?

[lukes]

Lest I be accused of ignoring Henrietta while I work on Reliance...

The hatch is getting close to ready to install. After all that talk of heat setting the glazing, I just put a few small screws in it, and it looks great to my eye. It's 3/8" Polycarbonate, and it takes the slight bend with no issue. It feel plenty strong as well, so I think as long as it doesn't get too scratched up, it'll be perfect.

Everything has been dry fitted. I 'lapped' the base into the shape of the foredeck, and I'm ready to varnish. I'll install the hatch on the same day I cut the hole in the deck, which will keep the rain out while I get the raised coaming, and beam/carlin modifications installed. Then a bit of fiberglass work and paint, and she'll be better than new.

I'm really looking forward to being able to pull the anchor from the V-berth instead of climbing around the house to the foredeck.



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[Alan H]

If i were to own a powerboat....what you have right here is just about perfect.

[lukes]

Thanks Alan, I like her a lot too.

If I had all the money in the world (or was building new), I'd find a way to address how tender she is, and how loud she is. Those are my only 2 minor complaints. She would really make a perfect electric conversion, and I'm thinking hard about adding paravanes some day. But until then, I don't mind the rockin or the tractor engine that much.

[Alan H]

Would 500 pounds of sandbags in the bilge help with the rocking? ...flopper stoppers on small booms would make nights at anchor more comfortable at very little expense.

[lukes]

I think the absurdly oversized engine in the bilge is enough ballast. mmd is right; it's the hull shape. She resembles both a PNW troller and a lobster boat, but she doesn't have the draft of the first or the beam of the second. I'm convinced paravanes are the answer, and given that I already have a mast, I think it would be easy, fun, and probably effective.

I've got pretty good sound deadening on the engine box and the exhaust. I do need to add some below, and seal up some areas. If I get too quiet, I'll lose my excuse to dream of hyrbid or electric propulsion though!