14th Star: 18' Palmer Fantail Launch

[Rich Jones]

The shop has been swept out and the lofting floor laid down. It's time to build another boat! This will be build number 17 for me. One of these days, I'll slow down...

In another thread last winter, I deliberated over this plan, going over the pros and cons. To me, it's the perfect example of this type of boat. I also considered a Whitehall and a Rangeley with an electric trolling motor pod on the rudder. But, as beautiful and functional as those boats are, they would just be rowboats with a motor slapped on the back, not the fantail launch that I envision.

The plans are from Mystic Seaport and are from the 17' Palmer launch "Bluebird". It was built in the early 1900's and the lines taken off by Robert (Bob) Baker in 1967.
The plans only contain the lines and offsets. No construction plan or specs. So, I'll be spending a lot of time in my "thinking chair" (pictured there in the back of the shop).

[Rich Jones]

Re: 14th Star: A 17' Palmer Fantail Launch

Here's the plans and the rough model I built last year to study the shape. The cockpit seating is my own idea since nothing shows on the plans. That will be up for further study.

[Rich Jones]

Re: 14th Star: A 17' Palmer Fantail Launch

And what does the good wife think of this new boat, you might ask? After spending the summer building her the 10'x48' deck with 10'x16' screened porch that she wanted, how could she refuse? She's wholeheartedly endorsed the project. She knows how much I love tinkering with and building boats. However, if I had started building the boat before finishing the deck, I believe severe sanctions would have been imposed!

[boat fan]

Re: 14th Star: A 17' Palmer Fantail Launch

Nice tidy work Rich !

Happy wife , happy ......

[Rich Jones]

Re: 14th Star: A 17' Palmer Fantail Launch

A few more details.
The boat was originally plank on frame, but I'll be going with strip planking. 3/8"x 3/4" western red cedar. Glassed on the outside and sealed and possibly glassed on the inside. The interior will have supporting bulkheads and some laminated ribs. Decks and other woodwork to be of undecided wood and probably oiled as opposed to endless coats of varnish.
This past Spring, I had the chance to see a 23' Palmer launch that was in storage. I took a lot of notes and measurements about it's woodwork, etc. so I hope to copy a lot of that on this vessel.
Progress will be fairly slow with a projected launch date of Spring 2017. It usually takes me about two years to build a boat.

[Rich Jones]

Re: 14th Star: A 17' Palmer Fantail Launch

Forgot to mention power! At this time, I'm planning on using a 80lb. thrust trolling motor. It will be placed where the rudder is with the shaft running up through the deck and hooked up to some sort of steering. I will put in the propeller shaft tube in the skeg, so if I repower with an electric inboard in the future, I'll be all set to go. At this time, I can't justify the thousands of dollars an inboard electric would cost. The 80 lb. thrust trolling motor is just sitting here, begging to be used and should push the boat along at something approaching 5mph.

[shade of knucklehead]

Re: 14th Star: A 17' Palmer Fantail Launch

Cool!

I am getting ready to start also, although mine will be more traditional construction with a gas motor in it.

[Rich Jones]

Re: 14th Star: A 17' Palmer Fantail Launch

I've been ignoring my outside autumn clean up chores and plotting out my station molds instead. All eight are now plotted. Next is to deduct the planking thickness (since the offsets are to the outside of the planking) and redraw the lines to their final shape. There's a note on the plans stating that the offsets were taken off the lines plan and are "uncorrected", meaning that there might be some fairing of the molds to do once they're up on the strongback.
After lofting the final shape of the station molds, I'll be grubbing around on the floor lofting the rest of the boat.
Maybe I'd better get to some of those outside chores first...

[Rich Jones]

Re: 14th Star: A 17' Palmer Fantail Launch

This will be totally boring to some, but others might like to see how the station molds go together.
Shown in the first photo are the heads of drywall nails driven into the lines representing the inside of the planking.
Next, a piece of wood is laid over the boards and smacked with a hammer. Flip the board over and connect the dots with a pencil. Cut out on the bandsaw. Screw the pieces down on the drawing, carefully aligning everything with waterlines, centerlines, etc. Screw together with drywall screws. Finish up by drawing waterlines, sheer and centerline on the mold. Unscrew from drawing and stack against wall. Repeat eight times.

[Rich Jones]

Re: 14th Star: A 17' Palmer Fantail Launch

Why molds made of pine, you might ask? With strip planking, each plank is temporarily nailed/screwed to the form while the glue dries. Particle board and plywood have really lousy holding power on the endgrain with lots of splitting. The pine will afford me plenty of holding power, especially when I need it where there's lots of twist in a strip.
The secondary reason is disposal. Plywood/particle board is environmentally unfriendly to burn and expensive to take to the dump. The pine, I can cut up and it will provide me with kindling for the woodstove that heats my house all winter.
Speaking of winter.... it's snowing right now. First snow of the season. Just a coating, but still snow. It might be time to put away the patio furniture...

Another decision was made last night. Following the sage advice of Todd Bradshaw, I'll be glassing the inside. It'll make for a stronger and less flexible boat and I can also use TiteBond glue instead of messy expensive epoxy. It will also make fairing the hull easier.

[Rich Jones]

Re: 14th Star: A 17' Palmer Fantail Launch

Wow! Almost made a major mistake.
In the decision making process on this build, over a 8-9 month period, I kept going back and forth on whether to make this a 17' or 18' boat. Argument for the 17' was to keep it original. Argument for the 18' was to stretch out the waterline to make the hull more slippery for the low power electric motor. I decided on the 18' version and built a model of that.
I'd forgotten this and started lofting to the 17' length. Luckily, the model was sitting next to the plans this morning and I noticed that it was longer then the plans! A quick measurement and going back to my model building thread confirmed it all.
So, I've just put down a fresh coat of paint on the lofting floor and will start over. Hadn't gotten too far anyway.
Going with advice given on the model building thread, I'll be adding length to the midsection, adding 4' between the three widest station molds.
I'll also change the title of this thread if I can figure out how.

[boat fan]

Re: 14th Star: A 17' Palmer Fantail Launch

Wow !

Lucky you caught that early Rich .

[Rich Jones]

Re: 14th Star: A 17' Palmer Fantail Launch

Changing the title is done by moving the thread to another sub-forum and then move it back. Doing that gives you the choice of a new name. Easy to do. It is done by using a menu called (IIRC) Administrative Tools or something like that.

Done. Thanks! Well... thought I was done. It changed in the original post but remains 17' launch in the rest...

[Garret]

Re: 14th Star: A 17' Palmer Fantail Launch

Done. Thanks! Well... thought I was done. It changed in the original post but remains 17' launch in the rest...

Title shows as 18' to me! But - the post titles say 17'

Purty boat - looking forward to seeing how it goes!

[J.Madison]

Re: 14th Star: 18' Palmer Fantail Launch

You could loft the whole thing at 17' like you started and then space the molds a bit farther apart on the jig. Nothing else will change, no harm done.

I guess if you pick up the keel length from the lofting it would be wrong...