Titanic–60′ 1/8th scale half model. Thomas Andrews designer, Western Boatworks builder. This was the actual model used in the 1997 movie.
Titanic (movie model)
Category Archives: Boat Construction
Top Hat
Top Hat, 30′ Morin 30 runabout. Doug Morin/Morin Boats designer/builder. 1985.
USA 002 Racing Skiff
USA 002, 14’4″ Swift Solo racing skiff–Bram Dally designer/builder, 2002.
Whitehawk
Whitehawk, 92′ ketch–Bruce King designer, Lee’s Boatshop builder, 1975.
Yother’s Canoe
18′ canoe–John Yother/Whistling Moose Studio designer/builder, 1998.
Babyface Nelson
A Classic Mahogany Runabout
by Bruce Hutchinson
Above: Babyface Nelson is a replica of Baby Bootlegger, a Gold Cup racer designed by George Crouch and built by Nivens in 1924.
Cover Photo: After two years of work, Bruce Hutchinson launched BABYFACE NELSON at Gull Lake in western Michigan.
What was I thinking? That phrase kept running through my mind during the 2000 hours over two years it took to build Babyface Nelson. Now that it’s complete and I’ve logged 50 hours on the water, I can say it was a worthwhile venture. It’s too much fun! People have commented that it must have taken a lot of patience to complete the project. Patience had nothing to do with it: it was perseverance. I ran out of patience about the second layer of cedar planking! Continue reading
Loss of Stiffness in Small Boat Performance
by Meade Gougeon — GBI Founder
Above: The singlehanded sailing skiff SWIFT SOLO by Bram Dally was part of his design quest to prevent loss of stiffness in small boats.
Cover Photo: The SWIFT SOLO is a single-handed skiff built by Bram Dally. Stiff, durable hulls are crucial to skiff speed.
One of the little-known or understood characteristics of modern fiber-reinforced plastic composites is the loss of some initial stiffness capability after repeated cyclic loading. Loss of stiffness can be significant enough to cause a noticeable effect on performance, depending upon laminate makeup and degree of cyclic loading. Continue reading
Swift Solo
Building for Long-Term Competitive Performance
by Bram Dally
Above: The Swift Solo in action. The complicated rig is designed to be managed by one person while they hang from the side of the boat.
Swift Solo, a single-handed skiff built by Bram Dally.
When Meade Gougeon asked me if I’d write a piece about what I’m up to for Epoxyworks, I was honored. He had read the January 2002 article on my single-handed skiff in Sailing World and offered the assistance of GBI (Gougeon Brothers, Inc.) to do some extensive testing for us on several composite samples. Continue reading
The Three Lives of Cosmic Muffin
by Jennifer Jones
Cosmic Muffin, a unique houseboat owned by Dave Drimmer, has quite an interesting history. She started out as a Boeing 307 Stratoliner, which was acquired by Howard Hughes in 1939 when he bought TWA. The Model 307 was the world’s first high-altitude commercial transport and the first four-engine airliner in scheduled domestic service. In 1948, Hughes had her interior redesigned, named her Flying Penthouse, and she became one of the first commercial airliners converted into a plush executive transport. Continue reading
Readers’ Project, Issue 21
Wooden Runabout
Mark Bronkalla of Waukesha, Wisconsin, built this Glen-L Riviera wooden runabout using WEST SYSTEM Epoxy. The Riviera is a 20′ double cockpit traditionally styled wooden runabout. It was built with cold molded construction techniques (epoxy and wood laminations). Top speed as measured by a GPS is 53 mph! For construction photos and building information, visit www.bronkalla.com.