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My home built boat

A

Alobar

Addicted Member
Boat building is something I have more than a little interest in (never saw a boat I didn't like!) and I always like hearing about others out there building something it. If you have built boats or just want to someday I'd like hearing about it so please post!

At one point I actually started building a 38 foot sail boat but then I got married and came to my senses and had to curb those ambitions just a bit. So after abandoning the frames of that boat I instead built something more appropriate and useful, a 20'4" Bartender. http://bartenderboats.com/ These boats are built of plywood and best described as a double ender that planes. This design came out of the Oregon coast in the 50's and were designed specifically for rough water. The USCG and Australian Coast Guard used to use these Bartenders for surf and river bar rescue where standing surf waves can be deadly, hence the name Bartender. I built mine about 8 years ago to workboat standards for getting around the roadless region in the area of SE Alaska that I call home. The weather here is often an issue and can turn bad on a dime so it is no place for any boat that can't take a little rough water!

Here are a few pictures of my boat:




 
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A bartender! Congratulations on a terrific build. I've always admired those boats and I think that your length is the best looking of the bunch. Much envy here.

I've built a few small boats, a 12 foot Bolger design, a Herreshoff double paddle canoe and a two piece pray dinghy of my own design. Nothing terribly challenging, but I sure can appreciate the work you put into yours. She's beautiful. And looks nice in that environment - Alaska I assume?
 
JLange2010 said:
A bartender! Congratulations on a terrific build. I've always admired those boats and I think that your length is the best looking of the bunch. Much envy here.

I've built a few small boats, a 12 foot Bolger design, a Herreshoff double paddle canoe and a two piece pray dinghy of my own design. Nothing terribly challenging, but I sure can appreciate the work you put into yours. She's beautiful. And looks nice in that environment - Alaska I assume?
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Thanks! It was a fun project to build. Took about a year start to finish. Yes were in SE Alaska where a good boat is about as important as having a car due to the absence of roads. I have built a few other boats before, a rowboat, and a flat bottom riverboat but this was a bit more complicated, with a outboard well, self bailing hull, cuddy cabin that can sleep two very friendly people. I have a Bolger book here. Some very interesting plans for sure.
 
Great looking boat and amazing scenery. Love the old Chevy to !
 
Thanks everyone! Building a boat can really be a lot of fun, and there is an almost euphoric feeling on the day of the first launch! I have an old Flicker page of pictures of building the boat that I will try to find the link to if it still exists.

Grumpy said:
Great looking boat and amazing scenery. Love the old Chevy to !
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Thanks, sometimes when the almost constant overcast does lift here the scenery is, almost drive off the road spectacular!
My old Chevy is a 65 3/4 ton 4x4 with the original 283 V8. It is geared very low so I don't drive it on the highway much but it is great for launching the boat which is only about 1/4 mile from the house. I am also going to get an old snow plow married up to it that I have laying around. Chained up I'll bet this rig will push some snow!

A few more pictures..


 
Here is a Utube video of an demonstration of an Australian Coast Guard Bartender launching off the beach into the surf. These boats were the same hull as mine except instead of an outboard they packed in an aluminum block 350 Chevy with Hamilton jet. The solid piece in the front where the windshield would be is for busting through the breaking surf without being destroyed! Fun...
 
Very nice. What do you have for power in the boat? Looks like a smallish Mercury outboard punched through the hull ?
 
gadget73 said:
Very nice. What do you have for power in the boat? Looks like a smallish Mercury outboard punched through the hull ?
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Thank you! It is just a 30hp Suzuki 4 stroke which is a little under powered for this boat. The recommendation for outboards for this hull is 25 to 50HP. This was a motor I pulled off another boat when I finished this one always with the idea that I would get a new 50hp outboard. Now 8 years later still running the 30 but it will be coming out sometime within the next year or 2. Even 50hp might seem underpowered for a boat this size and weight (aprox 1500 lbs with half tanks) but due to the fairly slender hull it really isn't. With the 30 I can get up to around 20 mph or a little more, with a 50 it would easily move along at 30+
Here are some better pictures of the outboard and well


 
What do you do for rust prevention on the Chevy?

I predict these old 4x4s are going to appreciate in value like the muscle cars did. 15 years from now it will be worth $20K easily. Especially the NAPA (or is it NAPCO?) conversion like yours.

:thumbsup: on Suzuki. This is the first I've heard about Bartender style boats, I'm going research the design. The pointed stern keeps the waves from pushing it, is that the 'point' ?
 
BigElCat said:
What do you do for rust prevention on the Chevy?

I predict these old 4x4s are going to appreciate in value like the muscle cars did. 15 years from now it will be worth $20K easily. Especially the NAPA (or is it NAPCO?) conversion like yours.

:thumbsup: on Suzuki. This is the first I've heard about Bartender style boats, I'm going research the design. The pointed stern keeps the waves from pushing it, is that the 'point' ?
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I am thinking you are talking about the 4x4 part of the truck. I am not sure it is a conversion as it came that way from the factory. GM may have had someone else do these early 4x4's tho. It has a separate (divorced) transfer case that doesn't have tapered gears and is loud as hell going down the road. Sounds just like those deuce and a half trucks in that WW2 movie Patton! In fact it wouldn't surprise me if this transfer case wasn't old military surplus.
This truck has been in the interior part of Alaska since it was new before I bought it and up there it is very dry and too cold for road salt to be effective, thus no salt and the body is almost like new rust wise. They don't salt the roads here in my part of the state either but I do live within a few hundred yards of salt water so rust is a concern. When I start noticing surface rust forming I use one of the rust "converter" products that turns it into a blackish paintable surface.

As for the pointed stern that part really serves as a seaworthiness feature. It can't be used for hauling much weight back there (I put extra life preservers and other light weight stuff back there) but it adds a lot of buoyancy to the stern and really keeps any following sea out. A lot of boats with transoms this size are vulnerable to taking water over the stern if the motor fails, or they go into reverse into waves etc. The Bartender can go in reverse full throttle right into surf and not take on water. It also serves to make running forward at off plane speeds a joy as the boat doesn't change angle at all in off plane speeds. A transom boat always goes bow high until it breaks over on plane. I have had to run just off plane in very rough seas and it was easy as it has excellent handling and visibility because you are not looking at the bow pointing to the sky. Other advantages are that I can work on the motor out in the ocean without hanging over the back. It is easy even to change out props from inside the boat. Also anchoring I always tie the anchor off the stern. Much easier than climbing out on the bow to retrieve!


squirrelnest said:
You have a very nice set up.....boat & truck. How muck does the boat weigh?

I almost got into boat building....went to this store to check out the different craft you can make.....

http://www.clcboats.com/index.php
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Thanks, yes I get their newsletter! I want to build a rowing dory someday. I even have the pieces cut out for a 17 footer. Really like the dory flair to the sides. Very seaworthy. The Bartender is not unlike a dory in that regard as it has a lot of flair too.. I had the boat weighed when I first built it. With the battery, 12 gallons of fuel, anchor, lines, and other "stuff" and the motor installed it weighed close to 1500 lbs once the trailer weight was subtracted. Not exactly light even though I tried hard to keep the weight down. It is built tough tho!
 
Nice to see a reasonable sized motor in a boat for a change. Seems like conventional wisdom is to power them up to 50+ which no one in their right mind can do for long in a 2' chop.

To the poster who wanted to look for more info on Bartenders, be sure to search "George Calkins" the designer and builder. Lots of different lengths of the same basic concept. I think there was a substantial article in "Woodenboat" magazine about the Bartenders a while back, but I'd have to search for it to be sure.
 
JLange2010 said:
Nice to see a reasonable sized motor in a boat for a change. Seems like conventional wisdom is to power them up to 50+ which no one in their right mind can do for long in a 2' chop.

To the poster who wanted to look for more info on Bartenders, be sure to search "George Calkins" the designer and builder. Lots of different lengths of the same basic concept. I think there was a substantial article in "Woodenboat" magazine about the Bartenders a while back, but I'd have to search for it to be sure.
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Yes George had a lot going on, even had a factory where I heard they made a few thousand Bartenders back in the early 60's. They also made quite a few down under as well. It is a great old design that has been revived by a fellow named Bill Childs in Bellingham who bought the designs and business from Calkins before he passed away.
 
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