Obsession: Boats I've Built Over the Years

Article by Skip Johnson

Someone posted a bit on a boating forum that implied that S-glass wasn’t all that good a product. It may well have been a heavy-handed attempt at sarcasm, but it really riled me up—to the point that I responded. One of my initial phrases was “Having built a number of wood and foam strip canoes…” After I cooled off a bit I wondered, How many boats have I built over the years?

Quite as few, as it turns out. I sat down and tried to reconstruct, more or less in order, what I’d built, and came up with thirty-five. Really, that many? Yes probably so.

Here’s the list with a few comments as I go. Numbers are more or less in sequence, but there is some overlap in places.

(1) First Canoe, 65 years ago at the tender age of 16 I decided to build a real boat, rather than the multitude of models built up to then. Steam-bent ribs over a mold, covered with fine screen wire and then fiberglassed—10 oz cloth and polyester resin. 15’ +/- long a little twisted and tender I paddled it for a year or so and then traded it for a go kart. Raced the go kart for a while until twin engines and transmissions made me non-competitive.

(2) Hydroplane. I missed the racing so I built a step hydroplane designed by William Jackson. 10’-8” LOA as I remember ¼” plywood resorcinol glue and a zillion screws. My girlfriend at the time (we’ve now been married 61 years) soaped every single screw thread. Raced in a strip pit against mostly Minimaxes.

(3) Marriage, college and parenthood slowed boatbuilding down for a while but I did manage to make a board sailer which was unremarkable until the daggerboard trunk sprung a leak and it became remarkably heavy.

Graduated with an Architectural degree and we moved to Houston and bought a used Lone Star 13 sailboat which we used for a couple of years until we got our first powerboat, 15’ Starcraft Tristar with a 75 hp Evenrude which we skied and camped with for years.

Fast forward to 1982-1983. Computers and CAD system were in their infancy and I started designing small boats using these tools and haven’t looked back (until now).

(4) First boat was a 15’8” symmetrical canoe to test things out. My son still has that boat.

(5) Next was a dinghy type to further push the envelope as far as making fair surfaces.

(6) Monomania After having a couple of larger dinghies poorly built by a client using cheap labor, I built a small dinghy on a 1,2,4 ratio 22” deep, 44” beam and 88” long. Rather than holding the wood strips down with rubber bands, I had to use monofilament wrapped around the strips and the pegs in the pegboard forms. Seemed like I used a mile of monofilament to build the boat but it was fair and beautiful. I had no real use for the boat and later traded it for a bunch of boating supplies to a boatshop in Kemah. Some years later I rediscovered the boat painted yellow and standing on end as decoration at Sea World in San Antonio.

About that time I bought a pickup truck load of ½” Klegecell foam in 32” x 48” pieces left over from the build of a 65’ trimaran in Galveston.

(7) As an indication that I’d not learned much on Monomania I built a 15’-8” canoe just like the big boys were doing at the time. Build a form, add a layer of fiberglass over form, vacuum bag some foam to glass using epoxy/microballon mix, fair the foam and then glass the outside. Boat turned out nice, did need a thwart as the glass was not quite stiff enough by itself. It was light and we enjoyed it for years and gave it to my father-in-law when his Grumman canoe’s weight became a little too much for him to load and unload.

I also became involved with the Texas Water Safari (TWS) and started designing canoes for the event.

My own personal boats in that area included:

(8) A foam-cored canoe with cut outs for legs to paddle from a kneeling position.

(9) A wildly asymmetrical foam-core sit-on-top (before there was such a thing) midsection was @ 58% back from bow. Equal volume above and below waterline; 2” freeboard and a “bulletproof rudder” from which I learned a fundamental fact about Mother Nature and Murphy.

(10) A pedal jet drive wood strip canoe with outriggers added when it turned out that your feet were a integral part of the balance equation. A friend that could paddle a Olympic K1 canoe and chew gum at the same time couldn’t keep it upright without the outriggers.

Boat #11, a solo canoe

(11) A 14’ solo canoe which became my regular paddler.

A few other non safari boats in the same time period.

(12) Leastie Beastie One of my favorites, an attempt to build a 10# kayak. Much like a stick and tissue model plane, boat was built with minimalist frames and stringers covered with winter window film. 15’-8” boat ended up weighing 12# and was a clear charmer until the sun’s UV rays quickly destroyed the film.

Rowing shell with boat #6 in tow.

(13) Rowing Shell Bill Collins who introduced me to the wild and weird world of the TWS was a real proponent of row rigs, I designed one for him and then took a hand at rowing myself. 21’ wood stripper, the decks were double matched cedar from a plank of extremely variegated light and dark cedar. I used the boat enough to be comfortable with it but I really preferred seeing where I was going and sold the boat.

(14) A foam-cored kayak covered with wood veneer

(15) Easydoesit A 15-10” decked wood strip canoe built as a demonstration project at a Houston Canoe Club Rendezvous at Sam Houston State Park. Steve Lacy and I had the strongback and frames set up and stripped sanded and glassed the outside of the boat in a day and a half. There was a throng of people around the boat 2 or 3 deep most of the time. Glass was laid with vinylester resin both for quicker set times and light weight, vinylester is slightly lighter than epoxy and more sun tolerant. Boat was finished back at Steve’s shop; pulled off form, sanded and glassed inside and decks made (1/8” cedar). Boat weighed ~35# as I remember. A very good boat, used for a couple of years and sold.

Granddaughter’s boat

(16) Granddaughters boat Another Rendezvous project, Canoe Club wanted a demo and I didn’t have any projects at hand so I whipped up a 7’10” canoe built on a single 2x4 strongback and stripped for the Rendezvous and finished it later. Granddaughters ~ 6 and 2 at the time sat in it a couple of times and that was it. Son still has the boat.

(17) Bionic Log. My ten minutes of fame ;-) The next Rendeezvous Don Cash a videographer with Texas Parks and Wildlife, was directed to me since he was looking to do a segment on wooden canoe building. I was thinking about building a sit on top to do the Junior Water Safari so we agreed that I’d do the build first class and he’d video the process and and produce a segment for the Texas Parks and Wildlife PBS TV show. The name came from an encounter with a small kid when I was first trying out #14 at Lake of the Woodlands and was sitting straddle the boat with my legs in the water contemplating balance and a boy on the bank said “Oh mister, where did you get that log”.

(18) Miss Lavi I was doing some consulting work for a client who owned a lumber mill and furniture factory in Orange Walk Town, Belize. Orange Walk was also the finish for an inaugural 40 mile canoe race on the New River. It was a pretty motley assortment of canoes and I approached my client with a proposal to race in next years race if he would furnish a little space, a helper and the wood, I would design, build and race the boat with a couple of his factory hands. Boat was named after the client’s daughter who later married one of the paddlers who did the race with me. I already knew from my Water Safari experience that boats don’t win races, paddlers do. We came in middle of the pack and while I was talking with three creoles that won the race about their boat, one said “Mon, you got a lotta heart, but you’re too f----g old and heavy to do this sh#t.” Words to cherish.

(19) El Dorito The next year I designed and built a 12’ wood strip canoe for the same client to be the backdrop for a display exhibit of their products in England. I liked the name, all small boats in Belize are called dories and it was a small boat; nobody else cared for the name.

(20 to 25) EasyB El Dorito was almost perfect in the sense that it handled well and there were just a few little tweaks to I wanted to do to the shape so I finally designed and built a boat that didn’t whisper “I’d be just a little better if……”. First a 12’ version wood core daily paddler followed by a 14’ version, foam cored for some expedition style trips. Both boat plans (full size frame patterns) used to be available free on Duckworks. Then there were two wood strippers that I built for friends that insisted on having a boat built by me. Both were done on the 14’ form, one mahogany and has never been wet as far as I know and the other only used occasionally. Finally (I think) a 12’ wood stripper after the tornado so I would have something to paddle, followed by a foam strip version which is better suited to the very rocky environ we now live in.

Karankawa

(26) Karankawa The only boat I did as a design and build for a client. Will Meyer is an avid salt water fly fisherman who fished the salt flats on the Gulf Coast in an old 19’ Rainmaker solo safari canoe with some aftermarket floats added so he could fish standing up. The Rainmaker solo was made from a mold splashed off of one of the first Safari canoes I designed. Will wanted a lighter, tougher boat with folding outriggers as he launched the boat from a ‘mother ship’ (~30’ powercat). He also wanted the boat to not turn into the wind when he stood up. I had no idea why his current rig acted that way so I went down to Port Aransas with EasyB and went out with him to see his rig in action. As soon as he stood up I knew what the problem was and what to do. When Will stood up his CG moved forward a bit and depressed the bow and lifted the stern a bit so the depressed bow acted like a rudder. Karankawa had a lot more volume just above the waterline and had no tendency to weathercock. The boat was also my only experience with Zylon. There were no budget constraints and Will wanted a 30# boat. Less is more, 60” Zylon was $100/yard at the time and that was a bargain price, took a $100 pair of scissors to cut the stuff. Karankawa ended up weighing 32# but Will was gracious and accepted the boat slightly overweight. Will has been happy with the boat used the heck out of it and still does I believe. Some of the hull has been recored but the Zylon skin is still intact after many years of operating in oyster shoals.

Colorado 100 boats

(27) After designing an untold number of racing canoes over the years primarily for the TWS I’ve come to know and recognize the competitive zeal in my clients and also recognize I don’t have it; my obsession is providing them with the best tool I can. But I love paddling. When the Colorado 100 race began there was an Adventure Class and Chuck Leinweber called and said why don’t we do it? So we did. Quick and dirty I made a 24’ tandem sit on top covered with polyethylene shrink film made for winterizing boats. Worked fairly well but film came loose from the frame in a couple of places and we sank on a training run a mile or so from the take out. A quick recovering with aircraft fabric allowed us to run in the race but it was a little iffy.

Chuck and I retired from adventure racing but continued participating in expedition trips in our respective solos usually with his wife Sandra also in her solo, a lot of good memories.

(28) Almost There After a year or two I started thinking about doing the Colorado 100 again and maybe go in my 14’ foamcore EasyB or build a new boat. My friend and aerobics instructor Sue VanNatta was a competitive marathoner and indicated she might like to try the race with me. I told her if she would definitely commit I’d build a tandem and we’d adventure race. She committed and I built a new 24’ tandem and we trained and ran a couple of years in Adventure class. Our team name was Beauty and the Beast and my wife Susie was team captain Keeper. It was a grand adventure and Sue retired from canoe racing after two years to concentrate on marathons and ironman competition. Susie and I went to a surprise 50th birthday party for Sue a couple of years later and I got to speak about her heart of a lion as she was afraid of running the river at night but never faltered. Sue was gone from this plane of existence a couple of years after that with brain cancer, I miss her still.

(29) Paddling proa After a run with a friend, Jeff Jouett I sold the tandem and paddled several years in my 14’ EasyB. One year I got to thinking about how much less wake I’d pull if I had a smaller cross section hull with an outrigger so I built a 16’ skinny hulled thing with an outrigger and got it debugged enough to work but the gain was minimal and the risk of not finishing was greater so that was shelved, main problem was the old motor.

The Proas:

Boat #30.

(30)ACDC Shorty Routh had a messabout at Lake Conroe and one year he promoted a $50 sailboat race. $50 won’t buy a lot of materials so I’m limited to two sheets of utility ply but the minimal rules allow a 14’ max loa. The only way I can build a 14’ sailboat out of two sheets of plywood is a proa. So ACDC is done. ACDC doesn’t win the race there’s little wind and an 8’ kayak with umbrella wins. But I rebuild ACDC into a $100 craft and learn some of the quirks and advantages to the type. I am hooked.

Boat #31—P52.

(31) P52 Designed for a competition in the still-missed Duckworks ezine for a Everglades Challenge boat, P52 received an honorable mention in the design competition and was already under construction by that time to participate in the EC with Chuck as my partner. We pulled out about 160 miles in with some broken framing in the float support. Repaired with sliding beams instead of swing arms and a different sail rig I entered the second TX200 and was doing OK until the wind became too strong for the unreefable 48 s.f. balanced club staysail and broke the mast. Rerigged with a reefable but less efficient sail and rudders instead of a steering oar I finally finished the TX200 and subsequently sold the boat.

(32)Bionic Broomstick (BB) I wanted a replacement for P52 but there were some real questions about the sail rig best suited for such a craft, I already had a fair number of candidates that weren’t quite right and built a simpler craft to try out other approaches before committing to a finished camp cruiser. BB was 14’ long minimalist proa made from hotwired foam covered with fiberglass. First rig was a cambered panel staysail and showed a lot of promise but I had a shoulder injury and was sidelined for the better part of a year. During that time I came across two articles in AYRS regarding wingsails. First was by Gabriel Elkams about Atlantis a wingsailed autonomous catamaran. The autonomous part and its control were far beyond my capabilities or desires but the wingsail design itself made sense and resonated with me. Second was a simple ‘circular cam’ control for wingsails by Peter Worsley which I thought was the epitome of elegant simplicity. After my shoulder healed I made and adapted a wingsail to BB and in a short while I had a boat that moved nicely in light conditions and I was ready to move on and sold the boat.

Nomad, boat #33.

(33)Nomad First class this time, P52 had been built out of $10 utility plywood, but could cruise at 10-12 mph easily and hit 20mph with 35 s.f. on a shortened mast. Nomad was a little bigger, 7.7 m loa vrs 6.99 built from rated okume and meranti plywood. Schooner rigged with two wingsails and end mounted rudders that had worked well on BB. Boat was built with some occasional help from friend John Wright. Then it came time to mount the wings, turned out to be more of an issue than I’d thought. BB had been easy, lay the boat on its side and slide the wing onto a stub mast. The stub masts on Nomad were way up in the air. After some effort John and I got to where we could mount and dismount the wings but it still seemed a little iffy. An initial splash at Lake Somerville was unremarkable, there was no wind but the boat moved nicely with its AD scull and the rudders were serviceable but difficult to raise and lower. Subsequently Susie and I took the boat to the Port Aransas Boat Festival but John had a previous commitment. I bowed to some pressure and tried to mount the wings with some local help but the wind caught the first wing and sent it flying along with the gin pole and associated stuff. No one was hurt but I was seriously upset, someone could have been hurt. I retired about that time and we moved to Lake Tenkiller in Oklahoma. After building a house and settling in I advertised the boat for sale in Small Craft Advisor and was surprised when it sold quickly. Before the new owner could pick up the boat an EF2 tornado destroyed the boat along with our other boats, my shop and did extensive damage to our new home.

(34) Trivial Obsession (TO) After all the rebuilding after the tornado and a canoe to paddle (23) it was time to pursue the camp cruiser proa of my dreams again. Wingsails were out though I do think they are a blast for smaller BB style boats. The original cambered panel staysail on BB had worked well and I decided to build another boat to further refine the concept in a planform closer to what would be done on a schooner rigged camp cruiser including some roller reefing. I also wanted to try to improve the end rudder design, which had worked well on BB but not so much on Nomad. Two sheets long plus the rudders, wasn’t quite a down and dirty boat but wasn’t a real first class build either but it did the job. Took three times to get the rudders right, required making six rudder assemblies, I was pretty tired of rudder assemblies by the end of things. It was hard to dispose of TO, not enough of a boat to consider selling (and I needed the trailer) but a little bit better built than down and dirty though with cheap plywood. Eventually was surrendered to the burn pile after stripping hardware and keeping the seating plank for a portable work table.

(35) Questing Beast (QB) The question; “Do I have another major build in me?” Desire to do the Texas 200 again tipped the scales. No more wood, build was foam and fiberglass, 21’ long. My boats get shorter as I get older. Originally I was going to participate in the 2023 TX200 but supply chain issues “I know we show Gpet foam on our website but we don’t have any and don’t know when or if we will ever get more” and the simple fact that I work a lot slower these days delayed participation until 2024. The boat is finally finished and I got to do the TX200 again, a satisfying trip, albeit shorter than planned.

Will there be a number thirty six? I don’t know. At the moment I’m looking forward to the little redo’s , improvements and enhancements to QB and using and tuning the boat to probably do a modified 2025 TX200 starting early at Magnolia Beach and spending some time in Seadrift watching the early racers finish the TWS. If there is#36 it would probably be a new Bionic Broomstick, there’s some lessons learned that might make a better boat and 3D printing would certainly expedite the wingsail control. OTOH a 12’ solo canoe, 21’ proa and a 19’ runabout should keep me occupied as long as I have the ability to enjoy same. •SCA•