Ned
Great story and fantastic work. Your project thread reminds me of when I was a kid. My Dad built two boats and my brother and me kind of helped along. We lived in Belmar NJ and Hubert boats were somewhat common. My Dad knew some folks at Hubert and spoke highly of them. For about 10 years from mid 1950s to 1960s Dad and Grandpop were large scale (for the time) commercial fishermen and ran their boat out of Pt. Pleasant so they knew everyone in the boat building business on the shore.
There was a lumber yard in what is now called Ocean Twp NJ, just north of the Asbury Park circle in Rt 35., not sure of the spelling but we pronounced it Deku Lumber. They sold a lot of marine lumber and did a lot of milling and planning. When we picked up lumber the owner had many stories of backyard boat builders that he would speak of. I remember huge high drafts of lumber there, the very loud sound of the planner and the aroma of the lumber. We used a lot of Weldwood resin glue also. Memories of Dad mixing up a batch.
One of our boats was a 14' skiff using the same lapstrake and Jersey cedar as your boat. Smaller our was obviously. I remember spending days/weeks peening over the copper rivet heads by hand. When it was done and painted on the inside you could see long rows of WWWWWWW patterns of the rivet/washer heads, probably 5 or so rows of these rivets the entire length of the boat. It really was an interesting design. To this day every time I pick up a ball peen hammer I think about all of those rivets. I was about 11-12 years old then. One of the amazing things about the experience was that my Dad used hand tools mostly, the only power tools were a twist bit drill, skill saw and a saber saw. We used hand planes, chisels and a brace and bit to drive the brass screws in. I still have most of his hand tools and clamps but none of the power tools have survived father time.
I remember one of my friends trying to tell my Dad about the virtues of fiberglass boats. The thing that has stuck in my head after all these years is my Dad informing my friend that under all that resin is a lot of wood.
Ned keep up the good work. I have some idea of all the work this has been for you. I wish I had your gumption!
Great story and fantastic work. Your project thread reminds me of when I was a kid. My Dad built two boats and my brother and me kind of helped along. We lived in Belmar NJ and Hubert boats were somewhat common. My Dad knew some folks at Hubert and spoke highly of them. For about 10 years from mid 1950s to 1960s Dad and Grandpop were large scale (for the time) commercial fishermen and ran their boat out of Pt. Pleasant so they knew everyone in the boat building business on the shore.
There was a lumber yard in what is now called Ocean Twp NJ, just north of the Asbury Park circle in Rt 35., not sure of the spelling but we pronounced it Deku Lumber. They sold a lot of marine lumber and did a lot of milling and planning. When we picked up lumber the owner had many stories of backyard boat builders that he would speak of. I remember huge high drafts of lumber there, the very loud sound of the planner and the aroma of the lumber. We used a lot of Weldwood resin glue also. Memories of Dad mixing up a batch.
One of our boats was a 14' skiff using the same lapstrake and Jersey cedar as your boat. Smaller our was obviously. I remember spending days/weeks peening over the copper rivet heads by hand. When it was done and painted on the inside you could see long rows of WWWWWWW patterns of the rivet/washer heads, probably 5 or so rows of these rivets the entire length of the boat. It really was an interesting design. To this day every time I pick up a ball peen hammer I think about all of those rivets. I was about 11-12 years old then. One of the amazing things about the experience was that my Dad used hand tools mostly, the only power tools were a twist bit drill, skill saw and a saber saw. We used hand planes, chisels and a brace and bit to drive the brass screws in. I still have most of his hand tools and clamps but none of the power tools have survived father time.
I remember one of my friends trying to tell my Dad about the virtues of fiberglass boats. The thing that has stuck in my head after all these years is my Dad informing my friend that under all that resin is a lot of wood.
Ned keep up the good work. I have some idea of all the work this has been for you. I wish I had your gumption!
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