Building an all wood 18' Flatbottom

[neil grinder]

i will ask around and see if i can find out something about your . gave me a few day . and i will ask a round. thank you for the photos god bless neil

[Pericles]

Paul,

You mentioned Glen-L, but have you seen the Ken Hankinson boats there?

http://www.boatdesigns.com/departments.asp?dept=718

https://www.boatdesigns.com/departments.asp?dept=2

Pericles

[Paul Lastrucci]

Thanks John,

I understand they did have a frame kit however not sure what boat the initial kit was. My dad and his pal George Witt ( quite a coincidence to Glen L Witt ) seem to remember it being a Campbell E that hailed from the USA; however, they replicated this frame kit and made some minor changes.

Looking at the pic of the boat on the trailer with my brother Pete running it; the hull had a chine on either side, unlike the Crackerbox hulls that I have so far seen. They tell me that they were experimenting with these chines to get the boat to turn a bit quicker. It also had two skegs mounted midway underneath, one behind the other. In the turn they got it to settle in the chine and they could get around the buoy without it sliding out too much, thus improving their circle times.

These pics were taken much later in the late seventies and you will see the stack exhausts and a 4BBL Holley in place of the Edelbrock Tri power intake that I mentioned it had in the previous post. The Tri Power ran three Strombergs and later he battled to get bits for them, especially here in Africa so he went the 4BBL route to keep it reliable. Being a direct drive, if she fired, ran rough and then bogged from bad carburettion you were already a couple of feet away from the dock, and needed to summons for help to get it back, the Holley worked fine.

A bit more history. This boats home base was at the Rynfield Dam in Benoni just east of Johannesburg. It's race number was E 71 and it was called "Naughty Nonsense” It was built by George Witt and my dad during 1957/58 in a garage in Rosebank Johannesburg. It was first powered by a side valve Ford or Mercury engine not sure! with Offenhauser bits, however my dad located a 57 Bel Air that had an accident and scooped the little mouse motor out. They set the old flathead aside and soon arrived at the lake with a little fire breather.

Their best achievement was in 1965 at the South African Olympic Games where my dad received a silver medal and his Springbok Colours for coming an overall second in the two heats of the day held at the Wemmer Pan in Johannesburg. I was a little un' at the time, all of 4 years old and brother Pete was 5, we have numerous memories of days at the lake listening to the roar of that little foot throttle, stacked exhaust, Chevy only interrupted by rough water which will remain indelible in my mind forever. It's really great to have an interesting dad.

When I see what you guys have done, I feel sad that this boat actually passed away slowly on it's trailer succumbing to the elements. This, I guess, due to numerous so called more important other commitments -- Oh well

So, I still have all the hardware bits and I need to get busy,

I would love to see your pics when you start on the 62 Patterson and thanks to the guys for the links I will pursue them

Cheers
Paul

[johnmillerboats]

Paul,
I forgot about the Campbell brothers, they're shop was about 10 miles from ours. Yea, they made flats and E boats. The 2 brothers were Bill and Bob Campbell, I understand someone is still building Campbells in Arizona, but I doubt they have the templates for your boat, but who knows look them up.
I'll dig around and see if I can find anything out as well.
john

[neil grinder]

there is a old chacker box boat comp here in calif by the name paterson boat. he has been building chacker box hull for years but i dont have the number i will do the same and look around to what i can find out neil

[johnmillerboats]

Had my grandkids over for Christmas, couldn't get them out of the boat. ha ha

[Paul Lastrucci]

Thanks John and Neil

I checked out Campbells and see that they have an outfit in Lake Havasu in AZ been and was sold by the Campbell bros in 1973 to Bob and Judy Whelan. I will give them a shout, -- who knows, a set of plans may not be that far off.

Love the grand kids, the little guy behind the wheel and his sister on the far end are beaming, -- Santa must have been good to them, whilst it's all just a bit much for the cutie in the middle.

[johnmillerboats]

Installed a 12 gallon S.S. fuel tank, should be enough fuel to run for a day. V-drive flatbottoms are very easy on gas, 19% overdrive and a 11x15 3 blade prop, you can cruise at 45 mph turning only 3000 rpms. The boat should be able to pull close to 5500 rpms at WOT which will be well over 70 mph.

[johnmillerboats]

Got the adjustable cavitation plate assembly installed, just a few things left to do including the motor and upholstery and the boat will be finished.

[johnmillerboats]

Just got to fire it up and break in the cam, then take it to the lake for a shakedown.
Here's some pics:

[johnmillerboats]

another pic of the engine installation and drive line guard

[johnmillerboats]

Seats installed

[johnmillerboats]

[dragonjbynight]

man, that is one beautiful machine. keep the pics coming, your inspiring some of us younger guys who just want to learn!

[big-boss]

Man, that is Art!!! Way more than a boat, thanks for sharing your build. I am a rookie to the site as well and ran across your thread for the first time , right now. Great, you doing your Daddy proud!