Looking for Chris Craft plans

I am looking for a set of plans for the 1937-1940 Chris Craft 16ft race boat. Does anyone know where I could find these? I plan to build a small classic runabout and I have a couple Hacker designs I like, but I would like to check out this particular Chris Craft design. Does anyone know anything about it? There are some great shots of one here:
http://www.antiqueboat.com/boatdetails/15172-R16.aspx

 

Mariners Museum in Newport News, Virginia has the Chris Craft archives including plans. You may have to pay research fees for the staff to determine if they have the plans, and if they do to have them copied.
http://www.marinersmuseum.org/library/chris-craft

 

I contacted the Mariner's Museum, but they do not have those plans on file. It seems that they are especially rare. Thank you for the suggestion, though.

 

This is very similar to the new Saetta Classic 20, which is a kit boat available from Kimball Enterprizes: http://www.saettaboats.com/.

I had a little something to do with this, and you can read the story on my website: http://sponbergyachtdesign.com/Saetta.htm.

Eric

 

That's a great looking boat! I wish I could build something of that quality. I am planning to build a small runabout. I have a few plans that I like, but I am really interested ini the early 16 and 17 ft chris crafts. My favorite design that I have plans for now is a 1930s hacker craft. It is a 15ft hydroplane called "hornet." I am thinking about creating my own design based the plans I have now, scaling them down to around 14 ft and modifying them for an outboard.

 

Hacker Plans and Chris Craft Plans....



If you wish to get your hands on the John Hacker Plans or the Chris Craft plans you need to know exactly what type of boat drawing, Photograph, brochure etc. I just left the Museum Library which is in the Trible Library college campus wing not in the Mariner's museum, and I am getting a blue print of a John Hacker Runabout. The don't allow photographs but will photgraph them for you for I think they said $7 a linear foot. The plan I looked at today was a little wider than a leagal pad and twice as long. They are dragging their feet though. I may volunteer to help get things moving. I would love a CD rom of PDF's of the Hacker / Chris Craft Collection. I want it in PDF cause I have acess to a Plotter and can blow it up my self. The woman to contact about Photographs of the plans is Erin Lopater Phone757) 591-7769 Fax: (757) 591-7354.

 

Thanks for your response. I had limited success with the finding plans. I was able to get a few chris craft drawings from the mariners museum that turned out to be not exactly what I wanted. I was able to contact a guy in new Hampshire that had exactly what I wanted, but he refused to share. I ended up designing my own boat based on some plans and pictures, then made my own desired modifications. I made a mockup picture that can be viewed at www.nbehlman.com/mockup.png. I am just beginning construction now.

 

I was gonna go with an orginal Hacker plan for my boat...

I was gonna go with an orginal Hacker plan for my boat...however the company who currently builds them discovered that the bow raises to high and obscures the captains view under the current power plants of today. They corrected the design flaw and so I am probably gonna use the Neiman Marcus hull and profile on my boat. It has stairs on both sides and rolls up at the stern like a barrel back. I am building the model now. Glen-l has some great Chris craft knock offs. I took a pic I found edited it in paint and then opened it in PowerPoint copied it pasted it, rotated it and now I have the frames. My boat design is my avatar picture.

 

I'm toying with the idea of adapting the signature design elements of these old Chris Crafts into a kayak design. It would give up something in hydrodynamics, but then most of the kayaks out there make some trade-offs for appearance and it would look awesome.

 

A Chris Craft kayak would be pretty cool. Let me know if you would be interested in any of the material I have. I wrote a code that reverse engineers the radius of curvature of the film and flam on the 1937 double cockpit runabout. I another code for weight, displacement calculations etc but I'm sure there's plenty of stuff out there for that. I wrote a weird code that averages hull forms together. When I was developing the lines for my boat, I essentially cross breeded my own line drawings with chris craft stuff to get what I wanted.

 

That's great if you like to work your arms out.

 

I think the performance debits can be mitigated by smart design. It would obviously be much more narrow than a Chris Craft and you would have to taper the stern quite a bit. As long long as you have the rolled over stern look, youre good. Just keep the transom very narrow to minimize afterbody drag.

 

Here's what I'm thinking...

As far as I can see, the key design elements of this vintage of Chris Crafts are the continuous deck with small cockpits, the planked decking, rounded sterns, single hard chine near the waterline, and fairly vertical prows. The continuous planked deck, small cockpit, and steep prow are all common kayak design elements, and the hard chine is mostly a function of construction method. The CCs used a shallow V planing hull form at the stern, which could come with a significant drag penalty in a displacement hulled kayak. To avoid this, I'm thinking of using a modified wineglass stern design like the one shown below. If the waterline was at the level of the chine then it would give the appearance of the CC design while minimizing the drag penalty. I haven't worked this up in Freeship yet, but when I do I'll post the results.

 

As you study the CC plans and boats, read reports of handling, and ride in a few, you'll see that they are pretty hard-riding and sometimes hard to control, particularly in turns. This is why in my classic-styled designs I have gone the opposite direction of what you suggest. My bow sections are slightly convex, not concave, and my stern sections are constant deadrise at 20 degrees. These are very quick and soft-riding boats, and easy to control in turns. Your wine glass section might be OK for a displacement-type hull like a kayak, but quite the wrong shape for a planing hull form, in my opinion.

Eric

 

You're absolutely right, the design I'm talking about would not be suitable for a full size planing hull, but should be tolerable for a displacement design. I'm trying to come up with something that looks recognizably Chris Craft while still being usable as a kayak.

Besides, if I could plane my fat a$$ in a kayak then we would have to re-think some laws of hydrodynamics!