Glen-L.com

Helo

Can someone tell what the differnce is between these two Barrelback's Boats

There is a Hankinson Custom 19 BarrelBack Design from Glen L

And there is this one From Classic Wooen Boats in Australia it says it's a 1935 Custom
Barrelback

http://www.classicwoodenboatplans.com/c ... elback.htm

I thought the BarrelBack were made from 1939 onwards.

Can someone explain and educate me regarding theBarrelBacks

Thanks

here is a start on the barrelback info...
http://www.chris-craft.org/wiki/index.php/Barrelback

the "1935?" is traditional construction (be careful here as i have heard/read some things about people trying to build from these "plans") The Hankinson design uses cold molded construction and will support the new power plants and has slightly modified lines for a drier more stable boat.
pictures of it here:
http://glen-l.com/weblettr/webletters-1 ... ack-1.html

you can see the cold molded process if you click on my Belle Isle build link below.

-Billy

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Billy's Belle Isle website

Billy

Thankyou for the info sounds like saved me a lot of grief

I have had these plans for about 18 months which I purchased about 18 months ago and was about to start the construction on the Barrekback

I have a second set of plans for the "Riviera" which I bought from glen L
about the same time.

Riviera it is. Im going to lengthen the Riviera by 10% as recommended
by Glen L that brings it to 22ft, I wonder if anyone else has lengthen the
Riviera, May start another thread on the subjuct

Once again Billy Thanks mate.

Regards Darren

I have a set of the BB plans from Hankinson. I see one minor difference in the stem. The Aussie stem is an exact copy of the original Chris while Hankinson's stem will lend itself to an easier building method. The Hankinson stem will be made of plywood and can be built in one piece. Take a close look at the Aussie plans and you'll see a curvy, almost jigsaw shape where the stem and the keelson (to coin a genuine Chris Craft phrase) join each other. If you wanted to build your stem using solid lumber, the Aussie plan would be the way to go. Hankinson advertised his plans as being specifically designed for the homebuilder and the stem is one of those areas. Another difference is that with the Hank plans, you can get the patterns. These are important if you don't know how to loft. The Aussie plans are advertising as being full sized ..... so I dunno.

As far as cold-moulding goes, you can't have compound curves in the topsides WITHOUT resorting to a cold-moulding building process. Take a look at the Aussie design and you'll see that frames 4,5 & 6 all have reverse curves in the topsides. You would have no choice but to cold-mould this hull. (Rember that the transom is frame #0.) Take a look:

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Isn't it amazing!! The person that never has the fortitude to pursue his own dreams, will be the first to try and discourage you from pursuing yours.

...they are not using the cold molding process... solid wood fastened to battens (traditional construction) and 8/4+ on the 2 piece coverboards. also if you are resolving the traditional bottom issues, a Danenburg style 5200 bottom thrown in instead

_________________
(insert witty phrase here)
Billy's Belle Isle website

I should probably clarify. When I say "cold moulding," I mean a process of double or triple diagonal planking that allows for the compound curves ..... regardless of adhesives. And, correct me if I'm wrong 'cause I could be, but I was thinking that the term "cold-moulding" came about because in times past, a hot adhesive was used with the double diagonal planks. Once adhesives came into vogue that no longer needed to be heated, the term "cold moulding" came about to differentiate this "new" process. Am I right on that?

If I'm correct, then any adhesive that didn't need to be heated could qualify???

_________________
Isn't it amazing!! The person that never has the fortitude to pursue his own dreams, will be the first to try and discourage you from pursuing yours.

Hello. First time posting here. This is a great thread.

I am looking to build a barrelback and this thread hits the nail on the head for me. I also started a thread at the woodenboat forum along these same lines this week. Am I understanding correctly that the plans from classicwoodenboatplans.com are designed to be traditionally built? From looking at their plans it appears that they are "recycling" old public domain plans (Hacker, Chris Craft, Zimmer, etc.). I very much want to build a classic barrelback using traditional construction, but the Hankinson cold-molded boats look so good! I have been reading the Danenburg restoration method book and am intrigued by his combination of old and new in his restorations.

I am torn between proven beautiful boats and tons of photos of construction or traditional built (NO EPOXY) based on recycled plans - going it alone. Has anyone here built from their (classicwoodenboatplans.com) plans?

Thoughts??

Jason

Welcome,

The Glen-L/Hankinson plans offer a good looking, tight(no leaks,no swelling of planks to tighten seams).

We have a great following to help when you run into snags,and you will have a great looking usable practical boat that looks traditional when you are done.

I love the old traditional ones,but wouldn't want the hassle.

Those other plans don't offer the support system when you run into problems.

Just my 2 cents.

Warren

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Boat building can best be defined as an endless series of
tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.

Don't Dream Your Life, Live Your Dream

Sometimes opinions maybe skewed a bit, especially in the area of posting on the WBF. This does not solely come from the building traditional aspect as much as the group left at that place do not favor powerboats as a rule. The folks do not really address your interest in any manner using any real logic or reasoning for forgoing one particular method in favor of cold moulding as it fits the needs these days for a lot of folks trailer boating too. There are also few there that actually care to address cold mould boat building as it pertains to creating a more durable and stable boat if done right.

Most boats now rest on trailers and owners now maintain their boats themselves unlike the times that you had local varnish shops to store and varnish in the off seasons and owners also had more time to putter with their boats and do the time honored chores even incorporating their kids to mess about the boats with them. Times be a changing. Am I sounding a bit nastalgic? Yepper!!

But anyway, getting back to which is better, this does depend on a person's mindest and priorities in life. The most important part that I see being I like all the methods that allow you to custom build a boat for ones owns likes and needs is to get out on the water in them and enjoy them with friends and have more time to do so without a lot of undoing and redoing to keep them top notch.

Sure this was a lot of typing to say whatever floats your boat and to be able to float it more often in my point of view. Hands down goes towards the updated approach unless you have some obsessive compulsive disorder[spoken in a good sense too] to work on a boat after you build a boat to completion.

If you stick around here long enough though, you will find that some here do have this obsession, but diverts this obsession in a different avenue, building many boats to treat this disease.

Most of the pictures that are shown on the classicwoodenbp.com site are not of boats built from his plans that he is selling, but of the original CC's that have been restored. One of the boats (Obsession) that is shown in his photos lives in NH and i am familiar with it... it is an original boat. I would venture to build with those plans you would have to have a few boats under your belt to know the construction/fastener methods used and maybe access to the original boat to come out with a positive result. Also you would have to decide how to make the modern improvements like the 5200 or epoxy bottom, figuring the engine location strut angles and make up for the weight adjustments you have thrown in trying to update to the currently existing powerplants. At least $25,000 will be spent along your journey. A lot of $ to throw at something you are not sure will give you a positive outcome. If I wanted the problems of an old boat the way to go is restore an original with the original frames/engine etc. w serial # intact. At least that would have some value. I wanted to use the boat I built and not have the problems of old. Ken Hankinson's (and Glen-L) plans leave nothing out! they have all the needed information to build the boat including bill of materials and fasteners and the building form. You also have access to construction photos of the boat and an active forum to help/encourage you along the way.
This made the decision easy for me.... would go this way again for my first build in a minute...
-Billy

_________________
(insert witty phrase here)
Billy's Belle Isle website

WOW!! That was what I needed to hear. I do favor the more traditional method, but I want this one to be guaranteed success. I have been very impressed with the results of the KH boats (Belle Isle, Barrelback 19, Tahoe, etc.). Are there any problems with these designs I should know about before ordering plans? I guess I need to remember why I am building a motorboat - fun with the family. "Messing" with it from now on would not be very much fun for the family. Has anyone had any experience on the water with the Key Largo? My understanding is that it is basically the Barrelback 19 with an open/utility boat layout.

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Jason
Upstate SC

I agree tenfold. Dannenburg, in his book "How to Restore Your Wooden Runabout" makes an important differentiation between what he calls a traditional 5200 hull and modern epoxies. He's NOT a big fan of epoxy but here's why:

He points out that epoxies set up very hard and stiff. This is perfectly fine for brand new hulls and brand new wood. But when restoring old boats, these hulls have had many, many years to loosen up, degrade and become soft. If you were to mix epoxy in with these hulls, you create hard spots that will place undue stress on the rest of the structure and this can cause catostrophic failures down the road. The 5200, on the other hand, has the right amount of give to it and allows an old loose hull to flex the right amount and thus the boat has the best chance possible of giving its owners a long and happy future. But also remember that these restored boats are NOT to be taken out and played with the way we would a new epoxy hull. They cannot take the abuse. If you want the best of both worlds, ....a boat that looks traditional but you can ski or wakeboard every weekend with the kids and others climbing all over it, epoxy is THE way to go on a NEW boat.

_________________
Isn't it amazing!! The person that never has the fortitude to pursue his own dreams, will be the first to try and discourage you from pursuing yours.

I think you need to highlight your recent edit as it maybe missed since its included in a previous post and not showing up as a new request.

Jason-
here are the barrelbacks at 19' that are in the project registry.
http://www.glen-l.com/project-registry/ ... eg1.html#b
they all have email addresses. if they are not active in this forum you would get a faster response that way. there may be a few out there building the key largo version but since it is a newer version of the existing barrelback 19 hull not so much information is available, however many of these guys in the registry altered their cockpit configurations to suit their needs. Opening it up like that makes it a better active family type hull. Dividing the hull into the triple cockpit design (Belle Isle) i built is like riding in a convertible sports car... not many of the original barrelback hulls in existence. i like the uniqueness of the boat. not another one on the lake like it . i have other boats to suit other activities like wakeboarding etc.
the only "problem" is the addiction to building these pieces of furniture and the questions on when it will be completed and being called Noah and a few other cute cliches. having a few boats to use while building let me set my own timetable. (part time after work = 3 year plan).
-Billy

_________________
(insert witty phrase here)
Billy's Belle Isle website