Wanted Vintage Runabout

[johnsonm50]

I never use fir,That stuff is heavy and it checks terrible.I have two gallons of epoxy in the shop just waiting for a project.

Mike

The okoume needs epoxy saturation, its good raceboat quality, trouble its rated as perishable so epoxy kinda compensates for that. I built an HK Airborn & chose sapele ply instead cause its rated as moderately durable. Its slightly heavier than okoume but no where near firs tonnage. Also a great looking wood that will last even if conditions arent perfect. I disreguarded the nail it together plan & SS screwed the hull together being sure every screw went into wet epoxy. This boat has held up to some real pounding with alot-o hp & torque at over 50 with very little trouble for 7 years now. Im also familiar with the Jinx, a pals got one & seen it side by side with the Airborn. Its shorter, taller & a little less sleek but certainly a great boat. If your a big guy or plan on company aboard regularly Id suggest thinking about a D sized boat. Itll still go good with a smaller motor aaaand you can up the anti. I thought bringing the upper, lower chines, stem & shears together were the hardest part of this build. When it came time to fit exactly these angles I cut them close, contact cemented sandpaper to a back saw, held the peices in & ran the saw thru till the fit was perfect. Takes time & best to get real close 1st but that really brought it home.

[ZUL8TR]

HK Airborn

[QUOTE=johnsonm50;139290]I built an HK Airborn & chose sapele ply instead cause its rated as moderately durable.

How about some pics

[johnsonm50]

Airborn

Ive posted pics of this before so chose some different ones.



Ive powered it with several fishing motors & the RaT motor you see. Im about to go with another lighter RaT soon.

[ZUL8TR]

Airborne

Ive posted pics of this before so chose some different ones.



Ive powered it with several fishing motors & the RaT motor you see. Im about to go with another lighter RaT soon.

Burrrrr- That looks like a very cold day! Nice looking trim running boat. The mod of the rounded deck in the front seat is a very nice touch and adds strength to the sharp corner Kelly had originally designed.

[MikeyC]

Wow,that looks really nice.You did a great job.

Mike

[3autility]

vintage race boat

I have a double cockpit utility that is very close in design to the Jinx. It was reskined by Bill Giles a few years ago. The boat is heavy because the ribs are oak,(it was built originally in the early 60s) but it goes pretty well with a KG7H. If I had to do it over again I would probably build an Airborne. The lines are nicer than the Jinx in my opinion. My boat does porpoise some, but I play around with setups and am getting it straightened out.

[johnsonm50]

pics

Thanks guys . I didnt like the seam on the bow or the corners & found that the ply would just make the double bend. The stringers were meant to be an upside down 'T' so I added battens on top & made 'I' beams out of em. this rose the floor 3/8", small price to pay for the strength added. The last 1/4 of the bottom had the bottom ply squared off, the transition from slightly rounded chine to squared 1/4" part was weird. I put a slight roundover the whole length later on.
Its a great play boat. The Airborn was designed for oval races w/a Mk20H in B or scaled up could go D. The Jinx was meant for marathons & other than higher sides & less twist to the side plywood aft looks much the same. It was a pleasure to build this & more yet to go play.
The 1st 2 pics is an Icebreaker AOMCI meet, real cold. The 3rd was cold but not frozen .

[ZUL8TR]

Airborne Design note

[QUOTE=johnsonm50;139396]Thanks guys ........... The last 1/4 of the bottom had the bottom ply squared off, the transition from slightly rounded chine to squared 1/4" part was weird. I put a slight roundover the whole length later on .................

The design thought (by Kelly and builders of the time and some today) on the last 1/4 of the bottom 6mm ply being squared off was to provide an additional edge to hold the boat on the turns and in the straights the squared (sharp) edge of the 6mm ply reduced the tendency of water to climb up the angled chine and tend to pull the boat down i.e a clean break fo the bottom spray will occur. Same reason for a full width bottom square (sharp)at the transom trailing edge and a slight extension of the bottom ply beyond the transom - tends to keep exiting water from creeping up the transom and pulling the bottom down. This is also usually done at the trailing edge of the sponson bottoms for hydros.

[johnsonm50]

Chine

Ive heard that since but have read a best gps speed after doin it. I was looking at a modern runabout turned over at a local race & the squarsd edge was done differently. Where it started the hull rose away from it rather than starting in the middle of the line of the chine. It looked to be a better transition than the edge curving out from the side from slight round to square. I might put a [copy cat] narrower pad on this the next time I turn it over for bottom maintenance. Thanks

[johnsonm50]

I have a double cockpit utility that is very close in design to the Jinx. It was reskined by Bill Giles a few years ago. The boat is heavy because the ribs are oak,(it was built originally in the early 60s) but it goes pretty well with a KG7H. If I had to do it over again I would probably build an Airborne. The lines are nicer than the Jinx in my opinion. My boat does porpoise some, but I play around with setups and am getting it straightened out.

Porpoising seems to be a common denominator, to get it so it smooths out at speed is the best Ive gotten form the Airborn. I ran a MK25[H] on it a few times, it handled totally great with such a light motor.

[stratoblaster]

Runabout

I am building a B Utility from Clark Craft plans. It's my first experience at building a boat. It as been a lot of fun. It's a Hal Kelly Airborne II. I am going to use Okuma 6mm for the bottom and non-trip chines and 3mm for the sides and decking. I have Mercury Mark 25 that I am going to run on it. Getting the parts together to convert it to a H motor.

I used Douglas Fir to frame it. Wanted to use Stika Spruce but it's not easy to find in my area and most places want to sell it in large pieces that would require resawing. The Doug fir is not expensive and easy to find and work with.

I have attached a couple of pictures of progress to date.

Bill T.
Charles City, Va.

[johnsonm50]

Its lookin good. The best reasons for Sitka are straight grain, I mean some of what I got you could use the grain line as a straightedge the length of the pc. Its also very strong & flexible, the D-fir will be more brittle but probably fine cause the skin stiffens it up amazingly.
The point your at is where fairing the frame for ply is important. Couple ideas.. get a belt sander belt, biggest you can find. Tear it at the seam, cut a flat pc. of wood to its size & conact cement it on. Custom sanding block, can be made in smaller versions too. This will get your frame surfaces totally flat for a perfect plywood fit.
Im sure since you succeeded in putting the frame together you know how to check that its symetrical. When the bottom & sides are on, you turn it over to prep & lay the deck. Thats your last chance to be sure theres no twist in it. If there is brace it straight then & itll be good. Best of Luck, Keep it light & the MK25[H] will be cool.

she was screamin that day

[ZUL8TR]

Airborne runabout

Nice looking construction. When I built my Kelly Wetback hydro I also couldn't easly get the sitka due to cost and shipping so I used regular lumber yard number 1 white wood which is spruce. It's light and strong. I just selected straight grain pieces. The number 1 is relatively free of knots and any present are small and were easily worked around when ripping the needed stringers, etc. I still have the boat and originally used it for fun with a 35hp stadard shaft Evenrude. We used to water ski with it. Then got into racing it in 25ss and 20ss and won many races with it. Thru all these years the spruce framing has never cracked.

A suggestion on your hull before you sheet the bottom. The 4 free end stringers that are cut at 90 degrees will cause ply stress at these ends and a potential ply crack if the bottom is wacked with water in the right spot. The stress and crack potential can easily be reduced if these stringers are tapered from their end back towards the transom. The taper starts 1/8" thick at the end and taper back for about 6". The taper is visable when in the boat looking down on the stringer. Since the stringers are already installed you can do the taper with a belt sander from underneath.

Keep the pics rollen

[fleetcraft57]

Original Jinx

I have one of the only two surviving Hal Kelly built Jinx's that I may be interested is selling. It is 1953, original and in mint condition having been in a barn for 55 years. It is powered by a restored Mercury KG7Q and it was at this past weekends APBA Vintage races at Wolfeboro, NH, for display only.

[MikeyC]

Let me know what you want for it,You can reach me at boatnut@mail.com


Thanks
Mike