Memories: Classic runabouts and my brother Elbert

by Glen Witt

It was the depression and no one had extra money to spend, but some people still managed to build boats. My brother, Elbert, found a plan for an outboard powered, planked runabout, called "Buzzer" in a boating magazine and decided he would build it. I thought it was a great idea, Elbert had always worked on cars, his hotrods drew many speeding citations, but I had never seen him take an interest in woodworking. As the younger brother and still in school I knew my big brother could do anything.

There were, however, a few minor obstacles. First, Elbert had no money; if he had a dime he'd spend fifteen cents. He was only working part time and the plant he worked at was slow. Elbert had just been married and one other minor problem, the small rental he lived in didn't have a place to build a boat. Fools rush in...

Nonetheless Elbert started to build the boat. He found oak table leaves at junkyards, available at that time for next to nothing. They were varnished and some were doweled together from narrow wood but most were of better stock than is available today. It took time and some elbow grease to make the leaves usable for building the boat frames, but time was available, money was not.

There were delays in the building as parts were scrounged and for some reason building took a hiatus after the frames were built. But eventually construction was resumed in a garage at our parent's house where I lived and just a few blocks from where Elbert resided. The frames were set up and somehow the mahogany planking was obtained. In those days four quarter stock in the rough was much greater in thickness than 1" and the lumberyard was able to obtain two planks almost 3/8" in thickness from the four quarters stock.

Elbert turned out to be an excellent woodworker, exacting and meticulous. When he fitted two pieces of wood they were not just good, but perfect, ...or do it again. This was a time when portable power tools were a rarity and surely not in the venue of an amateur boat builder. This meant all screw holes had to be drilled and countersunk with a little hand-powered drill. No grabbing for that powered saber saw to cut out the planks, a keyhole saw was required. Ever tried using one of those things and make long true vertical cuts? Think of drilling all those holes and driving the jillions of screws by hand. And, of course the screws were slot headed and if the driver slipped out, a plank could be marred. There wasn't a magic filler. A scarred plank remained that way or was replaced. Elbert didn't tolerate blemishes, so it was replaced but after the first time, slips with tools ceased.

Decent adhesives were also lacking at the time, although the boats of that day were not intended for solid bonded junctions. We used a flexible mastic called "Aviation Adhesive", which was developed for seaplane floats. It was a sticky gooey mess, never dried hard, and was hell to keep off those beautiful mahogany planks.

The "Buzzer" called for batten seam construction, 3/8" planking with junctions backed with battens. The planks were fastened over the batten junction with screws spaced about 4" apart and along each of the frames. Elbert used blind fasteners along the seams; the screws were driven from the inside through the batten and into the planks. This was a critical situation. All the holding power of the screws was required but the tip of the screw could not project through the planking exterior. Needless to say his didn't. All screws driven from the exterior were counterbored and bunged with a matching grain aligned plug cut from the scrap of the plank being worked on. All screws were in alignment and evenly spaced. And not just by guess and by gosh or even measurements, these screws were precisely spaced with dividers. And yes, even on the inside where most would never be seen.

Fitting the planks was tedious to say the least. At a glance a mahogany planked boat appears to have strakes (planks) of uniform widths. This is far from the fact; the side planks on a boat with flare at the bow and tumble home at the transom will have somewhat of an elongated "s" shape. The strakes are equally spaced at each frame but hardly of uniform width. This means each individual plank must be cut from wide stock or joined. Wide mahogany planks were more plentiful then than now, so the joints on "Buzzer" were few. Of course the junctions couldn't be simply butted together and backed with a butt block. The junctions were shaped similar to the letter "Z laid on it's side. Try fitting that with hand tools, where the strake had to be removed each time trimming was required. Of course Elbert's junctions were such that the fit left nary a gap, you couldn't even slip a piece of paper between the joining parts.

All strakes on one side of the boat were color matched as close as possible. A plank was laid on the ground and the one fitting adjacent to it was selected with care to be as close to the same color as possible. It was possible to compensate for off color strakes with stains but not on this boat.

After planking and plugging screw holes, the boat was hand sanded (remember no portable power tools) with progressively finer grit sandpaper. Then it was wet down to raise the grain and the process repeated until the surface was "like a new born baby's..."

The mahogany hull sides were filler-stained (Chris Craft red, of course) with a paste-like product. You smeared it on and rubbed it crossways into the grain, removing the excess before it dried. Messy, but it filled the rather open grain of the mahogany and gave it the deep rich tone desired.

Then the varnish... The work area was first cleaned everywhere, even the rafters were swept down. Then we waited for the dust to settle and cleaned again. The area around the hull was wet down and the hull surface thoroughly cleaned with a tack rag. Elbert bought the best brush he could afford and the finest varnish of the day. Nothing but the best for this "Buzzer". A thin coat of varnish was carefully flowed on, followed with another coat of out-of-the-can. How many coats were used? I really don't know, but it was a lot more than ten. Elbert allowed me to sand after each coat. Rotten rock, a pumice type product applied with a felt pad, was used. It left no scratches but it took a lot of rubbing to smooth out the varnished surface. It became quite obvious why Elbert allowed me to do this task; I was cheap labor and dared not make a mistake. So he applied varnish and I took it off until the surface showed nary a blemish. Why finish a boat this way? A neighbor worked as a piano builder and this was the way they were finished. If the finish was good enough for a piano it was just about good enough for "Buzzer".

Finishing up the craft was more or less routine. Oh, it was some chore to build the brass chrome finished cutwater and a few more goodies, but in general all was going well. The boat did look beautiful and was a real showpiece. Now, for something to push this gorgeous thing through the water, an outboard motor.

A new motor was obviously out of the question; there wasn't enough money to buy a paddle. The details as to how the motor was obtained are cloudy, but I was allowed to contribute. One thing about Elbert, when things got tight he was really nice about getting me in on the action. Anyway, we obtained a four cylinder Evinrude outboard motor, the largest of the time. This was the days before electric starts and even of recoil starter ropes. You wrapped a cord around the flywheel pulley and pulled. This motor had a compression release that allowed blow by to make the turning easier, but in truth it took a good foot brace and a mighty tug to turn the thing over. If it did start, you had a throttle, spark, and needle valve adjustment to make, and fast.

At this time I was granted a new job. I made handles for starting cords and made up quite a bunch of spares. For when the motor did start, Elbert in the excitement, often threw the cord overboard and we were not about to go back and try to pick it up. Have you ever been out in the middle of a lake with no way to start the outboard motor? And I at last had found a task that Elbert didn't nit pick.

When the motor finally did start, it had a habit of blowing the tops out of the aluminum cylinders. We were told that the motor was being run too lean. After three or four pistons blew, it was discovered there was a cylinder water leak that mixed with the gasoline and caused an action much like a blowtorch. Problem solved, but typical of outboards of the day and particularly with this one, starting the motor was always a problem.

It would be nice to report that "Buzzer" lived to a ripe old age, but in truth what happened to the work of art is unknown, although it did provide our families lots of fun and introduced us to boating.

These ramblings were inspired by the numerous classic boat photographs we are sent. And they are beautiful. It reminded me of the trials and tribulations of my first experience with classic runabouts. Each one of these builders must have had his own problems, but the finished product proved they too overcome adversity. The examples sent to us show that "Elbert" craftsmanship is inherent in many builders. To each of you we can only say "Man you're good".

Check the photos on the GLEN-L website! See if the craftsmanship doesn't provide a challenge. Can you do as well or BETTER? ...can you do an "Elbert" job?

Photos

Row Row Row Your Boat

Consider building a boat you can row. Rowboats are nice to look at. They can be made simple and functional or elegant and yacht-like. There are benefits to rowing too. It’s fun and good exercise. It’s quiet, ecologically sound and rowboats can often get into places a powered boat cannot go.

So seat yourself
In your rowing boat
Pick up the oars
Take up that stroke

Down the handles,
Lift the blades
Sweep your arms forward
Lower the blades

Slice the water
Take up the strain
Pull with your arms
No pain sir, no gain

Now stroke again
Keep it all even
Straight you will go
I’ll have you believe-n

The hull races forward
Propelled by your stroke
A champion at heart
You’re quite a bloke

Smoothly you glide
As silk on your bottom
Over water and wave
The effort forgotten

On through the tide
By Arm-strong power
Rowing can move you
Many knots per hour

Captain of your ship
Master of your fate
That gleaming craft
Looks like gold-plate

One last suggestion …
Wear your best shades
So you will look cool
While pulling those blades

-ArtDeco

Photos sent in since the last WebLetter...