Dale C.
Active member
Maybe some of you would like to see how I constructed a new scull boat of my own design. I have owned a few scull boats over the years. I have never been totally happy with any of them. I started off building a Sculldugery II. I had a blast building it. But that is where it ended. I can’t recommend this design to anyone. The hull does not have enough upsweep in the stern. Thus making it extremely hard to scull. It takes way to much effort just to keep it in motion. It is also way to tall. If you get in a crosswind, it is uncontrollable. After I got rid of that boat I was pretty unsure if I even liked sculling. I looked at a used Lyn Lee sculler years earlier, but the guy wanted way to much, and it was in terrible shape. I didn’t buy it. If you have never heard of a Lyn Lee sculler before, it was the predecessor of the Hayden boat. I found out this years later. Bob Hayden, with permission from Lyn & Lee, started building new boats under the Hayden name. Well... that Lyn Lee that I had looked at popped up in my head. I remembered where the guy lived. I was working in the area, so I thought I would stop and see if he still had the boat. I knocked on the door and a different person answered the door. I thought I was to late. I told the guy my story, and to my surprise he told me that he had left a bunch of stuff out in the back 40. He said there was a funny looking little grey boat out there and I could look at it. There it was, only in much worse condition. It was sitting on an old rusty trailer, half full of water. Someone had put a open can of some type of solvent in the boat, that had eaten a basket ball size hole in the bottom. The seam was split about half way around also. What a mess. The guy said I could have it, if I hauled off the trailer too. So with the Help of my buddy OLD Leonard (a member here) We hauled her home. Over the next year or so I brought new life to her. She was beautiful! Extremely low, super stealthy, and sculled like a dream. I got quite an education using polyester resins. I had one problem with the boat, the combing was so low, that I couldn't hide my arm movement. I’m 6’2” and over 200. I’m fortunate in living on the west coast, in that there are almost always scull boats on Craig's List. I ended up three scull boats, of different designs. That got me thinking that If I could take the best features of all the boats that I have sculled, and combine then that would be cool. After a few years of this in my head. I thought, maybe I should look for a scull boat with a hull design that I liked, and redo the deck. I kind of looked around a while, but none were cheap enough to tear apart and redo.
With all these ideas flying around in my head, I found a site on the web, where this guy built a Kevlar canoe, with a foam male mold. The light bulb went off in my head, and I hatched a plan. I’ll make my own design from scratch! I talked to OLD Leonard about my thoughts. He said he would help. But he wanted one as well. This threw a fly in the ointment.... The mold would have to be strong enough, to stand up to de molding, then re used. I’m going to post up pictures, and walk you through the process. I’ll post up pictures every few days. I’m not fast at typing, so this will take me a while.
The hull of the Lyn Lee was by far, my favorite. We would base the design with a similar shape. I Really like how wide across the front it is. It really helps hide the sides of the boat. I wanted to get away from the flange joint that fastens the top & bottom halves. So I decided to use a shoe box joint instead. These first pictures show how we made the strong back and laid out the frames. The strong back is made of plywood and a length of storefront aluminum u channel.
I’m going to warn you now there will pictures of OLD Leonard. I know he looks kind of like a homeless guy, but he’s harmless, and doesn’t stink to bad.......
[URL=http://s1258.photobucket.com/user/dcducker/media/scull%20build/005_zpsd711bf37.jpg.html]
[URL=http://s1258.photobucket.com/user/dcducker/media/scull%20build/005_zps1f20eef4.jpg.html]
[URL=http://s1258.photobucket.com/user/dcducker/media/scull%20build/001_zps118d1775.jpg.html]
With all these ideas flying around in my head, I found a site on the web, where this guy built a Kevlar canoe, with a foam male mold. The light bulb went off in my head, and I hatched a plan. I’ll make my own design from scratch! I talked to OLD Leonard about my thoughts. He said he would help. But he wanted one as well. This threw a fly in the ointment.... The mold would have to be strong enough, to stand up to de molding, then re used. I’m going to post up pictures, and walk you through the process. I’ll post up pictures every few days. I’m not fast at typing, so this will take me a while.
The hull of the Lyn Lee was by far, my favorite. We would base the design with a similar shape. I Really like how wide across the front it is. It really helps hide the sides of the boat. I wanted to get away from the flange joint that fastens the top & bottom halves. So I decided to use a shoe box joint instead. These first pictures show how we made the strong back and laid out the frames. The strong back is made of plywood and a length of storefront aluminum u channel.
I’m going to warn you now there will pictures of OLD Leonard. I know he looks kind of like a homeless guy, but he’s harmless, and doesn’t stink to bad.......
[URL=http://s1258.photobucket.com/user/dcducker/media/scull%20build/005_zpsd711bf37.jpg.html][URL=http://s1258.photobucket.com/user/dcducker/media/scull%20build/005_zps1f20eef4.jpg.html][URL=http://s1258.photobucket.com/user/dcducker/media/scull%20build/001_zps118d1775.jpg.html]
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