# 1935 16ft Garwood Speedster Replica



## ccanderson102 (Mar 9, 2012)

*Starting out - the plans and a few materials*

*Background*
For quite some time now i have been dreaming of building or owning a wood boat. I had been looking at building a Glen-L Zip for several years but I was never really satisfied with the lines. A nice boat none the less but it just didn't speak to me. I cant afford to buy a decent restored wooded runabout. and I wasn't about to jump into paying to have one restored. Then Awhile back my father came across an auction of several old wood Chris-Craft Cruisers at a marina near Muscatine, IA. I asked him to attend the auction and buy one of the 36 footers. Well he did attend the auction but he failed to buy anything, and for good reason. The Roamer was garbage. The Commander was rotten from stem to stern. Only one of the CCs was sea worthy but it was not for sale. But, that was enough to get me moving.

Now let me say that I have never built a boat before and I probably should have started with a skiff, kayak or even a canoe but I saw a quote that said. building a boat is just a series of joinery techniques and problems to be solved. So off we go to throw money in a hole in the water.

*The Boat*
While on my search for boat plans I can across the 16th GarWood Speedster. Oh so sexy. It has everything I needed. Beautiful lines, readily available plans and a size that can be built in my garage. I pulled the trigger and bought the plans form a gentleman in Australia for A few days later i had a wonderful set of plans designed for using plywood as the main building material.

*Plywood*
A gentleman in Maryland recommended that use 3/4" MDO because this is what the DOT uses to build their road signs. Seems to me those signs hold up very well. Silly me chose to save a few buck and purchase 7 sheets of 3/4" AB marine grade ply. MDO cuts much nicer than than the Doug Fir veneers used on the marine grade ply.

*Cutting*
The same gentleman recommended that I take the plans to a sign shop and have them use their large CNC router to cut the parts for me. Again the cheap gene got the best of me and I chose to have the plans printed full scale at staples for $150 and use my jig saw to cut out the parts. The jig saw worked fine but It took me several weeks of working nights and weekends . I have almost 20 hours in just cutting considering each frame took an hour and there are 7 of those. CNC would have given me better, faster results at marginally more cost. I'm starting to see a trend here - I'm cheap.


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## BigYin (Oct 14, 2011)

ccanderson102 said:


> *Starting out - the plans and a few materials*
> 
> *Background*
> For quite some time now i have been dreaming of building or owning a wood boat. I had been looking at building a Glen-L Zip for several years but I was never really satisfied with the lines. A nice boat none the less but it just didn't speak to me. I cant afford to buy a decent restored wooded runabout. and I wasn't about to jump into paying to have one restored. Then Awhile back my father came across an auction of several old wood Chris-Craft Cruisers at a marina near Muscatine, IA. I asked him to attend the auction and buy one of the 36 footers. Well he did attend the auction but he failed to buy anything, and for good reason. The Roamer was garbage. The Commander was rotten from stem to stern. Only one of the CCs was sea worthy but it was not for sale. But, that was enough to get me moving.
> ...


Nice Project. What motor you thinking of ?


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## ccanderson102 (Mar 9, 2012)

ccanderson102 said:


> *Starting out - the plans and a few materials*
> 
> *Background*
> For quite some time now i have been dreaming of building or owning a wood boat. I had been looking at building a Glen-L Zip for several years but I was never really satisfied with the lines. A nice boat none the less but it just didn't speak to me. I cant afford to buy a decent restored wooded runabout. and I wasn't about to jump into paying to have one restored. Then Awhile back my father came across an auction of several old wood Chris-Craft Cruisers at a marina near Muscatine, IA. I asked him to attend the auction and buy one of the 36 footers. Well he did attend the auction but he failed to buy anything, and for good reason. The Roamer was garbage. The Commander was rotten from stem to stern. Only one of the CCs was sea worthy but it was not for sale. But, that was enough to get me moving.
> ...


depends on what I can source when I get to that stage. I have leads on a 351W complete with tranny running gear and controls and also a complete Saltare with a 454. Ideally I would like to use a 3800 from the late nineties Camaro. It would mate up with the standard ZF or BW bell housing, manifolds are available out of New Zealand , has a good power to weight ratio, and can be supercharged.


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## ccanderson102 (Mar 9, 2012)

*Building Stringers*

The weather has gotten better for working in the garage so I have been spending a few evenings toiling away with my epoxy and wood. Progress from the last blog entry includes laminating floor timbers to the frames and laminating up the stringers.

The plans call for the stringers to be 1.875 inch wide and 6 inches tall tapering down to 3 inches over the 12 ft length. Finding lumber for these was a problem. The local lumber yard had and very nice straight material but it was hemlock. According to boat builders Hemlock is no good. The big box store carries very nice select grade "pine" but after further research the species they carry is Radiata Pine from New Zealand which again is not recommended for boat building. The Local specialty lumber supplier has 8/4 white oak on hand but not in 12 ft lengths, just 11ft 6 inches. I could have special ordered the material but again the cheap gene got me so I opted to scarf and laminate my stringers out the left over sheet of 3/4 marine ply.

*Scarf Joints*
I built a scarfing jig to use with my recently acquired hand-me-down plunge router. I used a 12:1 ratio at the recommendation of the Gougeon Brothers boat building book and set to making chips fly.









Scarf joint glue up was fun and a bit messy. I used the weights I had available to clamp the pieces together. I also learned that epoxy does not stick to polyethylene or wax so waxed my work bench. 









*Laminating*
After scarfing came laminating, the first attempt was a disaster. The laminating schedule is this: coat both pieces with unthickened epoxy and spread with a notched spatula, apply a layer of thickened epoxy for gap filling, clamp together, wait. It was a very warm afternoon when I started and I had planned on using panhead screws to pull the layers together. I spread the epoxy, placed the two layer together and started screwing them together with the impact driver. I realized that the screws were not doing as intended and the layers had a gap between them. I pulled out the screws and began again this time clamping then screwing, moving the clamps and repeating the process. Did I mention it was warm? I should have said HOT and the epoxy was curing quickly. I was working too fast and had an accident. The driver bit cammed out of the screw and went through my thumb. I was only about 2 feet in into the 12 foot process so i had to continue with two holes in my thumb. Luckily the bit bounced off the knuckle and it was only a flesh wound and my DNA will always be part of the boat.

The cheap gene bit me again this time in a painful manner. For the final stringer lamination I bought 18 3 inch clamps. Much safer and faster than screws. In this picture you can see one of the scarf joints










Also have most of the frames laminated to their corresponding floor timbers. these are much easier to with




























Until later,
-CC


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## GROOVY56 (Feb 22, 2013)

ccanderson102 said:


> *Building Stringers*
> 
> The weather has gotten better for working in the garage so I have been spending a few evenings toiling away with my epoxy and wood. Progress from the last blog entry includes laminating floor timbers to the frames and laminating up the stringers.
> 
> ...


Epoxy .. wont stick to wax paper, but sticks to everything else, I am not a pro but have rebuilt a 1956 CC Cavalier, and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express once….. keep on the lookout for handplanes and sanders . here's hoping you wont need anymore Band-Aids.


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## NormG (Mar 5, 2010)

ccanderson102 said:


> *Building Stringers*
> 
> The weather has gotten better for working in the garage so I have been spending a few evenings toiling away with my epoxy and wood. Progress from the last blog entry includes laminating floor timbers to the frames and laminating up the stringers.
> 
> ...


Progress is a wonderful thing


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## shipwright (Sep 27, 2010)

ccanderson102 said:


> *Building Stringers*
> 
> The weather has gotten better for working in the garage so I have been spending a few evenings toiling away with my epoxy and wood. Progress from the last blog entry includes laminating floor timbers to the frames and laminating up the stringers.
> 
> ...


This is looking good. I use polyethylene all the time with epoxy for all sorts of things. It is very handy. I did a blog entry on scarfing plywood sheets for hull components here that may interest you. It makes use of polyethylene and details the way I make the tapers with a power plane.
There are also some epoxy handling tips here that may help you.
I've used pan head screws a lot on cold moulded hull lamination and they work very well. The trick is getting pressure down to hold the pieces together as the screw goes in. You really need Robertson heads for that.

I've done a lot of this. If I can be of any help, don't hesitate to ask. I love to see people building boats.


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## ccanderson102 (Mar 9, 2012)

*It looks like a boat - sort of*

Last night I finished cutting out the stringers with the circular saw and and smoothing them with my Stanley No 7. I just couldn't resist. I just had to see what she will look like in real life.



















the "chine log" is a piece of scrap i used to visualize a fair curve. For that I think I will use white oak. Any suggestions?

Even the wife the visualize the end result!

Next up is a ton of epoxy work encapsulating the frames floor timbers and stringers. Its not really wood working so you may not hear from me for a bit unless I decide to work on the keel, transom and stem.

Until later,
-CC


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## shipwright (Sep 27, 2010)

ccanderson102 said:


> *It looks like a boat - sort of*
> 
> Last night I finished cutting out the stringers with the circular saw and and smoothing them with my Stanley No 7. I just couldn't resist. I just had to see what she will look like in real life.
> 
> ...


White oak will be great for chines. Very good rot restance and excellent fastener retention.
Fun to watch.


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## ccanderson102 (Mar 9, 2012)

*Sanding and Encapsulating*

Build hours: 61.0
Cost: $2077.99

Sanding, Sanding, Sanding. Encapsulating Encapsulating Encapsulating.

Yup that sums up my activity since the last installment update. I read that to build a boat you have to love sanding - and they are right but I did learn a few things. The dust collection on a Bosch 1/4 sheet sander actually does work provided you remember to punch the hole the sheet and empty the canister frequently.

The other this I learned is that I like working with epoxy in the cold because the pot life is longer and you can recoat in 24 hours without scuffing the surface.

Not exactly related to wood working but certainly related to the project, I picked up an 1979 Mastercraft Stars and Stripes from the now defunct Otawa, IL Show Ski team. Poor old girl was rode hard and put a way wet too many times but now she will serve nicely as an organ donor for my project. The stringers are gone, the floor is all but gone, it was replaced once already, and who knows about the transom but you can guess that it too is rubbish. The stringers were nothing but the fiberglass jacket. All the wood that was supposed to be on the inside pulled a David Copperfield act and disappeared.










When you buy a boat 4.5 hours from home with unknown conditions for tires, wheel bearings or taillights what does one do? Put you boat and trailer on a trailer.










I have work to do to figure out the curved transom and how to attache the frames to the stringers. that should keep me busy for a few more weeks. I have to get this transom figured out because I am getting itchy to start planking the hull.


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## shipwright (Sep 27, 2010)

ccanderson102 said:


> *Sanding and Encapsulating*
> 
> Build hours: 61.0
> Cost: $2077.99
> ...


They're not exactly right. You don't have to love sanding but you do have to do lots of it.
Looks like you're having fun anyway.
I'm not sure of your boatbuilding experience but if there is anything I can help with, feel free to ask.


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## ccanderson102 (Mar 9, 2012)

ccanderson102 said:


> *Sanding and Encapsulating*
> 
> Build hours: 61.0
> Cost: $2077.99
> ...


Thanks Shipwright. This is my first boat build and I'm quickly learning that I need to keep my carving hatchet SHARP. I'll be sure to keep you in mind as questions come up.


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## ccanderson102 (Mar 9, 2012)

*It has been a long time since my last post*

A Lot has happened since my last blog entry First lets start with the project status
Hours. 101.0 Cost $2551.09

Last February 2014 we packed up and moved to Houston for a new career. The Garwood project was dismantled and shoved in a shed until we found a house with a suitable workshop aka garage and the project could be relocated. I spent the better part of the summer setting up the workshop in the garage. Once that was complete I built a new strongback and resumed the build.

I finally figured out how to build the transom. I decided the build needed some of my own flair hence a design change. The transom will have a similar radius to the original plans bu will also be raked forward 10 degrees from vertical. This presented a challenge on how to create a paper pattern. There are some good books out there to help with the problem.

I sourced enough white oak from Houston Hardwoods to build the keel and the transom so the build officially resumed.
The transom is laminated as well is the keel. It took some time to locate the stem and get the right curves but it was worth the effort.



















Someday I will have two complete boats in the garage.


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