Rascal

[gert]

I have almost sort of made up my mind that maybe this is my next boat (I think) :rolleyes: That is WB's "Rascal". Has any one out there built her? And if so any comments or pics? Also I know she's too small but she's inside (I hope) my skill level and shop space.Thx.
ps we got the shop BnE'd last night and lost most of the small power tools; any one know were I can get a death ray security system?

[ 10-30-2002, 04:07 PM: Message edited by: gert ]

[Tom Lathrop]

Sorry about your shop. Saw a blurb on TV the other night that showed a couple of missiles being blown up by the LASER death ray. Probably out of our financial grasp though. I guess we have finally about reached the Buck Rogers era.

I think I remember something written about the Rascal that said it was not for a beginning boat builder. Fine looking and performing little boat though.

[Dale R. Hamilton]

I've been thinking about Rascal too. I like the idea she's small- and will fit in an average size garage- Also, can be outboard powered- say with one of those slick 4 stroke Hondos no thru hulls, no machinery. Reccon can it be built stitch and glue? Howaboutit- anybody built Rascal?

[gert]

guess not :(

[chesterm]

C'mon now, I've seen at least three of these completed in my lifetime. Someone's gotta ring in. Perhaps contact Mr. Bassett and inquire who's bought plans or send a few SASE's to Wooden Boat and ask them to kindly mail them to whoever bought plans. Wooden boat builders LOVE to talk about their accomplishments. Gotta be some builders out there. BTW,if you like the Rascal, take a look at the 14' Torpedo by Aristocraft http://members.aol.com/aristoboat/default.htm
regards from CT, mitchell

[Wild Wassa]

Gert, I'm sorry to read that you had a breakin. Good luck.

Warren.

[ 11-04-2002, 03:56 PM: Message edited by: Wild Wassa ]

[gert]

yea I spent the week-end turning the joint into a fort; the next time he better bring a chainsaw. I spent 25 years with just a big padlock, but they didn't cut the lock, they cut the scrawny little hasp, boy am I bumb. But they'r not too bright either, they didn't take the most valuable portable tool in the shop, a 24" jointing plane; the just grabbed the tired old power tools all coated with epoxy. Regretably we just switched insurence companies so I won't be talkin to them on this one. Right now I wish they would relax our gun laws for a short while...

[Tom Lathrop]

My first real boat was built by Aristocraft and marketed by Western Auto. I bought it second hand in 1953 and it was powered by a 10hp Wizard (almost identical to the Merc 10). I did not have the hood ornaments nor any of the other decorative chrome that appeared on the Aristocrafts but was the same boat and muhc better looking to my eye. It was great fun to go out jumping waves with and it would do 29mph with a racing prop and only my skinny bod on board.

I later stuck another Wizard 10 on the transom and she would do 37mph with that. Pretty fast for a runabout of the time. Merc came out with their 40hp and I jacked up my engines to get more speed until I blew them up from over reving.

I'd like to build a replica but have not been able to get the offsets. Wrote to the guy on the website but he was not interested.

I expect this would be a much easier boat to build than the Rascal. I have some data and several photos of my old boat so perhaps I could get pretty close to the original.

[Dale R. Hamilton]

Tom- don't know if easier to build- looks like alot on compound curves to deal with-unbelievably light weight however. I'd like to see more of the aristocrats-

BUT WHAT ABOUT RASCAL!! There has to be somebody tuned in thats built one-lets keep the thread going until we find one

[Tom Lathrop]

Before I (after the fact) installed a skid fin, I side slipped into a cypress tree at full bore and pranged the port side of my boat. In the youth and innocence of the time, I didn't know the difference between a compound curve and compound interest but I replaced almost half of the side panel and had no trouble with the bending. Admittedly, there was less severe tumblehome on my boat than on the ones you see on the Aristocraft website but I don't think it would be too difficult.

[Dale R. Hamilton]

Understood- I finally tortured plywood severely enough to wrap Boomslang's bow- which then served as the core for an epoxy/glass schedule. Can be done of course- but looking for something simpler.

I purchased Ray Sargeant's 15' sport runabout plans partially because its stitch & glue construction. This would be new to me- but I'm anxious to get started. Must first finish current project- which I expect early spring.

[gert]

the Aristo site doesn't work.
Excuse my ignorence but whhat is "tumbledown" and "deadrise"?
thx
ps now it does but no pics

[ 11-06-2002, 01:19 PM: Message edited by: gert ]

[Beowolf]

Dale and gert:

You both picked out a sweet little craft to ponder over. I doubt that there are many of us in here who at one time or another haven't daydreamed about embarrassing the local ski-nothings and mastercraps with that little varnished beauty.

I think that you both bring up a couple of good questions for anyone who is thinking about a first boat too....

Deadrise and tumblehome both have to do with the shape of the hull. Deadrise is the angle which the bottom of the hull makes with the water at some given point. Tumblehome is the invard curve that the topsides of the hull makes. (Its the reason why Rascal's hind end looks so good.) If you look on the plans, you'll notice that both of these features are not consistant over the length of the boat, but instead they seem to evolve as you move from bow to stern. This change is what translates into compound curvature, or bending about two axis. Sheet material will not readily accept compound curvature. For an example, grab either wnd of a sheet of paper and curl slightly lengthwise, now with that curl in place, try to place another curl perpendicular to that one without creasing the paper. Plywood is no different. THis is most likely the reason why Bassett calls for two layers of thin plywood CUT INTO FOOT WIDE STRIPS to be laid over the frames as you can then splice the strips and even force a little compund curve into them. This is also the reason why this boat is probably not hte best candidate for stitch and glue construction.

Dale, if I were you, I would try to build a stich and glue model of it as Sam Devlin describes in his book to see whether this might be feasible. I built a half model of a 15 foot catboat following these directions and even though I didn't end up deciding on that boat, I ended up with a really cool half-hull for my shop wall and a bit more insight into Stitch and Glue construction...Win-Win.

Either way, I'll be lurking on this thread for a while cuz it's such a damn cool little boat.

Take Care.

Jeff.

[htom]

Tumblehome is the curve in the upper hull that results in the beam there being smaller than the maximum beam.

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: fixed;"> *
* tumblehome
*
* &lt;---- maximum beam
*
*
*
*
*
*
| *
| *
deadrise *
| *
------------------------------------* </pre>[/QUOTE]A flat-bottomed boat has no, or zero, deadrise. A V-bottomed boat has deadrise; it's the angle between the bottom, the keel, and "flat".

[Beowolf]

htom, nice job with the illustration. I guess that a picture truly is worth a thousand words...

[Dale R. Hamilton]

Good suggestion about the half model- yup, would look good on the shop wall. But Rascal is not the only candidate- Ray Sargents runabout also looks great- lightweight, 50's era and its definately stitch and glue. I guess I'm wanting to try this technique because its new to me.

Whatever boat I build- I have some wonderful mahogany sheathing 3/16" thick left over from the WWII material Higgins was using for PT boat hulls. I say sheathing because some of this stuff is 4' WIDE- THats 48" wide guys- mahogany trees that big no longer on earth. Figured I'd build the boat out of 1/4 ply, and then "plank" it with 3" wide planks ripped from this stuff- set in epoxy and held in place with Raptor nylon nails.
Hows that for a plan.

[rustnrot]

I've been to Bill Turner's shop. Bill is the son of the founder. Frankly, I think you'd be hard pressed to make a new one for $4k fully rigged without motor. See http://members.aol.com/aristoboat/default.htm

[gert]

Even if I had 4k US I would never buy a boat; this is about building, creating, this is about art, this is about having a great relationship with a pile of lumber and a good set of plans. This is about life, you don't buy life. Boats are inside you and with the help of this forum and marine architects and lots of sweat and sharp tools and good finishing we bear boats.

Sorry that was a bit of a rant, but I love boat building I guess.

[Dale R. Hamilton]

God I love that view Gert! feel same way- I connect spiritually with everything I build- a boat being the most worthy.

[Tom Wilkinson]

I am building a rascal. It is my first boat and so far it has been going very well. The frames are done and the keel stemm chines and bottom battens are all installed and faired. I'm just about ready to plank the bottom but the project has been on the back burner for some time. Money became a real issue since Sept 11 and I haven,t been able to justify the cash for the plywood yet. I have plenty of space so it isn't in the way and it will resume when things turn around a little. Have been back at the furniture side of my woodworking for a while now.
I have seen a finished rascal and actually got a ride in it. Great boat and we had it up to around 45 MPH in a fairly heavy chop. That boat had a 50 merc on it. I have also been in contact with another person who recently started building a rascal.
Not an easy boat to build but if you have some decent woodworking skills it should not be beyond your capabilities.

[gert]

Tom: any pictures?

[mhoffman]

Dale-
you're not REALLY going to rip a 48in wide mahogany stock into 3in strips, are you? Surely you could find something more suited for the material than to make it into something as easy to come by as 3in wide strips of mahogany veneer/plywood? PLEASE!
Matt

[Dale R. Hamilton]

well, yeah, thats what I bought it for. And this mahogany is old growth- very tight grain, dense. What could be a better use for this stock than to plank a beautiful hand-built boat.

[mhoffman]

You couldn't find something where you could use it without cutting it up- to me, the beauty of something like that is its magnitude- I mean how often do you see a single piece of wood that wide? Dinner table, front door? I don't know- just seems a shame to cut up something so unavailable to something that is readily available (dimesionally speaking). Just my thoughts- its yours, by all means you can do what you want with it.
I "planked" my cold-molded runabout with 3/32in thick honduras mahogany I resawed from 3"x6"x8' boards available most anywhere.
Just my two cents- didn't mean to sound like I'm "busting" on you...
Matt

[Dale R. Hamilton]

No offense taken Matt- we are all boatbuilders and woodworkers here- but we each have our different views. I did think this stuff would make wonderful musical instruments- but I don't build musical instruments. I did make a squarish engine box for Boomslang out of it and its truely spectacular to see a whole engine wrapped in mahogany. Would always be willing to consider am alternative use- it will be some time before I start the next boats- as I have an enormous project in hand at the moment

[mhoffman]

Yeah, I'm weird. I try to collect wood everywhere I go (I travel a good bit), and it just kills me to cut up a piece that I can't easily replace. If I can use it whole, I'm ok with that, usually. I think if I had a four foot wide piece of mahogany it would sit up in the storage rack "waiting for the perfect project", never to be used.

Who knows. :rolleyes:

Matt

[Tom Wilkinson]

Sorry no pictures right now but I will try to get some soon.

[jorgoz]

Have you checked out http://www.Fletcherboats.com/fletcher16.htm ? They have a 16 foot outboard runabout, think it is the rascal by Ken Bassett. Fitted with a 70hp engine, even a double cockpit version. I'm going to start on a rascal soon :D like it a lot.

[ 11-30-2002, 09:30 AM: Message edited by: jorgoz ]