Hickman Sled

[ion barnes]

As is my way, when my wife turns into a craft store or a bead shop, I look for a old book store, pawn shop, or a news stand. Today was no different.

But today, I turned into a book store that had held little promise in the past and found success!

I walked out an hour later with one WB, two Pro Boatbuilder(2nd vol) and a book of plans that included a 15' Hickman Sled that I believe were published in the 60's in Popular Mech. All for $6! I like the old stuff. Like a friend said recently, "That was before TV took over entertaining us after work. You use to do things with your time off" I just like to collect some of the old designs to use as a reference point when I come across an article and I can flip back to one of these books and say "Oh yah, thats it, hmmm I see what they mean." I have somewhere, in a box, a set of plans for a stepped hull inboard runabout. I doubt very much that I would every get around to building one but the pipe dreams......

[Jim H]

Originally posted by ion barnes:
a book of plans that included a 15' Hickman Sled that I believe were published in the 60's in Popular Mech.Ion, what would you take for a copy of the sea sled plans?

[ 08-17-2004, 04:23 PM: Message edited by: Jim H ]

[Jack Heinlen]

My grandfather, long before I was born, had a Hickman sea sled, probably just a little longer than 16 ft. Interesting boats. My brother has a loving cup grandpa won in a race on the Cheboygan river, back in the thirties, back before there was a speed limit of five mph. ;)

I can't remember why they went out of favor. Some claim it was the jumping off point for the original Boston Whalers, but I think that's a stretch. More a power catamaran.

[ion barnes]

Thats exactly where the Boston Whaler started.

A man by the name of Fisher had an idea of making unsinkable small boats and had as a friend, Ray Hunt, the designer. Fisher was keen on the Hickman sled and had almost put pen to paper to purchase the rights to the sled when Hickman backed out. Hunt and Fisher had seen enough of the Sleds to realize that they had some quirks like blowing spray over the bow and not much bouyancy in the bow. They came up with the third bow on the centerline, which evaded the Hickman copyright, and there you have a Boston Whaler. From there, others have copied the new hull form and around here its called a Tri Hull because of the three bows.

Just knowing the evolution stops me from building a Sled unless I had a bag of extra cash and time to spare. Just who, would want to buy a replica antique?

[Jack Heinlen]

Thanks for the story Ion. While the BW may have been sparked by the Sea Sled it is a radically different design, essentially a center V with sponsons.

BTW, even though ultimately seaworthy, I think the origianl BW and its clones are terrible boats to live with. They pound when powered into a chop like no other power boat I've ever been aboard.

[DavesFlatsBoat]

It's a little hard to see here, but here is a composite shot of a scooter sled with an inverted V hull that my Dad built. The engine was a 10hp Sears and fixed in place so you steered by leaning on the post.
http://www.davesflatcat.com/sledjpg.jpg

Dad said it had the unusual property of pitching to the opposite of the turn, so you had to hang on.