by Edson I. Schock
The first boat built from these plans was a father-and-son project, and the whole construction took only a weekend. Lumber and materials were bought Saturday mornings and Saturday afternoon the work was started by getting out the parts which could be made on the bench in the shop. By Sunday noon these were all finished. This sounds as though they had worked all night, but they had not. By Sunday evening the boat was finished except for a little trim. Monday father had to work, and son finished the trim and started the painting, which was completed Tuesday, and she was launched late on Tuesday. Her name was “Half Shell.” At the time of this writing she is six years old, and has never had any repairs, nor does she need any. She is a very plain boat. Sandpaper was not much in evidence during her building, and the screw holes are not puttied, but she is not too rough looking a boat either. For several years she was used as a work boat, powered with a 13/4 horsepower outboard motor. The photograph shows her with this motor, towing an experimental model of a V-bottom powerboat. Besides being easy to build, “Half Shell” proved extremely stable and drove easily up to about six miles an hour. A larger motor did not appreciably increase her speed, so probably six miles is about as fast as she can be driven.
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