by Weston Farmer
LOA 8 ft., Beam 4 ft.
Want a real speed box? You will get it here. She’ll build for about $30 in materials* screws and paint—and even an amateur will build her in 40 hours. Power her with 5 hp— and she’ll give speed aplenty!
It seems like yesterday, but it was nearly thirty years ago when Lockwood-Ash came out with a 4 hp Opposed outboard that was hot enough to plane a flattish light boat. Soon Johnson countered with 6 hp, and the next few seasons saw a new kind of small boat appearing in locust numbers on all waterways. I can remember what a great day it was for boating when Lockwood-Ash first planed a boat with a kicker! Each new planing design gave the game a shot in the arm. The biggest shot of all was a little craft doped out by Bruno Beckhard of Long Island, an outboard dealer with a knack for experimenting. Bruno designed a little speed box 8 ft. long by 4 ft. beam which could be built in a couple of afternoons. Shortly, Bruno’s boat was cleaning up right and left. Various versions of the idea were built and the plans were published under such names is Cute Craft, Nize Baby, Sez You and others Thousands of them wets bullt. Even in those days this writer was designing hydroplanes and racing them. In the many years applied to naval architecture since, much has been learned of planing hydrodynamics. New materials like plywood and plastics are now available, motors have been lightened, power zipped up. Pounds-per-horsepower, the criterion of speed over water, has been halved. All of which is why it seemed a logical development to me to recook Bruno’s ancient basic idea—make a simple 8 ft. by 4 ft. box, use plywood for low hull weight, and put a completely new bottom between the chines that would embody latest hydrodynamic thinking. The result: hard to design, easy to build Sea Biscuit. This little speed box is 8 ft. long inside her raked bow baffle, and 4 ft. beam at the bow, her greatest width. She’ll build for about $30, in materials, screws and paint. A man can lay her out in about 3 hours; the transoms and frames can be built and erected in a day. Planking will take longer. An organized boat shop can build a Sea Biscuit in 2 working days, but an amateur would take closer to 40 hours. Thus $30 and 40 hours after starting you can be trying out a Sea Biscuit ofyour own. Bruno Bekhard’s sensation was built with arcuate frames, inverted from bow to mid-length. From that point aft the bottom was absolutely “flat’ athwartship. This made Bruno’s craft unbankable’ and hence hard to turn. I drove many such hulls, and occasionally would forget the nature of the beast and throw her into too tight a turn. Immediately I would find myself with considerable loss of dignity and total absence of boat flapping through the air to another part of the lake. Our boat here has a different bottom. Dead rise has been apportioned throughout that part of her length which bears on water, and in a fore and aft direction longitudinal concavity has been provided to make her run flat. Sea Biscuit will handle better, run flatter than the old cute crates. An ordinary 5 hp kicker will make her whiz. Power her with 71/2 hp and she’ll go faster than you care to drive this tiny boat.
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