Wife's Skiff

[kmorin]

On the Welcome Aboard topic I was encouraged to post images of the family boats, thanks for the invitation, and while that can take a little time; I do have some pictures of my newest welded aluminum project.

My wife has a B&B in a South Central Alaskan town of Seldovia and wanted a skiff to enjoy the shoreline in that area. The Harbor is a no-wake zone, naturally, so I built a little outboard powered skiff for her that is more displacement hull than planing. It has a well and a super thrust (geared down) 8 Hp Honda with a flat prop and moves along quietly and the top is to keep off the rain.

The hull is only 14' long and is all 0.100" 5052 because I couldn't find 5086, which I prefer. I choose the 0.100" over 1/8" to save weight (hull is about 175lb dry) but the hassle of working in this softer thinner stuff was significant.

The shape is a loosely based copy, with some slight variations, of a working skiff called a seine skiff or snag skiff which is used to pull a purse seine off the deck of the actual seine boat (30-60').

Of course, its a "chick skiff" and looks like a Disney ride because that is what the First Mate/Skipper wanted. The reason the project was built was her remark to me that she wanted a little skiff to enjoy the shoreline- which as all the metal boat guys here can appreciate was the most romantic thing she may have said to me in nearly 30 years of marriage.

Hopefully these linked images will show up correctly (?) following Daddy-O's very good directions in his "How-To" post.







cheers,

[Bullshipper]

Extremely cool.

Talk about a fuel sipper.

You're my new hero.

[mojomizer]

Wow nice build. Looks like great workmanship ........... and it does have a theme. Key cleats who would have thought.

Thanks for sharing.

Mark

[kmorin]

mojomizer, Bullshipper,
thanks for the compliments I should have figured you guys would spot the cleats and the name.

In the historic site of Seldovia ( http://www.seldovia.com/images/pict_aerialtown133_2.jpg ) there was no harbor (shown in the background in one of the pictures I posted and in this link in the foreground) so the boats were run up a narrow tidal slough to avoid winter northerlies blowing down the Seldovia Bay. The boat's rigs were too tall so they made the log bridge a draw bridge. At the foot of the bridge on the town side of the Slough was cabin in which the key to building that housed the draw works was kept. (note that key?)

Years later a childhood friend and his wife built a little B&B on this site and named it the Bridgekeeper's Inn. ( http://www.thebridgekeepersinn.com/ ) My wife bought this house and has made the Key into her logo. So the skiff is the Little Key and the cleats are keys made of welded stock.

I tried to keep that short (:oops:) and here's a better look at that detail.




cheers,

[Chaps]

Kevin - nice to see you posting over here! Bob S.

[Ironwoodtuna]

Am I missing something or what, where are all the pictures???

[welder]

I was wondering the same thing, I think KM posted then moved them in photo bucket and that makes them go away.

Maybe he will put them back , I hope !

[Jay Perrotta]

From Kmorin's profile:

metal boats, 3dCAD, Carving, Boat Design, furniture building, marine history, industrial controls automation, metal sculpture, various other topics

Good guy to have as a neighbor and an AAB member!

[kmorin]

Welder, you're right I 'organized' the photobucket after posting the first image links.

Hopefully they'll show up now- the odd thing was I went to the site and logged in, refreshed the site several times and could see the images fine. So that lead me to believe that photobucket was 'smart' enough to track the files... sorry for the steep learning curve.

Cheers,

[welder]

WOW, that is some nice work !

[spoiled one]

That is beautiful! I spent quite a lot of time as a little duffer around Seldovia. We used to take the ferry over from Homer and camp on the old airstrip on Jakolof Bay. Those were some good times!

[Ironwoodtuna]

Very Cool little skiff sled for the wife!

I like the enclosed engine pocket. When I was a kid and just moved from the middle of the country to the NY shoreline. THere as a fishing rowboat with that kind of setup I always liked and would draw pictures of. In my pictures the back two compartments were always live bait wells.

WHat size Honda do you have on it?
WHat do you do for the fuel cell? Is it under those rear seats???

Thanks for sharing! Marty

[JETTYWOLF]

Ya just freaked me out.

YOU are the MAN.

[warthog5]

HeHe That's sharp looking.

I have a question about the table.

When I saw the first pix's before the finished ones with the table top. I thought maybe that large tube was a underwater viewing port?

Is it, if you remove the table top. Something to think about with a piece of thick Lexan installed.

Oh yes and we love builds and LOT's of detailed pix's. :)

[Sculpin]

Another awesome boat man. You have some great talent there for sure. Thank you for posting the photos. Everyone loves photos. I am a visual type and get alot more out of a photo then letters will ever speak. Thanks and keep posting.

John

[peterbo3]

Kevin,
You definitely have major skills.
Top looking job. :D :D :D 8) 8) 8)
Would you have some pics of your commercial boats that you could post?