Help to identify Custom sailboat

[Jackdaw]

With all the brain behind this conversation:
Knowns:
1. That is one-off built.
3. Most likely is done through male mold process.

No disrespect at all, but I don't think you quite understand what's involved here. Those two are normally never true for the same boat. Nobody in their right mind would build a one-off boat out of a mold. Its like you built the hull twice; once the mold and then the boat. And then what, destroy the mold?

Molds are built for production runs. Cold molding (stitch or strip) are one-off the technique of choice. Remember, a painted cold molded boat will look like its molded glass counterpart, just like the two T-birds do. It actually IS a fiberglass boat, just fiberglass layered over the inside and outside of a wooden 'core'.

Just trying to help you figure it out. ;^) If it IS a full molded boat, then some company was looking at a series run. If cold-molded, most likely a one-off, probably (well!) home built.

 

[DayDreamer41]

Jackdaw, I have worked with a good friend of mine to build a Roberts 45' Custom and yes it was built from a male mold, the male mold was nothing more than plywood cut to shape, braced and then 1x 3's fastened to the braced plywood shapes. Once completed C-Flex was rolled out and stapled to the shape, then fiberglass mat of various weights were layed up over the C-Flex. Once the layup was completed, the hull was fared out, sanded and painted. The hull was then rolled with a crane and the internals and deck were completed. Was it labor intensive sure was, but that was a 45' pilot house Roberts finished beautifully. So I respectfully disagree with the thought that one would have to be out of there right mind to do this, plans are available from C-Flex
http://www.finelineboatplans.com/boat-building-in-c-flex-glass

 

[Dmitriy]

Jackdaw, I have worked with a good friend of mine to build a Roberts 45' Custom and yes it was built from a male mold, the male mold was nothing more than plywood cut to shape, braced and then 1x 3's fastened to the braced plywood shapes. Once completed C-Flex was rolled out and stapled to the shape, then fiberglass mat of various weights were layed up over the C-Flex. Once the layup was completed, the hull was fared out, sanded and painted. The hull was then rolled with a crane and the internals and deck were completed. Was it labor intensive sure was, but that was a 45' pilot house Roberts finished beautifully. So I respectfully disagree with the thought that one would have to be out of there right mind to do this, plans are available from C-Flex
http://www.finelineboatplans.com/boat-building-in-c-flex-glass

DayDreamer, I'm sure it is very labor intensive process, but also fairly expensive one. Considering that all materials and parts involved, was it a Dream to handmade it or was it a still less expensive then the volume production boat of similar size?

 

[Jackdaw]

Jackdaw, I have worked with a good friend of mine to build a Roberts 45' Custom and yes it was built from a male mold, the male mold was nothing more than plywood cut to shape, braced and then 1x 3's fastened to the braced plywood shapes. Once completed C-Flex was rolled out and stapled to the shape, then fiberglass mat of various weights were layed up over the C-Flex. Once the layup was completed, the hull was fared out, sanded and painted. The hull was then rolled with a crane and the internals and deck were completed. Was it labor intensive sure was, but that was a 45' pilot house Roberts finished beautifully. So I respectfully disagree with the thought that one would have to be out of there right mind to do this, plans are available from C-Flex
http://www.finelineboatplans.com/boat-building-in-c-flex-glass

That's interesting, thanks for sharing that. Interesting material. Note that I did say it would be 'out of their mind' to do that as a production method for a series boat. For one-offs it looks totally valid. The so-called male mold is a lot of work.

 

[DayDreamer41]

My friend unfortunately after living aboard his beautiful creation never did sail it, it was tied to a dock for years, mast was up but no completed rigging, you see he was a very talented craftsman fabricating his own hatches from mahogany, cabin sole of tongue and groove teak (he performed all the machining from raw wood), he scoured the marina bone yards for old brass port lights, his porcelain toilet was from some old 50's vintage Chriscraft trimmed with brass the pump handle was a long mahogany lever arm with a brass handle, the cabin ceiling was fashioned with varying thicknesses of maple, teak and oak, the cabinet doors were made of mahogany with cane inlays the pilot house was bright and airy and finished similarly to the cabin. Unfortunately he had no mechanical savvy, never finish the electrical or motor installation and eventually sold the boat to buy a house, not many years later throat cancer knocked on his door, I suspect is was related to years of breathing the products from which he built his dream with. I wish I had some pictures of his work for he was truly an artist with wood.

 

[Tom G P-21]

I'm thinking it was someones mini tonner. Note the sails are 1988 vintage, see paragraph with history mentioning the The Loft of Ventura.

http://johnrushing.net/

 

[Dmitriy]

I'm thinking it was someones mini tonner. Note the sails are 1988 vintage, see paragraph with history mentioning the The Loft of Ventura.

http://johnrushing.net/

Tom, great article! Why do you believe that they dropped the brand name, when moved? Could it be that they were still making the sales under that name, post 1988?