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Building My 19ft Barrelback Mahogany RunaboutBy Gary W. Schoenfeldt

In the spring of 2002 I had the desire to build a copy of a MahoganyRunabout built by Chris Craft in the 1930’s & 1940’s. I had fondmemories of seeing and riding in these beautiful boats at Lake Tahoeand at Catalina Island during my youth. I didn’t want to buy one ofthe original old Chris Craft boats because keeping one of these oldplanked boats from leaking when first put in the water, after sitting onland during the winter, is a characteristic of the type of construction.It is a common problem that when these original old boats were put inthe water after a winter, it would leak for a while until the planksswelled and hopefully sealed up the leaks. Rebuilding the boatscures this problem for a while, but eventually the leaks begin. ChrisCraft didn’t think their boats would survive more than ten years, butbecause of the following and love for these boats by enthusiastsmany have survived with a great amount of care and rebuilding.

I found the plans I used available from marine designer KenHankinson (Now available from Glen-L Marine). His plans weredesigned around the 19ft 1939 Chris Craft Barrelback MahoganyRunabout. The Barrelback, or Tumblehome as it is also known, getsit name from the transom design that is in the shape of a half roundbarrel. The round portion is on top and the bottom is flat for a goodplaning surface. The plans are designed for the cold molded methodwhere thin layers of wood are laid up in full beds of epoxy to form amulti layer sheathing similar to plywood. By using the thin layers ofwood (1/8” thick marine plywood or 1/8” mahogany) in stripsapproximately 6” wide or less, it is possible to form the compoundcurves at the bow. When the frame is faired and ready for sheathing,the first layer of 1/8” thick wood strips are laid up diagonally at approx45 degrees to the horizontal in a bed of epoxy at each frame andtemporarily fastened until the epoxy hardens. The second and thirdlayers are then laid up at 90 degrees to the first layer and secondlayer in full beds of epoxy. The final layer is 1/8” mahogany stripsapproximately 3” wide which are laid in a bed of epoxy in thelengthwise direction of the hull to give the appearance of woodplanking. This construction eliminates planking joints that leak. The

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total thickness of the hull sides is 3/8” and the hull bottom thickness is1/2”.

In February 2001 I bought the plans from Ken Hankinson. I begancutting out framing members and transferring the 1/2 frame full sizedrawings to a 4’ x 8’ x 3/4” plywood to use as a layout table toconstruct the frames on.

“Cut out frame members”

When the framing members were all cut out, I began building theseven frames and the bow stem. I also built the jig members neededto support the frames in their order to form the hull shape.

“Constructing frames onthe plywood layouttable.”

I didn’t have a place in the garage to build the hull, so I had to find aplace in the yard to build a flat surface to set up the jig. There were

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no level surfaces in the yard so I poured a level 3’ wide and 20’ longconcrete pad in the lawn area for my jig set up location.

“The concrete slab tobuild the jig on.”

The next step was to set up the frame jig so construction could begin.I set the jig up in September 2001.

“Beginning to set upframe jig”

As the frame jig was completed and the framing began it becamenecessary to provide a cover for weather protection. I picked up acanvas carport at Costco that was 10 ft wide and 20 ft long, just theright size for my 19’-0” boat. It had flap doors on each end thatallowed it to be closed off from the rain and snow.

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“The framing on Jigbeginning to takeshape.”

“The frame a littlemore complete withthe canvas carportfor weatherprotection.”

“The frame iscomplete, faired,and somesheathing is beinginstalled.”

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“The hull sub-sheathing iscomplete and readyfor installation ofmahoganysheathing.”

The 1/8” thick x 3” wide mahogany strips are laid in a bed of epoxyover the sub-sheathing. The strips of mahogany are temporarilyfastened in place with ¾” long x 18 ga staples. Each staple is shotthrough a 2” x 2” x ¼” plywood pad that is wrapped in plasticwrapping tape and placed over the mahogany strips at about 3” oc orless. The tape keeps the plywood pads from sticking to themahogany where it touches excess epoxy that might be on thesurface of the mahogany. Once the epoxy has set up, the pads andstaples are removed. There was close to 4 thousand staples used tohold the mahogany strips in place on this boat. That amounted to awhole lot of staple pulling.

“Mahogany sheathingstrips are being installedon the bottom of the hull.”

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“Transom mahoganysanded and ready for paintand stain.”

When the mahogany strips had all been installed, the whole surfacewas sanded smooth and prepared to receive fiberglass on the bottomof the hull up to the water line. Before fiberglassing, I drilled the holesfor the propeller shaft and rudder shaft. The sides of the hull andtransom were stained with Chris Craft red/brown stain.

“The bottom hasbeen fiberglassedand the sides ofthe hull & transomhave beenstained.”

With the bottom fiberglassed, it was time to paint the bottom andpaint the waterline. The bottom was painted a candyapple red colorthat was used on Hummer SUV’s. The water line was painted in two

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colors, a ¾” white strip on the bottom and a ¾” blue strip on the top.This gave the bottom a red, white and blue color scheme forpatriotism.

“Bottom has beenpainted and hullsides and transomstained andvarnished.”

At this point of completion I have spent about 7 years getting this far.The Hull is now ready to turn over and put on a trailer but I had towait through the winter of 2008-2009 until our house sold inWashington so we could move the boat to our new home in Idaho.

“During January of 2009we had a heavy snowstorm that caused thecollapse of the canvascarport. Luckily therewas no damage to theboat hull except for oneminor little dent.”

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“The end of July2009 the boat isready to move offthe Jig and ontothe trailer.Everything isbeing moved outof the way and allfasteners holdingthe frame to the jighave beenremoved.”

“The trailer iswaiting.”

I enlisted the help of 16 friends to help me lift the boat off the jig andset it on the trailer. It was surprisingly easy to lift it with that muchhelp. The move went very smooth. We lifted it off the jig and rolled itover on an old mattress pad to protect the hull finishes. Once we hadit upright it was easy for us all to lift it high enough to get it onto thetrailer.

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“Rolling thehull over on amattress pad.”

“Next move ison to thetrailer.”

After it was on the trailer it was ready for the move to Idaho. Thiswas the last item to be moved to our new home. The few odds andends we still had to move were loaded in the boat and we were onour way to Idaho.

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“On thetrailer andready tomove.”

“Once wearrived atour newhome inIdaho I wasable to movethe boat andtrailer intoone of thegarages setup for myshop.”

During the winter of 2009-2010 I was able to make headway on deckconstruction. Having a warmer shop area sure made it easier to getsome work done in the winter.

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“Deck framing started.”

“Sub deck sheathingbeing installed.

“Mahogany deck surfacebeing installed.”

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“Decking installed andready to be finished.”

“Deck has beenfinished, ready for whitejoint deck caulking andinstallation of hardware.”

“Hardware beinginstalled.”

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“Hardware beinginstalled. Motor hatchesopen.”

“Interior front seating,side panels and flooringbeing installed.Beginning installation ofSteering box. Thesteering box is from a1951 GMC Pickup. Thesteering column will beshortened and a newsteering wheel will beadded.”

“Interior rear seating, sidepanels and flooring beinginstalled.”

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“Seat panels havebeen upholstered andinstalled. Interiormahogany panelinghas been stained andvarnished. Gaugepanel has beeninstalled. Electricalwiring started. Newsteering wheelinstalled. Beadinstalled aroundcockpits for bumperpad around cockpits.”

Installation of steering linkage to rudder, linkage to transmissioncontrol, bilge pump, bilge blower and throttle control are underway.

“Cockpit bumper stripinstalled. Grab barinstalled for rear seatpassengers. Steeringcolumn still needs tobe shortened 3inches.”

I located an engine in Spokane, WA. The owner of an outdrive boatwith a MerCruiser V6, 262 wanted to install a MerCruiser V8 in hisboat. I was able to hear the V6 run and it sounded good and hadbeen kept in very good condition. He wanted to sell it at a veryreasonable price and it had all the expensive equipment attached thatis needed for a marine engine using raw water from the lake forcooling. I had to purchase a new bellhousing and coupler to make it

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possible to connect the engine to a Borg Warner Velvet Drive 71Ctransmission. I bought the new transmission from a company inNorth Carolina. I ordered new mounts that attached to the front of theengine and to the transmission. The engine and transmission wereattached to short runners that were spaced to fit between the mainengine stringers that were built into the boat framing duringconstruction.

“Engine ready forinstallation.”

“My friend Jeff helpingme position the enginein the boat.”

The engine installation went smoothly and took very little adjustmentto line the engine up with the propeller shaft and make necessaryconnections.

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“Engine in place. It’s atight fit but it works.”

“Engine view with rearseat removed. The rearseat back can beremoved to exposeopening in rear seat backsupport that allowsaccess to the front of theengine for maintenance.”

“Rudder control linkage.”

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“Raw water pickup andfilter.”

“Fuel tank installed.Exhaust tubing installedand connected toexhaust ports.”

“Transmission linkageand transmission oilcooler in place.”

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“Stencil in place ontransom ready to placesizing and gold leaf.”

“Gold leaf and outliningcomplete on name.”View #1

“Gold leaf and outliningcomplete on name.”View #2

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“Engine installationcomplete with motorhatch doors reinstalled.”

In the spring of 2012 and the boat is finally complete. I’m lookingforward to warmer weather, a higher water level in the lake and achance to launch this boat on its maiden voyage. Wow, is this goingto be fun!

Pictures of the finished boat:

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Let The Fun Begin!!!