59' Clippercraft

[Brian]

Hey all,

My name is Brian, but my friends call me whenever somethings broke. I figure most everybody here knows what that's like.

Great forum here and some gorgeous old boats. I picked up this Clippercraft on Craigs list with a beat up old 70 horse Chrysler and a couple boxes of controls, parts and brightwork.

The boat was full of water, but the hull was pretty sound. Everything from the deck up was starting to go downhill fast. Some of the ply was starting to delaminate and in some places missing.

Spent the summer working on the wood and it's ready for water with a new beefier transom. Working on getting an engine running this winter and hopefully, next spring we're on the water.

[Marty Loken (Norseboater)]

Nice...

Brian -

That's a great-looking Clipper-Craft, Brian. Hope we get a chance to meet you and see the boat at some of next year's club events.

- Marty

[Mark_Denis]

Great project Brian! She's a beauty! Keep us up to date with your progress...

Welcome aboard! That sure is a beautful boat!

[Tim McCrain]

Wow, nice job on the woodwork. Sure doesn't look like it was neglected and full of water, you've been busy. Welcome to the forums!

You gonna tow that beauty up here next summer?

[Brian]

I'm assuming up here is the Seattle area, still kinda new here, but you bet! Great to meet up with like-minded craftsmen who keep old boats alive.

I got this winter to get the motor running and the trailer road ready. I really look forward to seeing some of these boats and meeting the people maintaining them. I got lot's of questions.

There's just something about the boats from the northwest. They looked kind of oddly cool to a boy from Oklahoma growing up on a 16' tri-hull. (mostly flat water) But when I moved here in 89' and saw the kind of water they had to plow through and all the rain, they made perfect sense. They're cool by design and necessity.

Great to meet you all.

[Tim McCrain]

Brian,

Yeah, by "up here" I mean the Seattle area. And yes, it is oddly cool here, in more ways than one.

The weather and water here do have a lot to do with the designs that came out of this area, I read the other day that Bell Boy out of Bellingham pretty much invented the small cruiser category and that they were the first company to introduce cabins for boats as small as 16'. (not presenting this as gospel, if anyone can confirm this or has other info please chime in, BillR?) Lots of folks up here with a lot of knowledge.

Look forward to seeing you on the water,

Tim

[Brian]

Yeah, with Reinell, BellBoy, Skagit and all those others here, that must have been some time for boat making. The 50's and 60's seemed to be the hey day of boat building. (at least good looking boats) You had classic old woodies and some real styling fiberglass, sometimes with fins!

I don't know much about the Clippercraft company. Information is pretty scarce. I don't think this was a kit boat, but it didn't seem quite finished. It looked like it needed handrails on the hard top, so I made some for it. The gunwhales look like you should be able to walk forward to the bow, but they'll need a little beefing up. I'll add a mahogany walking surface to those.

I can't quite call it restoring a boat, it's more like finishing the boat 50 years later. Nice thing about woodworking on a boat is you don't have to be able to cut in a strait line.