diy dot

Building Hogfish and Hogfish Maximus.

Lawanda my ex wife and I were offed free use of a small building , the use of an old house and a very old Volvo station wagon . The stipulation was we had only six months time to use as the property was to be sold. The building shed was built around Sonna tube concrete collums with roll up doors on three sides. The buildings roof was 60' long and the enclosed part was 33' long with a 14' foot door opening. I decided to make the Hogfish 31'10" long and 9' wide. I could just get around the boat with the doors shut. This was 28 years ago. The marine grade fir plywood then was still wonderfull. All the dimensional lumber was clear fir. I was able to buy a bunch from Lew Mcgregor and Russel Brown as they were starting to build a big Catamaran for a client but the deal fell through. All these photos were taken by friends as I was busy building this boat. I keep daily work records of what I get done and my hours. These I look back on for reference and to see that i'am getting older and not getting as much done today as I once did. The Hogfish took just under 1,300 hours from start to sailing away . Lawanda had a full time job . She helped me with the painting. She did all the cooking and stuff ,so i could just put in the 10-12 hours a day to get her done in time.

Stringers in place with sheer clamps and Chines

The skin is 3 sheets of 1/2 " plywood on the bottom and just two on the sides.

That's our benefactor Ron McCartney looking through the glass bottom opening. Glass bottoms are great fun when sailing in clear water but you have to be in 10' or deeper as when in shallow water your speed is too quick . Our kids would lay down looking at the bottom for hours when going over the banks.

Overkill stem detail

I'am actually upside down here showing how the companionway will look and the cabin floor size.

Centerboard pin is just above the waterline

Starting to roll the boat over.

The problem with the shop was this small doorway in the back. We could only roll her so far and then would have to slide her over a bit.

On her side and being slide over. This took a long day to do with Ron as my helper.

When the Hogfish was almost finished my father came to visit. He designed buildings for a living and had taught me a lot. Dad walks in the side bay door looks at the boat and out the front door of the shop where we were planning on sliding her out of. Dad says" your boat is too wide to fit out the front door". I grab a tape measure and measure the side door which was12' wide , the back door was 12' wide the front door looked exactly the same. But it was just under 9' ! Ron had built the building and was flabbergasted ! We had to slide her out the back door and around the building over sugar sand to get near hard ground for a crane to be able to lift. A bit more work. Since then I very carefully measure all exits .

Launch day. Hogfish was a very good boat for us. Now she has had many owners redesigning and adding on stuff so ugly that I will not post a photo for how buggered up she looks . Sorry Hogfish but we just outgrew you.

Hogfish Maximus ....same thing but lots bigger.

The inside first skin sheet of plywood is marine grade MDO ply which is very smooth and paints well. The rest is AB marine grade ply.

The deck is two layers1/2" ply with a1/2" Corecell core on top for insulation.

I use a simple pallet jack to lift up a bit to slide this frame under and then use these pipes to roll out. Very easy .

Big box boat.

At the time I was building the HFM I was running Hells Bay Boatworks with a dozen employees building about 10 custom skiffs a month. To save time I hired 2 cranes to roll her over with.

Cost $450.00 and took 2 hours .

The hull at this stage weighed10,000 lbs.

Only a shape a mother could love.

Getting ready to put on a trailer and launch. The color scheme is made up of two primer colors . I new I would be hauling out later to finish paint so to be silly I did this .

Building the HFM while I was building all the other skiffs took a huge chunk out of my life and my family's. I would start my day at 6:00 . The boat shop crew would start at 7:30 . Our working ours were to 3:30. By around 2:00 I would try and start working on the HFM. This I would do till10:30 or later. Come home eat dinner and sleep. Start over. Sell boats , train crew, order supplies, fire crew, work on HFM. Took me 10 months of this routine to get a bare but livable HFM launched and in the water. We moved aboard within days. Had her sailing a few months later. Total hours 1,980. Cost $34,800.00

I was 40 then and it would take me twice as long today.

My sharpie boat designs are built using the " Northe System"

OTHER

ROUTE

THOUGHT

HEAVY

ENOUGH

Men and stuff

nera 6:48 AM No comments

Back in the early days of Hells Bay Boatworks while laying on my bed in a hotel room in Atlanta Gerogia in the early morning hours, watching tv I got an idea. I was in this hotel room at 6:00 in the morning wide awake killing time flipping channels waiting to go sell our boats and ideas at the Mark Castlow Shallow water fly fishing and boat show.

These boat show fishing tackle meet the celbrity shows were lots of fun,and a lot of work for me.

I'am not a fishing fanatic like most everybody that comes to these show and buys my boats.

I have worked in and out of this industry for 34 plus years in a world of fishing rods, gear , skiffs and people that I can relate to but look at from an outside view. I have never felt the need to build my own flats skiff, tie my own flies, get up every waking chance to try and catch fish. I have in my younger days really enjoyed sight fishing in my dinghys, never liked trolling or bait fishing. But I do enjoy fishing when I fish. And I like to fish to catch, and to catch to eat. So.. I do fish.

Watching that morning a fishing show with a couple of guys catching Strippers up north in some basic skiff I noticed that they were using Tibor Everglades fly reels and the two of them were just going on about how they loved these reels. I had meet Ted Jurasick when he had come to us to buy one of our early Whiprays. I really liked his straight way of talking, to the point. He made these reels as a hobby business but being Ted it was a good money making business. His reels were beautiful and really worked well. These two guys were goggo over them.

At the boat shows I met a lot of guys that had over a hundred rod sets in their garages. They bought them slowly so I guess the wives would not notice the $100,000.00 in tackle sitting there .

Lots of guys wanted to buy our boats, they were expensive, most came to the shows to talk to us,get the latest news and would order a skiff a month or so later. At a Castlow show I would be talking non stop for ten hours.

My idea was this ; what if at these shows I could have a Tibor reel in my hand worth at that time retail

$540.00 and just say to anyone that walked up , hey buy a boat and get this reel for FREE !

Hal liked this idea. We went to Ted to see how much or how little he could sell them to us.

Ted liked the idea too. He said he wanted a Guide skiff so would trade them. His price to us for each reel would be $320.00 . To make the reels unique he would machine red handles, and all the parts that were normally black plastic would now be in aluminum like the rest of the reel. To top it off he would engrave our company name and the name of each skiff bought and it's hull number. We received if I remember right about 86 reels for the skiff we built him.

At the next show I sold 4 boats with the guy explaining to his wife , "look I got this reel for free and all I had to do was buy this skiff."Guys loved this sales ploy. I say guys here as we only sold a few boats to women.

About three months later we ended up in a marketing deal with Orvis . They approached us wanting to have an Orvis boat available in their catalog. They printed 15 million catalogs a year. They liked our company and boat so much they wanted to be associated with it. They would pay for the photo shoot,

Put our name and phone numbers in a full page ad and all boat sales would go to us. All they wanted was a dark green HBBWs skiff with the Orvis logo on the side. They also would fill our boat up with Orvis fly rods and reels at all the boat shows we went to. The three of us would be put on the Orvis guide plan so could buy their stuff way below cost.

Flip did not like Orvis gear so much. Hal was not a past fan. We recived a bunch of new fly rods which Hal tried out. He said they had gotten their act together . I thought that a company as big and as long lasting as Orvis that was wanting to be associated with us was great. We made the deal.

We never sold an Orvis boat.

But tons of averge guys that could afford Orvis stuff came by and were very happy to see us with them.

After this Teds reels were out. Ted understood. 26 of the 86 reels went with boats.

Keep a look out for them. If you have one send me a photo.

Two of mine.

Phil Woodam just sent me these photos of his never used one.

Miguel Morejohn has used his non stop catching fish.

Wish we had fish like this here in the Bahamas.

Caribbean racing on Hogfish Maximus and other sailboats.

nera 5:24 AM No comments

The leeward and Windward islands of the Caribbean Sea host enough sailing regattas to satisfy any and all sailboat types , skippers and crews. From flat out racing to casual fun class kinda racing, classic boats , mega yachts , multi hull , local traditional boats and racing for charter boats.

Along with the racing comes all the partying , meeting other crews, and getting to know the island you are anchored off of and being hosted by.

I have been able to race in many of the great regattas as crew on other boats . This I like best as I do not have to worry about what will break and how the race is to be run. I like just having a job to do , watch the unfolding drama , scenery ,some times chaos , and just by being at sea on really fast sailing machines. These boats are always way above my pay grade and ambition so it's great to be on them at their best. It's also nice to be with winning crews.

For one season I was crew on a J109 racing in most of the regattas as the spinnaker sheet trimmer when running, and the jib sheet tender when on the wind. This kept me in the companion way and the cockpit. A safe place. It was always a drama when approaching the leeward mark with the chute up doing 10-12 knots with the owner skipper steering saying he wanted to lower the chute within a boat length of the mark while we would be re hoisting the jib and sheeting in to weather in 20 plus knots of wind with at least 8 other boats next to us thinking the same thing.

We always had a pick up crew of at least 7 different nationalitys on board that all spoke English but had different meanings for all parts on the boats and maneuvers .

I would in my mind at these times wondered what it would be like to be on a professional all New Zealand run crew.

For me in my safe spot my job was to ease the chute sheets, lower the chute , retract the bowsprit, and start sheeting in the jib. The fordeck guys would be hauling in the chute through the forward hatch,

At the same time hoisting the jib tru it's foil head stay slot , the main sheet guy who would be the strongest crew on board was supposed to be keeping the boat on its feet by letting out and sheeting in , the rail crew were to ease the vangs and start leaning out.

During all this the skippers job was to speak calmly giving directions to where we were headed with all the other boats a few feet away going like a bat out of hell alonside us.....

What would happen was a boat in front would get a huge gust at the same time as us ,loose control and just flat lay over on its side in front of us so we would then head up a bit which would cause us to do the same and over we would go with the chute flailing away trying to dismast us with the cockpit in the water , the foredeck guys trying to not slide over the side the skipper yelling to dump the main , get the chute in, the jib up and why the hell is everything taking so long.

I liked my central spot and knowing I only had to do something when told to so never got in trouble .

I could just scrunch up my ball sack and watch the madness ensue.

Not all races were like this. Having a tacking duel with a similar boat going to weather in good strong Caribbean winds and sea with good crew and boats that could point to weather 20 degrees higher than most all other cruising boats doing 71/2 knots plus was a joy to behold.

The Hogfish Maximus is not a boat fast enough for racing in that her weak point is in going to weather she is a bit slower than needed to be competitive. Reaching she can hold her own and beat most similar cruisers . If all races were close hauled or reaching we would be in the money.

I like to race the Hogfish in local island races for many reasons knowing that we will never be competitive. First off when entering a race you pay a small fee which is less than a $100.00 . For these fees you are then given a case of beer , a bottle of good rum ,some tee shirts and other stuff. You are also adding to the number of boats racing and that adds clout to the local island in the papers. There are tons of boats at anchor off these islands but most owners do not want to know how slow their boats are so stay at anchor. I race to see how fast my boat is against others , to learn how to try and catch up to the others that are faster. We have invited a lot of other people to crew for us and have a blast just by being out there.

The times we have done really well were when top notch racing helmsmen were steering the Hogfish with me trimming the main.

You can learn more about your sailing skills and the speed of your boat by having other crew aboard and chasing faster boats.

After all the racing comes the partying ashore. Nothing like being on the winning boat.

One of the best prizes awarded to a boat I was on was for a second place finish in the Grenada round the island race on the J109 " Pocket Rocket". First place got a one night stay in an apartment room on island and we received a case of Gernadas best aged Rum !!! Life is good.

So if down island with your cruiser sign up to race , hold back a bit at the start to let the real racers get away and then just sail,learn but have a good time as there are no losers when it comes to the party ashore.

Heineken Regatta in St. Martin on Pocket Rocket J109

That me on the stern peeing, we are still doing 71/2 knots to weather in the close to 30 we were racing in. Main tore as we did our last tack around the leeward side but boat speed is so good in the Jboats we just kept going. Came in fourth place .

That's me in the red hat!

Crew party afterwards. Italian, Englih, Irish ,Scot, New Zealand, my daughter Kalessin, and Tony

Another Irishman.

Kalessin standing watch as the two of us sail the J109 back to its home in Grenada. 168 miles the first

Day towing a huge inflatable. What a boat, but like ridding a horse all day as she would wear you out with the motion.

We have just won the best dressed Pirate crew when racing on the Farr 60' Farrfly.

A case of rum for second place !

Our glory day having won first place in the fun class.

Racing our friends on Grace May an old Prout cat. She's overhauling us here.

All 16 and under kids placing 3 rd in the Grenada series of big boat racing. The skipper steered the one off Swan 42 while these kids did all the sail work including the spinnaker. This was against hard sailing adults including the boat that I was crewing on. The crew consisted of the three boys in black with my daughter Kalessin here holding the prize of Gin. The kid with the hat behind her is Sam Goodchild who has gone on to be a very successful offshore racer. Look his name up you will be amazed.