Richard,

Thanks for keeping the Chebacco news alive.

 I hope you like the story and feel free to use as you wish.

Would it be OK to register it on your site?

I also hope you gain employment soon.

Regards
Michael Johannessen
Melbourne
Australia

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Having harbored a desire to build a proper boat for some time, I satisfied
the itch by reading home built articles for a number of years.

However the itch got worse and had to be cured.  I have built lightweight
racing dinghies in the past and I just had to build another but bigger and
more comfortable boat as I get older.

I wanted a boat capable of good seaworthiness in sheltered and coastal
waters, reasonable sailing and motoring performance with accommodation for
my wife and I for up to a week.  As we plan to cruise rivers and lakes, A
shallow draft design was mandatory.

I was seeking a design that had modern features but with strong links to the
past, particularly the North East USA Catboat, the traditional English
sailing craft as well as the local Couta boats here in Australia.

The Phil Bolger designed "Chebacco" was selected as a prime candidate and
after discovering on the internet "The Chebacco Newsletters" edited by Bill
Sampson, I was provided with the necessary inspiration and confidence.  A
visit was made to Duck Flat Wooden Boats in Adelaide where the plans for the
sheet ply version of Chebacco were ordered.

The Chebacco is a very pretty boat but the 19'6" length was a little shorter
than I wanted, the accommodation limited and I liked the look of the
lapstrake hull.

Mr Bolger's sweet lines were keyed into the Vacanti Prolines Hull Shape and
Stability Software package and the hull expanded till the beam was at the
maximum towing road width of 2.4Metres. The overall length turned out to be
6.3Metres.

To develop the planked lapstrake hull shape, the second chine was removed in
the software and the underwater shape adjusted untill the original waterline
was met.  The total displacement increased by approximately 100kg to 900kg
when fully laden. No specific inclusion for ballast was made.

A generic CAD package was used to convert the Prolines offsets to a set of
construction plans.

Other modifications to the design included a solid keel, sealed cockpit and
cabin floors and increasing the cabin size.

The boat was built from plywood with all external areas sheathed in either
glass of dynal.  Polyurethane paint was used over an epoxy undercoat to
minimize ongoing maintenance needs.

The boat was built the right way up using the 16mm plywood bottom of the
boat is a solid foundation for attaching the bulkheads, molds, transom and
stem.  The hull bottom jig consisted of 15 stations set at the fairbody
height to firmly support the bottom of the hull during the planking phase.

The hull was constructed in three stages, firstly right way up, then upside
down and finally right way up again.  Lifting the boat out of the shed twice
made working on the boat easier but has twice as much stress as a single
turnover.

In general, the following construction sequence was followed, keel built and
installed in the Hull Jig, hull bottom fitted to the keel, centreboard case
fitted to hull bottom, transom installed, female molds installed, hull
planked and bulkheads/inwhales installed.

Half a dozen of my Yacht Club mates helped turned over the hull. A low key
first turnover party held.

The next phase of fairing, sheathing and painting of the outside hull was a
most boring, messy and demanding.  Building a lapstrake boat is a once in a
lifetime experience. Turnover party two was a major milestone as the next
time the boat emerged from the shed it would be for the launch.

The final phase of the work took the longest and included completing the
hull interior, the cockpit/decking, cabin, rudder, motor and the electrical
and plumbing work.

Launching was successful and as expected the boat floats above the designed
waterline until the masts and rigging are installed.  In the meantime 70Kg
of lead in the bow is being used to trim the boat. With the 20HP Honda 4
Stroke on full throttle, the maximum hull speed is almost 8 knots and at 25%
throttle, the speed is 5knots.

As I will using it as both a power and sail boat, I have fitted a steering
wheel to control the outboard engine when not under sail.

Like all home built boats, the estimated construction time was very
optimistic. As I could only work on the boat on weekends. As I could only
work on the boat at weekend, the one year estimate stretched to five years.
Visits to your website helped during the construction.

The next project is to build the spars and turn the power boat into a sail
boat - maybe in six months time.