1959 Sid-Craft DU Hornet - Outboard Racing Utility

[Chinewalker]

A little background - my Dad passed away a little less than a year ago, which is part of the reason for the choice of boat. He raced stock outboard marathons during the 1960s, quite successfully, at that. His favorite boat was a 1959 Sid-Craft DU Hornet, 13-feet long running a 1956 Johnson 30hp, and later a Chrysler 35hp, in what was called '36-Class' (for 36-cubic inch displacement). He even set a straightaway kilo record with that rig in 1966. Fortunately, I still have access to that very boat as it is part of the collection at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, NY.

I had this past Monday off, so I brought my 3-year old "helper", a tape measure, notebook and camera to the Museum to get all the pertinent info. My little helper was actually pretty good at holding the end of Daddy's tape measure while we were crawling around Gramps' boat.
Anyway, my day job is as a graphic artist, so I was able to put my hen scratchings and measurements into meaningful form and now have some workable frame drawings made up. I'm hoping to start cutting and gluing this weekend!

Here are some pics of the boat - then and now...

[Chinewalker]

Took LOTS of detail shots....

Note the hose running along inside the stringers and the pipe coming out of the transom. Being a marathon boat, Dad had a ballast tank in the bow that he could fill or drain by turning a valve and dropping a transom scoop while underway. Calm water, drain the tank and fly, rough water, fill the tank and plow on through... I will leave these bits out of the model, though...

[Chinewalker]

And here are my preliminary frame drawings to tack onto my build board...

[srislash]

This is pretty cool.

[JimClark]

What kind of scale are we looking at here. This is my kind of project. What you git in mind for power?

[blizard05]

Back in the day I used to run a 12 ft runabout with a 1954 25 hp johnson.

[blizard05]

You making your boat 1-1 scale? I dig those non trip chines,it looks like a Hal Kelly boat

[Chinewalker]

What kind of scale are we looking at here. This is my kind of project. What you git in mind for power?

She's going to be 1:6 scale, coming in arouind 26-inches in length. Power will be (for now) a stock Aquacraft EP1. Depending on how it handles, etc., I hope to upgrade it to brushless in the future.

[Chinewalker]

You making your boat 1-1 scale? I dig those non trip chines,it looks like a Hal Kelly boat

She'll be 1:6. Yeah, it does resemble the Airborne or the Jinx a little. Hal Kelly and Sid Uretsky were both Jersey racers back in the day. Lots of utilities came out of their shops...

My hope is that the model will roll up on the chine like the 1:1 did. I ran a twin to my Dad's boat for many years. It was a MAN's boat. It took some mass and muscle to handle it, especially on our often choppy St. Lawrence. Had to extend my body out over the inside chine to get the boat to roll up. Once it was on the chine it would turn on a dime and give you 9¢ change...

[Chinewalker]

Framing Layout...

A long time since I've updated this thread - finally started building this Fall! Started where they all start - with the frames and transom...

[Chinewalker]

Frames laid out on keel...

I've added keelsons to give the bottom more rigidity, as they did with the 1:1 boat. Dad's boat was a marathon boat and built on the heavy side to take the pounding of 100-mile open water races through rivers and lakes.

[Chinewalker]

Cockpit framing and skinning begins...

The boat is starting to take shape now with the center deck cross piece and the cockpit framing added. Also started skinning the boat with the chines first... then the sides. Which brings this build current....

[Doug Smock]

Nice work on a very cool project Scott!

[Mike Caruso]

A little background - my Dad passed away a little less than a year ago, which is part of the reason for the choice of boat. He raced stock outboard marathons during the 1960s, quite successfully, at that. His favorite boat was a 1959 Sid-Craft DU Hornet, 13-feet long running a 1956 Johnson 30hp, and later a Chrysler 35hp, in what was called '36-Class' (for 36-cubic inch displacement). He even set a straightaway kilo record with that rig in 1966. Fortunately, I still have access to that very boat as it is part of the collection at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, NY.

I had this past Monday off, so I brought my 3-year old "helper", a tape measure, notebook and camera to the Museum to get all the pertinent info. My little helper was actually pretty good at holding the end of Daddy's tape measure while we were crawling around Gramps' boat.
Anyway, my day job is as a graphic artist, so I was able to put my hen scratchings and measurements into meaningful form and now have some workable frame drawings made up. I'm hoping to start cutting and gluing this weekend!

Here are some pics of the boat - then and now...

Sorry about Dad.

I always wanted to race those as a kid but noone in my family could understand why? Best I did was 12ft Alumacraft row boat with a 10 HP Mercury Hurricane on the back. I weighed about 65 lbs and had to put both my feet on the engine to pull it through LOL. I would be out early morning and late 5-6.00 PM on Williams Bay in Lake Geneva. That baby was fast and rode on the last 12" of the boat. I could see the shadow of the boat and the Sunlight coming under it man it was great times. Only lasted for about a month I made the mistake of making a full speed pass in front of the house when all my uncle's where having a party. They took the boat away and clamped the Merc on a wood twin cockpit Thomson tug boat LOL.

I really like what you are doing with your helper......he will grow up with someone who understands.
Mike

[Chinewalker]

Mike,
I know what you mean about the Merc Super 10 Hurricanes. I'm fortunate enough to have a real nice one. I even got it out this Fall and ran it on my old 12-foot Duranautic tinny. Easily one of the nicest running motors I own - and still screams! Of course, I no longer weigh anywhere NEAR the 120 lbs. I weighed when I first started running 10hp Mercs on that boat.
- Scott