One Way to Get a Flicka, Start with the Hull

My dad built a small plywood sailboat when I was a toddler and I grew up on ever larger sailboats since then. At about the age of 17, I decided to build one too. In late 1974, Rudder Boat Plan was selling a neat little Bruce Bingham 20 footer and my dad suggested that design. I paid $110.00 for a complete set of lofting sheets and drawings for a ferrocement Flicka. When I started, I naively thought I could build this boat in a few years for a thousand dollars. Hey, I was only 17. I figured that I could build a nice boat for about half the price of buying one and it be that hard, right? Thirteen years later, I launched the QED and it cost about half of what it would cost to buy one, sort of. See, when Pacific Seacraft purchased the Flicka plans and started production, the boat cost about $15,000 (back in the late 70’s). By the time I finished, in 1987, the Flicka was selling for about $30,000 and guess what, I built mine for about $15,000 in materials. So in a way, I was right, I built the boat for about half what it would cost, never mind that I could have taken out a loan in the late 70’s, bought a Flicka and sailed it for 13 years for about the same cost. But then I wouldn’t know every inch of that boat and I also wouldn’t have as much to write about. I saw a homebuilt Flicka about the time I started (I think it was in Annapolis) and decided to build the hull out of fiberglass, rather than ferro-cement. Ferro-cement is obviously very strong, however, you have to lay up the cement in one day and then you can’t make any changes,

Attaching the lathe to the mold frames - the QED begins to take shape, but there is still a long way to go to complete the mold (let alone the boat). add through-hulls, or easily repair it. I had heard horror stories about homebuilt ferro-cement hulls that didn’t turn out well and it was recommended that add through-hulls, or easily repair it. I professionals lay up the cement after had heard horror stories about homebuilt completion of the wire mesh. ferro-cement hulls that didn’t turn out well and it was recommended that I decided to avoid all that by building professionals lay up the cement after mine in fiberglass and went out and completion of the wire mesh. bought a 55-gallon drum of resin, rolls of woven roving, and tons of sanding I decided to avoid all that by building discs for my grinder. Actually, I didn’t mine in fiberglass and went out and need any of that for a while, while I built bought a 55-gallon drum of resin, rolls the mold. of woven roving, and tons of sanding discs for my grinder. Actually, I didn’t I hung up the full-size lofting sheets on need any of that for a while, while I built the dining room wall (my parents were the mold. very understanding) and, after tracing these onto wax paper and cutting them

out, transferred the lines onto 13 or 14 mold ribs cut out of plywood. These ribs were then set up in the side yard at about 18” intervals to form the frame of the mold. I hung up the full-size lofting sheets on dining room wall (mysecretly parents were Ithebet my parents were very very understanding) and, after happy when I finally moved outtracing of the these onto wax paper New and cutting them house in Rochester, York (after out, transferred the lines onto 13 or 14 college) to Connecticut (and my first full mold ribs cut out of plywood. These ribs time job) and they got rid of the messy were building then set up in the side yard at about boat project. 18” intervals to form the frame of the mold. the frames were then covered Anyway, with lath to form the shape of the hull. I wasn’t bet mysure parents whatwere to dosecretly next andvery my happy when I finally moved out ofwith the dad suggested screen covered house in Rochester, New York (after cement (I guess I just couldn’t avoid mixing cement). That worked pretty well but the mold wasn’t real fair. So I covered the cement with plaster of paris that I could then sand (endlessly) to get a clean, fair mold. Finally, I painted the plaster and applied a thin coat of mold release agent (it turned out to be too thin) and my mold was complete. Of course, I was already well over a year into the project since I could only work on the mold in the summer (Rochester, remember) and I was busy graduating high school, starting college and working as a waiter in a restaurant to pay for all the materials. For the next two years I laid up between 10 and 12 layers of woven roving, sanding the rough edges endlessly between each one. Successive layers of roving were applied in alternating directions, vertical, horizontal and diagonally. After building up about 3/8 inch thickness, I decided extensive sanding between layers was too time consuming (not to mention itchy!).

Also, I had read about the favorable strength of using alternating layers of fiberglass mat (fiberglass stands pressed together in random orientations) together with cloth, where the strands are woven together. I decided to flip the hull over and continue adding layers on the inside without the need to sand each layer smooth. I tested the separation of the hull and mold and found that there was no way I was doing to be able to lift the hull off. I previously had ideas of saving the mold and selling it, however, I ultimately ended up removing the mold from underneath the hull, piece by piece. The mold had to be destroyed and in some spots scraped away from the hull. After adding a few temporary cross braces (the empty glass hull was very flexible) I got as many friends as I could gather and we lifted the empty hull up, moved it onto the grass and basically rolled it over into the wooden cradle I had built on top of the upside-down hull. This wasn’t actually that difficult with a lot of hands as the hull was relatively light. Now that I could work on the inside, I added four to six more layers of glass, alternating mat and cloth (a lighterweight cloth than the woven roving). The mat was laid first and thoroughly saturated with resin and then the cloth was laid on top with the mat still wet.

By squeegeeing the cloth onto the mat, any excess resin was soaked up by the cloth to make a very solid double layer. I had to work with small sections to complete this process before the resin hardened, however, it worked very well and I was able to quickly build up the fiberglass thickness, especially in the bilge. Next, I considered molding lead for the ballast, however, I decided it would be easier to use lead ingots instead. I bought 10 - 100 pound ingots that looked like large bricks with interlocking ends. These were placed in the bilge and then filled in with cement. Finally, the ballast was covered with more fiberglass to securely enclose it so it could never move. I think I ended up with about 1200 pounds of internal ballast. This completed my hull, about the time I graduated from college. I got my first job working on the Hubble Space Telescope at the Perkin-Elmer Corporation in Danbury, CT. I paid a few hundred dollars to Orville Mill of Lakeview Boat Haulers to move the hull to Connecticut for the next phase of the project - the deck.

This is the first in a series of articles about the construction of a Flicka from from the ground up.