Building a 22 1/2 foot classic cruiser.

The first issue we thought we needed to address was which boat to build. It soon became apparent that the first issue was where to build it. When we decided the garage was to become a boat shop, it became clear that with a 21 foot square interior, we had some length limitations. If we build it diagonally, we figured 23 feet was the largest we could build and still have at least 3 feet of clearance all around.

Plans are available from several companies, but we limited our focus to Glen-L (http://www.glen-l.com), Ken Hankinson (http://www.boatdesigns.com), Clark Craft (http://www.clarkcraft.com), and Sam Devlin (http://www.devlinboat.com). This group alone comprises well over a thousand designs.

It was the summer of 1997 and we knew construction would not begin until May 1998, thus we were taking our grand old time looking at designs. Sometime in August, we heard of a boat show on one of the Finger Lakes and decided it would help our decision making process. After driving an hour and finding a place to park the car, we walked toward the dock area. Turning the corner and seeing the first boat was a shocker. We immediately knew what ACBS stood for now  - Antique and Classic Boat Show. Shinning varnished runabouts every direction you looked. In a matter of an hour we went from clueless on designs to certainty. Just like the good folks owning those boats we overhead - no Clorox bottle for us.

We determined if you want a classic mahogany runabout, either Glen-L or Ken Hankinson are the folks to see. Of the offerings, Ken's 19' Barrel Back caught our eye. We ordered the plans and patters and while waiting for them to come in we began our education process on these classic wonders. Along the way, we picked up the book "The Legend of Chris Craft" by the Rodengens. Here's some pictures of what we intended on building from Ken's web-page (heck, it even has my name on it!):

As we got closer to the fall, we knew we were going to have to order the lumber real soon. But something about the boat design was not sitting right with Teri. One night we got out the plans and over a few bottles of homemade wine, we figured out what was troubling her. It's all there on the second page of the plans that show a side cut-away view of the 19' Barrel Back. It has two cockpits for two riders each, and the rest of the space is covered by beautifully varnished mahogany decking. Her concern was the boat was the type someone with a place on the lake would have and they'd use it to "run about" - visit some friends, pull some water skiers, stop by the grocery, etc. It suddenly dawned on us that our real interest is cruising yet we're preparing to build a runabout.

We now knew the design would have to be a cruising type boat with a maximum length of 23'. But we couldn't get the runabouts out of our minds. We found the answer in Legend of Chris Craft book in the chapter covering the 1950's. The small inboard cruisers of that era were of the classic design we desired, had sufficient weekend cruising capability, and could be built in our garage. Now we just had to search the 1000's of plans.

The only vendor that had cruisers reminiscent of the 1950's was Glen-L. Our first choice was the twin-engine 28' Gung Ho. But that wouldn't fit in our garage. However, Glen-L did have a 22 foot  inboard cabin cruiser (the Monsoon) that we swore was a duplicate of the 1957 22 foot Chris Craft Express cruiser in the Legend of Chris Craft book. Even the interior layout was nearly identical. We ordered the plans and patters. We often wonder how many people rely on nostalgia  and garage size to select their boat design. Here's the design: