New Red Cedar River Launch Goes electric

Remember the days of timber putt putts for hire, all the coastal towns up and down the east coast of Australia, had little fleets of them. Powered by Blaxland, Simplex or Hall petrol engines, they would cut through the water beautifully, having their DNA in rowing skiffs from the 1920s and 30s. These boats were low-wooded with classic lines. You could run your hand in the water as you went along, other hand on the tiller, exploring the rivers and lakes.

Alas, only a few are left. At Scarborough Engineering, we have a couple of repeat customers with the wooden boat disease (those who have it will understand). One customer found a hull in Afloat Magazine’s classifieds which we restored for him (see photo). We could not find a suitable hull for the other afflicted customer, so we came to an agreement to build a new red cedar strip-planked boat based on an old hull we had in the yard.

The exciting part was we were going to incorporate a state-of-the-art brushless electric motor, control unit and lithium ion battery pack.

Scarborough Engineering River Launch - — Patrick makes a new template jig assembly to make station moulds from old timber hull

Scarborough Engineering River Launch - MDF templates are made every 400mm to transfer hull shape to station moulds. — MDF templates are made every 400mm to transfer hull shape to station moulds.

Scarborough Engineering River Launch - Station moulds are set up on steel jig assembly. — Station moulds are set up on steel jig assembly.

Scarborough Engineering River Launch - We hunted through the piles of grown Melaleuca knees and could not find a match. So this laminated stem was made. — We hunted through the piles of grown Melaleuca knees and could not find a match. So this laminated stem was made.

So the journey begins: station templates from the old hull were made, steel assembly jig fashioned and station moulds fabricated and fitted. Transom is made from Australian Cedar and fitted, stem is laminated from Spotted Gum then shaped and fitted along with keelson. Red Cedar planking is scarfed to get the length required and planking commenced (see photos). Hull core faired and sanded and the boat is epoxy sheathed.

Scarborough Engineering River Launch - Red Cedar strip planking is scarfed and glued together to make up the required length. — Red Cedar strip planking is scarfed and glued together to make up the required length.

Scarborough Engineering River Launch - Main backbone components are fastened together, and the transom knee and stem are fitted. — Main backbone components are fastened together, and the transom knee and stem are fitted.

Scarborough Engineering River Launch - The Red Cedar planking is fitted around the station moulds and screwed in place to form the shape of the hull, the planks are then edge glued. — The Red Cedar planking is fitted around the station moulds and screwed in place to form the shape of the hull, the planks are then edge glued.

As we built the boat it became obvious it was a nice hull, not too big, with a pretty shear line. So the decision was made to make a mould of the boat to add to our vintage hull range (see website: www.scarboroughengineering.com.au).

Scarborough Engineering River Launch - The hull core is sanded and faired and then epoxy sheathed using West Systems Resin, the hardwood keel is then shaped and fitted to the hull. The keel is then bored to take the shaft tube assembly. — The hull core is sanded and faired and then epoxy sheathed using West Systems Resin, the hardwood keel is then shaped and fitted to the hull. The keel is then bored to take the shaft tube assembly.

Both strip planked boat and fibreglass hull will be available for sale.

Packages for DIY’ers will also be made available.

More information and updates will be available on the Scarborough Engineering website as the build progresses.

Hopefully this will give you Afloat Magazine Groupies a bit of a fix in these uncertain times.

Stay safe, see you on the other side.

David and Patrick
Scarborough Engineering, Gloucester NSW.

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