My name is Geoff Tyler from Brisbane (ex Melbournite some 25 years ago till I saw the light, or was that the sun rise?)
I joined the club earlier in the year. And at that time I was still building my 22 foot Hacker Craft. Well now it is all but finished & she has even gotten wet a couple of times. She has taken me around 2 1/2 years to build although I started 14 years ago, time fly's when you're having fun ! the plans for this ol' girl I got from a gentleman by the name or Bill Morgan whom at the time owned "Morgan Marine" which through his determination via license to the Hacker family manufactured Hacker Craft boats many years after John Hacker passed away. Bill's shop was on Lake George in upstate New York (approx 4 hours drive north of Manhattan) The first set of plans (Hacker) I had were purchased from the company Duck Flat Boats in S.A. which were photo copied out of an old book & I had difficulties reading allot of the measurements. I came across Bill & he offered me a set of plans free of charge & unlimited assistance. My desire to build one of these was due to my being totally bored shipless one afternoon, so I watched this chick flick on TV called "On Golden Pond".... yep I can man up & say I watch them from time to time. In this movie was an old Chris Craft named "Thayer IV" & there it begun !
My boat is made up of Tassy Oak frames, double diagonal ply then strip planked with Brazilian Mahogany all over & about 18 coats of varnish. She is powered by a 500 CID Cadillac motor with a 1:1 Velvet drive box & a 13 x 14 inch prop on a 1 inch shaft. The motor is cooled via heat exchanger, manifolds from a BB Ford. The motor is a tad warm with 10:1 comp pistons, oversize valves & a wee cam which the yanks (where I bought my bits) tell me should produce around 460 HP.
So here are a couple of pics of my pride & my wife & I look forward to meeting you one day.
- Sea trials CB.jpeg (63.53 KiB) Viewed 5927 times
