July 2016 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 19. John Williams Boat Co. Builds Hawaiian Canoe
HALL’S QUARRY – Over the last two years I have been watching the progress of a Hawaiian canoe at John Williams Boat Company in Hall Quarry on Mount Desert Island. Jock spends his winters in Hawaii and developed a fondness for paddling their canoes. This spring they put the fi nishing touches on her and then made a trip to New York to compete with other racing canoes. John Martin, who is from Hawaii, was
brought to Maine by Jock to build this Ha- waiian canoe at the yard for use in the area. John said, “Jock wanted to start a canoe club and we talked about an opportunity for me to try a whole new design. We call this an unlimited class canoe. In Hawaii they have been racing canoes since the turn-of-the- century, but really strongly since the 50s. They developed some rules so you really couldn’t change design. A few years ago, the young people got involved and started up their own race season and let people bring in an unlimited boat, so that opened it to new designs.”
“Everything about her is diff erent,” said
John. "The hull shape is quite diff erent, a real long waterline and there is hardly any rocker in it. The more rocker you put in the slower the boat. In real rough water that might not be real good. I am really curious to see how this hull works in Hawaii in the rough water where rocker can be a good thing. I changed the seating around. I tried to get the distance between each seat exactly the same. My idea was if all the paddles are hitting the water at the same distance apart from each other perhaps that would be better propulsion. In order for me to tighten it all up I had to take the outrigger and point it up, so now you reach under the outrigger. Another thing I did was move the whole outrigger forward. When we did a test drive last summer, I
had four receptacles for the outrigger. We paddled it to see what it felt like and then we moved the outrigger forward to see what it would do. Everybody unanimously felt it worked better because it is easier to control and steer. I kind of thought it had better glide, but that is hard to say unless you really do time trials with a solid crew. I don’t know if it is still in the way or not, because we don’t have anybody up here that paddles canoes. That is one of the reasons why we want to go down to this race and let some real experienced crews get in it and get some feedback.” This canoe is constructed with fi ber-
glass and high density foam. They put the stations up and then stripped planked with the foam. John added that he did a little bit of shaping with a long-board and then they glassed it. They then fl ipped the hull over and pulled out the stations and glassed it inside. They used just regular fi berglass in the lay-up, but could have made her a lot lighter if they had used epoxy and carbon fi ber. However, that would have added an- other $5 to $10,000 to the cost. They race they were heading to was the
Liberty Challenge in New York City. This is a big race for this type of boats and a great place to get feedback from. John said, “We are not going to race it because I am not sure how it works. We also don’t have a crew that knows how to paddle. We decided that we would get there the day before and let some people try the canoe. Then we will fi nd out instantly from veteran paddlers what they think. As long as the ergonomics are good and if the boat has real good glide, which I think it does, they might want to race it and we would let them.” I will update you on how well she went in the next issue.
Hinckley Launches 1000th Jetboat Continued from Page 15.
new model by building a boat that had a traditional downeast look reminiscent of the thirties, and off ered technical advances over restored boats. At the time, waterjets had been used in military and commercial applications, but hadn’t been taken seriously by the recreational boating industry. With no underwater gear to run afoul of lobster pots the system seemed perfect for Hinckley, “and it quickly became apparent that jets make so much sense for any place where there is shoal water, or for anyone who likes to get in close to the beach,” said Phil Bennett, VP-Sales who took part in shaping the fi rst Picnic Boat. “The concept just really took off .” The early Jetboats also incorporat- ed new materials, like Kevlar, which would make the boats lighter, stronger and better suited to the new propulsion system. Innovation was nothing new to The
Hinckley Company of the 1990s. Hen- ry Hinckley had set the course with the Bermuda 40 in the early 1960s when he crafted her stunning lines out of a radical, new material, fi berglass. This combination of elegant form, material innovation and brilliant attention to fi nishing detail has been Hinckley’s heading ever since in the pleasure boat business. Bennett also explains that the control
system that Hinckley developed a few years later further enhanced public reception to the Jetboat product. “The Hinckley Jetstick brought joystick operation to boating and allowed the person at the helm to have a de- gree of easy control that meant even novices could dock a boat with confi dence.” And the rest is history. After the successful introduction of the fi rst Picnic Boat, Hinckley introduced larger
and smaller models growing the line to its present off erings, boats from 29 to 55 feet in length including the current iteration of the Picnic Boat now 37 feet in length with twin jets. Hinckley also integrated the company vertically with the addition of its seven ser- vice operations which provide service and storage for Hinckleys and all makes and models of boat. The tradition of innovation at The
Hinckley Company continues with such advances as carbon fi ber hull laminates, wireless remote steering and remote vessel connectivity all of which can be seen on the 1,000th
Jetboat, Lucky Woman. NEED TO MOVE YOUR BOAT? CALL YORK'S BOAT TRANSPORTATION
The main hull of the Hawaiian canoe getting ready to be shipped to New York. Don’t Let Our Looks Fool You.
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