Building a Custom 46' Blackfin; All Composite.

[otseg]

Building a Custom 46' Blackfin; All Composite.

I know what your thinking, but this was a custom boat for a 38' Blackfin owner who agreed to let Backfin prototype the design. This was in 1994. The 46 was too big to produce at Blackfin's Port Everglades facility and never went into production.

Its a paradox that you have to be a wood boat builder first, before you can build a one off composite boat. The technique of building a wood buck to laminate the inner skin first, core, then outer skin comes from building one off racing sailboats. Fiber that is stretched over a male mold has better properties than fiber laid in a mold.





Running the material through a fabric impregnator controls the resin usage and also improves properties. Having the mobile overhead gantry was a luxury.



The deck is laminated in a similar fashion.



The remainder of the construction was fairly standard, with some effort to keep it light. It had a wet gross displacement of about 33,000 lbs.




I believe "Big Horse" accrued somewhere around 5-600 hours the first year, still has the original owner, and has continued to fish hard every year since then. I am nicknamed "repellent"; I got dragged out of the shop to go bottom fishing with the owner. I have to admit it was fun.



Sail boats do not Suck; they Blow!

[LuckyDrew]

Interesting lines, who designed that thing? I'm thinking Jannace was long gone by then.

[otseg]

Blackfin owners have amazing brand loyalty. What kind of Day is it? Its a Blackfin Day!

You are right, Charlie Jannace drafted the original design. Carl Herndon brought the plans and the customer to me because it was too big for his facility. I was building boats around the corner from him in a shed I rented from the Derecktor-Gunnell shipyard in Dania. We could drive a 180 ton travelift through either of two doors, so space was not a problem.

The owner contracted with Blackfin to project manage, so then I had two clients to please. I had never built a performance powerboat with a warped bottom before so when we put the lines into ACAD I took the warp out, kept the variable dead rise but made the running surface constant. Blackfin caught me, and they had me redraw it with twice as much warp in the bottom as Jannace had originally drawn. There were over 120 change orders subsequently.

Jose Millan, a very talented local Miami designer, was brought in to restyle the boat. Tim Chalphant at Blackfin reviewed and made changes to design and details to make this completely custom boat part of the Blackfin "Family".

I valued our dialog with Charlie back then . A very fine gentleman indeed. I googled Charlie and he appears to be alive and kicking.

http://www.jannaceyachts.com/
http://www.jannace.com/yachts/

[LuckyDrew]

Charlie is definitely still kickin, and he is a gentleman and quite accessible. Any idea why Blackfin wanted to double the warp on the boat? Like I said some interesting lines, and doesn't look like a Jannace design, not sure what you'd call it either, not a FB not an Express, more like a mid deck along the lines of the Canaveral Delta. Any more pics? thanks, Drew

[otseg]

I like it fast. Warp may have had its place when a 6-71 was 165 hp. The bottom was 15 degrees at the transom but rolled continuously to an extreme dead rise at the bow.

Under the hardtop was an L lounge and helm station. It was fully air conditioned even though it was open to the cockpit. A precursor to what the boats are doing now. The owner liked to preform his own maintenance and even the engine room could be air conditioned.

The boat had a conventional layout below with head, galley, dinette, pull out lounge and fwd cabin, but the owner has never done anything but day fish. The idea was for resale but it has been 13 years and he still owns it.

I will see what pics I can dig up.

[Season Ticket]

I realize this is an old thread, but would love to be able to view the pics of the build and any info regarding it.