Building a BassKit

My father was a person that loved to build things with his own hands. Reducing cost was his primary reason for taking on many projects, but deep down, he just loved to do it. My father always loved to fish, but never considered buying a boat until I was 13 years old. I fondly remember attending various boat shows and looking at all of the amazing boats. Unfortunately, all of these boats were too expensive for my father's budget. One day while looking through a magazine, my father noticed an ad for a company selling a "Bass Boat Kit". After a great deal of negotiation with my mother, he ordered the kit.

The "Basskit" was from a company called Glassline Products Inc. This kit was marketed to freshwater fisherman that wanted a modern bass boat (keep in mind we are talking about the late 1970s here) with all of the features of commercially available boats, but who wanted a lower cost of entry. All of the components were manufactured to high standards and the provided components were the same used on boats everywhere. The factory didn't incur labor costs associated with the assembly of the boat and passed the savings on to their customers.

The kit basically included the following:

Detailed instructions
Patterns for the stringers and other small wood components
Hand laid fiberglass hull
Hand laid fiberglass cockpit/deck liner
Other fiberglass components; hatch covers, live well liners, etc.
All electrical system components and pumps
All boat hardware; deck cleats, bow light, stern light, bow eye, transom eyes, etc.
Pedestal seats and bases
Carpeting
an optional trailer
buckets of polyester resin, hardener, woven fiberglass cloth, and fasteners

I can only assume that the assembly process was similar to those used by the commercial boat builders of that period. Knowing what I know now, I cringe when I remember some of the details of the assembly method. For example, wood wasn't intentionally sealed. Any wood that was covered was simply the result of slapping huge amounts of fiberglass and resin on it. Screws were used to hold the cockpit liner to the sole. Again, no sealer was used.

Basically, the boat is built from the bottom up.

The hull is supported on the ground. We learned later that the hull had to be supported under the keel and the outer chines to form the correct shape. We didn't know that and when we joined the deck and the hull, it was a ton of work to get the two pieces to fit nicely on either side of the bow.
The stringers were cut from provided patterns. At the time, we use regular exterior grade ply. It was probably 1/2" or 3/4" thick. The stringers were then glassed to the hull the hull with polyester resin and fiberglass cloth.
Foam panels where then placed into the spaces for flotation. I don't remember how these were attached. Probably just taped as seen in the pictures.
The floor was then installed on the stringers. If I recall, it was screwed to the stringers and glassed to the hull sides. Carpet was then installed on the floor. At this point, I believe the live well and bilge pumps were also installed.
The deck liner piece was prepped up side down. Many of the under deck systems were attached at that point. This included some wiring, live well plumbing, and more flotation.
The deck liner was then flipped and laid on the hull. At the sheer line, the hull and deck piece were joined with pop rivets. These would be under the rub rail.
The deck liner had a flange that rested on the floor of the boat. That flange had some trim on it and then it was screwed to the floor.
The boat then had all of the final rigging installed and dragged onto the Spartan 'tilting' trailer.
The engine was then installed and off we went.

We lived in suburban Chicago and launched the boat in the Fox River. It was a typical Sunday scene at a midwest boat ramp. Many people were just standing around watching the activities while others were busy readying their boats. Of course, there was the guy that left the plug out of his boat and it started to sink while he was parking his vehicle. We launched the boat easily and started her up for her first journey. She performed flawlessly and the smile on our faces will be remembered forever.

We took that boat all over the Midwest. It was a good solid boat and served us well for years. Since then, I have restored several boats for my personal use. I also built a 16' center console from plans about 3 years ago. I have since sold that boat, restored a 1985 Boston Whaler for a friend and now I am starting to tackle the restoration of a 1978 Penn Yan Explorer.

Dan Hehn
June, 2006