Geronimo Design

Updated 03 July 2014 22 May 2005 Hi, I just wanted to send you a picture of my completed Geronimo. I started this in February 2003 and spent many a night and weekend working on this boat. I can\'t say enough about the design; it is stable, handles easily and is a joy to drive. I had a guy who owns a 16\' fiberglass Peterborough ski boat and commented on how the Geronimo was more responsive than his boat. It is powered by a 1961 Merc700 and has no trouble pulling a skier, kneeboard or tube. You will notice that I deviated from the topside design a bit, but it turned quite nice I think. Pictured are the happy kids who have been waiting patiently for the boat to be finished and all agreed it was well worth the wait. The interior shots show a variation of the bench sheet shown in the plans. I simply made them back to back and walk through. They are plywood construction as the plan called for with mahogany veneer on the sides and T&G Douglas-fir for the seat bottom and back. I got the Douglas-fir out of an old church that was being demolished 10 years ago and never found a use for it until now. I intend to have cushions made for the seats this winter coming. There are also some shots showing the jump seats I designed for the back. I don\'t currently have any pictures showing them in their finished state yet. There is also a shot looking aft under power that depicts the motor well. I chose to alter the plans and moved the aft bulkhead up to the first frame. I needed to do this to make sure the Merc would clear the bulkhead when tilted. It has resulted in less interior room, but has increased my storage area. I also left the bulkhead uncut and a pleasant side effect of this is that much of the noise from the motor is muffled in the well. Some gotchyas that I ran into and worked around were: When I was cutting the frames, I cut the bottom sections in two pieces as the full-sized patterns showed. I was pretty much done when it occurred to me that they were supposed to be one piece. I didn\'t want to chuck the wood away so I built gussets out of 1/2\" fir ply and epoxy glued/screwed them all together being careful that they were aligned properly. If you look at some of the interior photos with the floor out you will see them. I figure in the end it has made the boat that much stronger. Another issue I had was with the transom dropping between the time it was attached to the keel and the chines were sprung. Looking back I should have realized that this would be a problem, but never having built a boat before... A little creative woodworking got everything fair again, but I wanted to mention this to other first-time boat builders who may be unaware of this gotchya. I still have some deck hardware to install and I am currently sourcing some stainless steel for the rub-rail, but otherwise I am finished. I am going to miss my nightly therapy sessions with my boat, but that has now been replaced with weekend outings. I can\'t say enough nice things about Glen-L. Great plans and great support by way of the Boat builder connection and other sections of the website. I never had to give you a call, but I\'m sure you would have been helpful if I had. Taking the boat out is always a great conversation starter... It usually starts out with where did you find that nice old boat? And then the disbelief when I tell them that I built it. I actually got into a mild argument with an old guy at a gas station who said it had to be one of those old Chris Crafts... close, but not quite.... A couple pictures show the kids helping at different stages of construction; it was a great learning experience for them... as well as for me. The biggest carpentry project I tackled before this was a corner cupboard for my kitchen. Please note the first picture is identical to the one I sent you that you graciously used in your on-line catalogue, it shows how a couple of my kids have grown over the past few years. You provide great plans, thanks for the hours of fun. I\'d like to say thanks to Glen-L for a great design and easy to follow plans. Kirk Bellamy

28 Photos

Update 25 August 2013 A couple more photos of my Geronimo build. It’s going well. The chine, sheer and keel are laminated white oak. Only problem was the angle of my chine isn’t great enough between the stem and the first frame (see picture with the yardstick clamped to chine) but thanks to the folks on the Glen-L Boatbuilder Forum I have a solution – I will laminate a wedge-shaped shim along the chine in this area when I get to that point. Now it’s time to get to work fairing it! I’ve been procrastinating for a couple of weeks. I think I’m going to prime and paint (white Interlux bilge coat) it all before I begin the fairing process, so I won’t have to crawl around inside it once it’s flipped to paint. Also, I think being painted white might facilitate the fairing because as you plane/cut you will see the contrast between white painted wood and the exposed wood and get a better visual on what you’re cutting away (I put that thought on the forum today to see what others say). Thanks Glen-L. This is going to be a real nice boat. 28 April 2013 Here’s where I’m at so far on the Geronimo. Made the frames of sapelle, used 2x8’s for the form bolted to the floor with 5/8 wedge anchors. I built the transom but then heard from another Geronimo builder in Norfolk who warned me to hold off on the motor cut-out because it was so hard to find a short-shaft motor – of course, in your instructions it said under the transom paragraph “if the motor to be used is not known at this time, it is best to leave the transom solid and cut it out at a later date”. Anyway, I decided to build another transom and not have this worry later – I’ll not cut this one out ‘til later! Now I’m building the keel and new transom. I’ll have a little delay here, I need some hand surgery soon, but it’s going really well I believe. By the way, I built the Glen-L 17 in the 1980’s. For our 22nd anniversary in ’92 my wife gave me the 3rd printing (’70) of “Boatbuilding With Plywood” she got in a thrift shop – I kept it on my desk and now I’m using it to build Geronimo. Thanks for all – I’m enjoying this. Respectfully, Bob Hylton

9 Photos

3 Photos

Subject: Geronimo 7 Dec 2005 Hi Glen and Crew, Please post the last photo of our boating season on the Potomac river. I have more photos and commentary to post, but in the meantime, here is the Dorothy Ann. Thanks and Merry Christmas Jim Pesci

1 Photos