Construction and Materials
The use of aluminium in small boat construction came soon after World War II because of availability of aircraft materials as war surplus. Fiberglass was then introduced as another way to reduce the maintenance, cost and weight of watercraft. Given the cost benefits and personal enjoyment of boat building, do-it-yourself ′Kit Boats′ were also introduced using plywood material. In 1955, Chris-Craft created The Plywood Boat Division which marketed both Kit and pre-built plywood craft.
By 1960, wooden powerboats had become rare since most new vessels used fiberglass or other lightweight materials. In addition, the art of boat-building in wood has been largely lost since it requires far greater individual skill. Nonetheless there remain a few notable exceptions, perhaps most famously the Hacker Boat Company, the oldest motor-boat builder in the world which continues to produce magnificent mahogany boats on the shores of Lake George, New York. Other wooden boat-builders include Graf, J-Craft and Boesch. Fiber reinforced plastic materials are now used extensively in construction of small runabout boats to reduce weight and maximize speed when racing powerboats.
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Read more about this topic: Runabout (boat)
Famous quotes containing the words construction and/or materials:
“There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Young children learn in a different manner from that of older children and adults, yet we can teach them many things if we adapt our materials and mode of instruction to their level of ability. But we miseducate young children when we assume that their learning abilities are comparable to those of older children and that they can be taught with materials and with the same instructional procedures appropriate to school-age children.”
—David Elkind (20th century)