Can anyone give me contact info?

337-592-0200

LOL leave a message.

Thats a busy man right there.

He told me the other day he had like 11 boats on order.

Damn, if I sell mine, it will be a looooong time before I get my new one then. lol

Its worth the wait! Gotta say its almost over for me! Couple more weeks and i will have my first Brother hull! He sent me these monday!
1854 w/ 3/16 bottom--heavy cat walk gunnels with some other goodies!

where is his shop located?
I have a template that I would like to drop off to him

Looks good Daddymallard. What's going on the back of that beast?

36 pd, fpr, hydro trim...got a MM DB and mikuni waitin on it!!!
HMMM come to think of it you might have seen this rig somewhere before??

Best part is that this boat is gonna have BIG BRASS PLUGS!

From a purely engineering stand point, I see the join where the cross members meet the sides to be subject to stress and the welds might crack. In one of my visits to the GT factory, I noticed a GT boat in the yard that had been subject to heavy work environments doing BP cleanup work, in for repairs at these same spots. I talked to the operators of the boat and he said the twisting and distorting of the hull under heavy work conditions caused stresses at these joins. We had a discussion about how many of the similarly constructed boats might be subject to the same defect. GT's solution, I think, was to increase the surface area on the plate to which the cross-member was welded to more evenly distribute the forces about the side of the hull. My solution would be to use a full length frame member there transecting the whole side panel, just like a regular frame. The the frame would float at its mid points next to the sides, and be welded to the sides only at the chine and the shear of the side panel. This is standard aluminum and steel boat building technique on larger commercial and pleasure craft. It might add a couple pounds to the weight of the boat but sure would eliminate the problem, if there is one.

I mean the way this builder does it and others, is probably very efficient in terms of how easy it is to build an aluminum boat. The rigidity of the material alone in small pleasure craft such as these flats accounts for most of the strength of the vessel itself. But when you put these boast in heavy working or hunting conditions, such as guided hunt operations, you better be sure to over build. Just sayin.....

Stick to your wooden canoes and let the real builders do their thing!

anyone have an address?

It won't crack.

Y'all might find this article interesting as it discusses the pros and cons of "folded/frame-less" boat construction versus "framed" and plate before frame welding or frame then plate welding construction methods. Upshot of this is that Pre crimped or folded or "origami" construction methods limit design variations but lends itself better to construction by armature and small production builders. It is very difficult to qualify a frame-less boat under ABS requirements. Building a boat with cross-members as this one was, is considered a "frame-less" method.



With the crimped method you are limited to a dead flat configuration from the rake to the transom and no "tow-in" towards the transom. One is also limited in how much curvature from stem to transom the gunwale can have because the bottom chine has to be so straight. So there are limited hull shapes one can produce using this method. It is very difficult to predict what a final hull shape will look like. Cad programs can estimate fairly accurately but there are so many factors such as longitudinal stringer numbers and welding patterns which will alter the expect shape of a hull. Whereas, with plat on frame construction, there is no guessing. Your boat will look like you planned it. Ask any builder using the folded or pre crimped method to change up the bottom shape. They will warn you that they might not know what the final shape of the hull will look like if that is done. That is why many are reluctant to expand beyond limited hull shape configurations with which they are already familiar.

Ah, ha!! Look at this boat by Geaux Customs. Notice the full frame member attached to the sides in the photos in this thread. See what happens when you go into production. These guys realized the stresses on those cross members would create cracks and supplemented them with full frame members just as I descirbed above.

http://www.shawplugs.com/turn-tite-expa ... c-249.html

Any size u need in 1/8" increments! They are not cheap but very well made!

daddymallard, sent you a pm

This is funny.

I would venture to say I know more about boat building and design than the combined knowledge of all the builders on this forum. Can't say I've built a single Aliminum boat. But if I wanted to, every one of you would want to trade yours for it. Just sayin...

shut the PHUK up dude...

I highly doubt what "knowledge" of a aluminum boat would out do what Brother,Ricky, Jason, or Garret can build.

I think your welds are beautiful.
Can I get some directions to his shop?

Thanks for the help

Good Point Jordy.

I've built a boat out of wood also, but by NO means am I a FE about aluminum boat building. I figure if wood was that strong the Navy would still be using it. I haven't seen an aircraft carrier made of wood yet...

Been running my Brother breaux hull since 08 and the dam thing just flat works fine and aint broke yet.