A depressed Justice considered his options. Something much better was required. Another secondhand boat didn’t appeal, and he decided he’d be better off building a new one. His needs were simple: a boat to go fishing and diving that could be handled alone, take two others if required, and most importantly, one that was fuel efficient and had an easy motion. And it shouldn’t cost more than $100,000.
He spent many months researching options through Google, eventually discovering American-based Mark Van Abbema’s design for an 11m hard chine, plywood commuter launch. This design was inspired by a 1920s-style Chesapeake Bay powerboat featuring a slender, easily-driven hull with a beam-to-length ratio of 4.5:1.
Justice bought the plans, which cost a princely $150, and built a model. This was smart as he could test a few modifications on the model before committing to the full-sized boat. He increased freeboard, length and headroom while modernising the cabin styling and windows.
With only a single garage he built the boat in three sections, split athwartships.completed, he set them out square, level and true, then built the centre main cabin section. While this sounds a trifle dodgy, there’s no trace of the joints either inside or out and, as the joints are well staggered, there is no loss of structural strength.
