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I thought I saw a scarf joint in the plywood lapstrake on my 1960 Cruisers 16' 202. Did Cruiser's use scrafted plywood or was it full length without scrafted joints.

If it was scarfed from the plywood supplier, what was the angle of the scraf 8 to 1 or 12 to 1?

If anyone has afactory piece of scrafted plywood, how long is the scarf. If it's 1/4 inch plywood then a scarf of 2" would be 8 to 1, if 3' it would be 12 to 1.

Has anyone used the John Henry scarfing jig?

Around 1961 or 1962 Roy and Grant Thompson set up "R & G Engineering, Inc." at Crivitz, WI. It was an affiliate of the two other firms they owned, Cruisers, Inc. and Thompson Skis, Inc.

The intent of R & G was to design and build machinery to scarf plywood. Up to that point, Cruisers had been purchasing plywood from the west coats in long lengths at a very high price. The boys felt they could scarf their own regular 4' x 8' sheets at a much lower price. So that's what they did. They purchased 4' x 8' sheets and did their own scarfing.

R & G was merged into Cruisers, Inc. in 1968.

It's probably an 8:1 or 10:1 scarf.

From what I understand, they were also selling long lengthed scarfed plywood to T & T Boats at Wausaukee and Thompson Bros. Boat at Peshtigo. Once Cruisers, Inc. stopped making wooden boats, they no longer needed the scarf cutting and gluing machinery.

My father bought those machines in 1972 and was experimenting with making long length plywood for a roofing product. He made a bunch of prototype material but was sidetracked and never got it off the ground. The machinery is still sitting in one of the buidlings in Peshtigo. He paid $1,000.00 for all of the machinery and tooling. In 1967 R & G was trying to sell it for $12,000.00 to a Kansas firm and they wrote: "The machine could not be duplicated for twice the price; but we are selling as the days of wooden boats are ended and we have changed over to Fiber-Glass."

A bit of history for ya!

Andreas

So Andreas - I wonder of there is an opportunity with that machinery. With the resurgence in wooden boat building, could a profit be turned by supplying the hobbyists and perhaps boat yards with scarfed material.

Also, would Mystic Seaport be interested?

Please don't ever mention anything like this to my father. As he gets older the more Attention Defecit Disorder he gets. He can't focus on the work that the company is supposed to do. And he will not let anyone else take over even the smallest tasks. So the firm is stagnating because at age 85 he can't do it all. Even tho he fully believes that he can.

I am sure the machinery could be put to good use just like the dozens of ideas he has had over the past 60 years - almost none of which have been merchanidised because he has no clue how to do that and he would never let anyone else do it. 100% control has to be in his hands. And he's never had time to get any of his ideas off the ground.

Andreas