1958 Ski Boat 'Calliope'

[xsspeed]

swoon

[rusty360]

I very much like this layout.

[rusty360]

Not sure if that's possible but you seem pretty skilled! So I'm confident you can do it!

[Tiger Tamer]

This one is probably the closest in general hull shape to your boat and the easiest to copy I would think out of the photo's you put up.  Quite a good compromise between a fully open cockpit and twin cockpit. 

It would be nice to have a more retro style engine cover. I did think of doing that myself but gave it no serious thought.

I have seen the old wooden boat gathering on Facebook at Rotoiti and thought it would be a fun thing to do. Might go along one year to drool.

[Nominal]

3 hours ago, dmulally said:

I think I have found what it was originally based on. Looks pretty similar and is exact same length. Pics of builds look to have the bulkheads in similar spots too. 

https://www.glen-l.com/15-Ski-Tow-runabout-and-ski-boat/products/359/

 

Some kindred LBC enthusiasts doing these from scratch I see

[xsspeed]

I saw this listing you may be interested in: 1950’s Carl Augustine Ski Boat https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/boats-marine/motorboats/listing/5730310490

 

[yoeddynz]

20 hours ago, Rhyscar said:

the real Lake Rotoiti

There's actually a classic boat show at the real real Lake Rotoiti here in the better island.. 

https://www.nzclassicboats.com/

[dmulally]

1 hour ago, yoeddynz said:

There's actually a classic boat show at the real real Lake Rotoiti here in the better island.. 

https://www.nzclassicboats.com/

Torpedo's fired!

[HumberSS]

+1. Two holes are better than one. 

[Rhyscar]

On 21/01/2026 at 09:42, dmulally said:

Torpedo's fired!

 You wait until the North Island Rotoiti community group hears about this. There will be uproar and a 1.5hr meeting discussing absolutely nothing but whatever random opinion each old white person has. 

[dmulally]

47 minutes ago, Rhyscar said:

 You wait until the North Island Rotoiti community group hears about this. There will be uproar and a 1.5hr meeting discussing absolutely nothing but whatever random opinion each old white person has. 

 

First item on the agenda: the treasurer will confirm the minutes from the previous meeting. Est. 1hr

[Nominal]

Are there sandflies at the NI Rotoiti, because there are plenty at the SI Rotoiti.

Sweet boat, fix it up and sell it to me cheap to tow behind the woody.

[Bearded Baldy]

7 hours ago, Nominal said:

Are there sandflies at the NI Rotoiti, because there are plenty at the SI Rotoiti.

Sweet boat, fix it up and sell it to me cheap to tow behind the woody.

Yes, but they aren't the south island spec blowfly sized ones.

[RUNAMUCK]

The sandflies at south island lakes ride V-rods........

[dmulally]

Last section to go doing the floor. Blimey what a grubby job. Sucks that it's pissing down today as it is way more sensible doing this outside. 

[rusty360]

Looks pretty solid though?

[dmulally]

28 minutes ago, rusty360 said:

Looks pretty solid though?

Yep. This is the only spot I had to rub back and that was due to a leaking bottle of 2 stroke oil resting on it. 

Tomorrow I'll give it a good clean and then start with some penetrating epoxy and then putting some thickened epoxy fillets everywhere to stiffen it all up. 

[dmulally]

So she was about as much as I could be bothered to get her ready for sealing with epoxy. You can see the three layers each of cloth to go over where I cut back the flooring. 

But I ran into the slight problem of only having a small amount of 406 filler powder left. As I'll need much more for the beefed up transom and bigger stringers, I just did where my feet will scuff up and along the keelson. 

So far it has two coats of epoxy and before I go to bed tonight Ill put on a third. Then during the week I'll do the middle part where I have been perched like Gollum doing the coating. 

[dmulally]

Next up are the stringers. The ones I took out were just pine 2x4's resting on top of the bulkheads. I want to put in larger ones to be able to tie into the transom but I didn't really have any wood in the bin so popped to the local mill and got some mac. A couple of knots but it is what it is. 

I put the first one through to start making some noise and mess but I think they are still too wet as it wasn't a smooth cut.

I have put them in my kiln (black X5 wagon parked outside waiting for the sun) and will check on them in a few days. If still too wet I might look at putting them in the steam box. That makes it plenty wet but also dries it out. Not sure if that's the right thing to do but it's all good learning. 

[dmulally]

Took the whaler out for a scoot up and down the river and found a boat very similar to Calliope. He said it was a Glen L Zip. A quick google suggests the plans were released for the home builder in 1954. 

The owner had a 40hp yammy 4 stroke on the back.