CHAPTER XV
A CHEAP AND SPEEDY MOTOR-BOAT
How To Build the Jackson Glider—A Very Simple Form of Motor-Boat, Which Will Hold Its Own in Speed With Even Expensive Boats of Double Horse-Power
This boat is intended to slide over the top of the water and not through it, consequently it is built in the form of a flat-bottom scow. Order your wood dressed on both sides, otherwise it will come with one side rough. For the side-boards we need two pine, or cedar boards, to measure, when trimmed, 14 feet ([Fig. 228]), and to be 16 or 18 inches wide.
The Stern-Board
when trimmed, will be 2½ feet long by 1 foot, 8½ inches wide. It may even be a little wider, because the protruding part can be planed down after the boat is built ([Fig. 229]).
To make the bow measure from the point E ([Fig. 228]) 1 foot 8½ inches and mark the point C. Measure along the same line 13½ inches and mark the point D. Next measure from B down along the edge of the boat one inch and mark the point F. Again measure down from B, 5¾ inches and mark the point G. With a carpenter's pencil draw the lines F D and G C and saw these pieces off along the dotted line ([Fig. 232]). The bow can then be rounded at the points A and B with a sharp knife or jackplane.
To get the proper slant on the stern, measure from H 4½ inches to L and saw off the triangle LHK. Make the other side board an exact duplicate of the first one, as in [Fig. 228]. Next set these two boards on edge, like sledge runners ([Fig. 230]), and let them be 2 feet, 6 inches apart (the boat will be safer if made six inches wider, and its speed will be almost as great), which can be tested by fitting the stern-boards between them before nailing the temporary boards on, which are to hold them in place ([Fig. 230]). Do not drive the nails home, but leave the heads protruding on all temporary braces, so that they may be easily removed when necessary.