Chris Morejohn: Building Hogfish and Hogfish Maximus.

Lawanda my ex wife and I were offed free use of a small building , the use of an old house and a very old Volvo station wagon . The stipulation was we had only six months time to use as the property was to be sold. The building shed was built around Sonna tube concrete collums with roll up doors on three sides. The buildings roof was 60' long and the enclosed part was 33' long with a 14' foot door opening. I decided to make the Hogfish 31'10" long and 9' wide. I could just get around the boat with the doors shut. This was 28 years ago. The marine grade fir plywood then was still wonderfull. All the dimensional lumber was clear fir. I was able to buy a bunch from Lew Mcgregor and Russel Brown as they were starting to build a big Catamaran for a client but the deal fell through. All these photos were taken by friends as I was busy building this boat. I keep daily work records of what I get done and my hours. These I look back on for reference and to see that i'am getting older and not getting as much done today as I once did. The Hogfish took just under 1,300 hours from start to sailing away . Lawanda had a full time job . She helped me with the painting. She did all the cooking and stuff ,so i could just put in the 10-12 hours a day to get her done in time.

Stringers in place with sheer clamps and Chines

The skin is 3 sheets of 1/2 " plywood on the bottom and just two on the sides.

That's our benefactor Ron McCartney looking through the glass bottom opening. Glass bottoms are great fun when sailing in clear water but you have to be in 10' or deeper as when in shallow water your speed is too quick . Our kids would lay down looking at the bottom for hours when going over the banks.

Overkill stem detail

I'am actually upside down here showing how the companionway will look and the cabin floor size.

Centerboard pin is just above the waterline

Starting to roll the boat over.

The problem with the shop was this small doorway in the back. We could only roll her so far and then would have to slide her over a bit.

On her side and being slide over. This took a long day to do with Ron as my helper.

When the Hogfish was almost finished my father came to visit. He designed buildings for a living and had taught me a lot. Dad walks in the side bay door looks at the boat and out the front door of the shop where we were planning on sliding her out of. Dad says" your boat is too wide to fit out the front door". I grab a tape measure and measure the side door which was12' wide , the back door was 12' wide the front door looked exactly the same. But it was just under 9' ! Ron had built the building and was flabbergasted ! We had to slide her out the back door and around the building over sugar sand to get near hard ground for a crane to be able to lift. A bit more work. Since then I very carefully measure all exits .

Launch day. Hogfish was a very good boat for us. Now she has had many owners redesigning and adding on stuff so ugly that I will not post a photo for how buggered up she looks . Sorry Hogfish but we just outgrew you.

Hogfish Maximus ....same thing but lots bigger.

The inside first skin sheet of plywood is marine grade MDO ply which is very smooth and paints well. The rest is AB marine grade ply.

The deck is two layers1/2" ply with a1/2" Corecell core on top for insulation.

I use a simple pallet jack to lift up a bit to slide this frame under and then use these pipes to roll out. Very easy .

Big box boat.

At the time I was building the HFM I was running Hells Bay Boatworks with a dozen employees building about 10 custom skiffs a month. To save time I hired 2 cranes to roll her over with.

Cost $450.00 and took 2 hours .

The hull at this stage weighed10,000 lbs.

Only a shape a mother could love.

Getting ready to put on a trailer and launch. The color scheme is made up of two primer colors . I new I would be hauling out later to finish paint so to be silly I did this .

Building the HFM while I was building all the other skiffs took a huge chunk out of my life and my family's. I would start my day at 6:00 . The boat shop crew would start at 7:30 . Our working ours were to 3:30. By around 2:00 I would try and start working on the HFM. This I would do till10:30 or later. Come home eat dinner and sleep. Start over. Sell boats , train crew, order supplies, fire crew, work on HFM. Took me 10 months of this routine to get a bare but livable HFM launched and in the water. We moved aboard within days. Had her sailing a few months later. Total hours 1,980. Cost $34,800.00

I was 40 then and it would take me twice as long today.