POWERBOAT DESIGNS
	Saetta Classic 20--Kit Boat Extraordinaire The first Saetta Classic 20, courtesy of Saetta Boats. Built by: SAETTA CLASSIC BOATS Factory and sales: Jim Kimball Enterprises, Inc. PO Box 849 5354 Cemetery Road Zellwood, FL 32798-0849 407.889.3451 phone 407.889.7168 fax Website #1: www.saettaboats.com Website #2: www.jimkimballenterprises.com Website #3: www.precisionam.net/ Email: sales@saettaboats.com That's a kit boat??? You bet. The idea for this concept came from two airplane kit builders, Kevin Kimball (at the wheel, above) of Kimball Enterprises in Zellwood, FL, and Bill Scheunemann of Precision Aero Marine in Juneau, WI. Kevin Kimball is the licensed builder of the Pitts Model 12 acrobatic airplane which you can buy as a kit or completely finished. Bill Scheunemann builds wood wing kits for the Pitts as well as for the Piper Cub, Waco, and many other airplanes. This project started with a phone call from Bill asking for a proper naval architecture design for the bottom of their conceived speedboat kit. They knew they had a good topside design, but they also realized that guaranteed good performance lay in the bottom design--everything below the chine. That's where SYDI came in. The idea was to harness a customer's nostalgic desire of the old speedboats into being able to build such a boat from a well-made kit. The potential market is pretty big, well, at least bigger than classic airplane kits, and possibly a going business. The key elements of such a venture are that a superb-looking classic boat could be built in anybody's garage, and since most standard garages are 21' long, that meant the boat could be only about 19' long. In the end, it is 19' 6", so let's call that 20'. The other essential element was to take all the hard work out of shaping and fitting the parts. That meant NC cutting for everything--every piece of wood comes completely cut to shape, in 3D, so that fitting and bending of wood parts is at the minimum. All joints are doweled and glued, so while some metal fasteners are used to hold glue joints tight together, none of them are left in the hull. The strongback on which the boat is built is also properly machined and included in the kit. Bill makes all the parts in Wisconsin and sends them down to Kevin in Florida. Kevin and friend Tom Drake built the first boat, in the photo above, to prove out the assembly, photograph each stage, write the building manual, and design and procure all the hardware. This first boat debuted in the water at the Sunnyland Antique Boat Festival in nearby Tavares, FL, in March, 2010. The show was a great success with one order being secured at the show. Saetta (say-ET-ah), by the way, is the Italian word for lightning, hence the lightning bolt in the company logo. Fig. 2. One of the first drawings sent to SYDI to describe the new Saetta kit boat, at that point unnamed. Aside from the above rendering, I had a number of different files of shape data for the boat. I created a surface model in ProSurf for the new bottom that would match up well with the topside shape. There was a fair bit of fairing to do to make the topsides and bottom meet up along the same chine curve. So my chine curve governed, and Bill made the rest of the boat fit accordingly. From my surface model, I created hull cuts at each frame and exported those shapes via a generic .dxf file into AutoCad. In the AutoCad file, I rearranged the bottom shape frame templates so that Bill could feed them into other files that he needed to run his NC milling machine. These included both the framing and the planking parts. After Bill cut the initial parts, he assembled them to test their fit, and then made changes accordingly. This also helped with the placement of dowels, brackets, and all the joint parts that were necessary for the kit. It really was a long process to get the hundreds of parts to all fit together in a flawless fit. Figs. 3 & 4. On the left is the final design rendering, and on the right is a photo of the planked boat prior to decking and final finish. With all this computer power they had better be identical! Note the difference in wood color in the planking--this occurred accidentally by having two different orders of wood that did not quite match up. However, the port side is identical, and this proves that if you prefer, you can have book-matched planking side to side if you are willing to pay a little more. Note also the slight rocker in the bottom centerline; this is as intended and key to the boat's superior performance and handling capabilities. Of course, the proof is in the pudding, and even more little changes were noted during the assembly of the first boat here in Florida. Tom Drake and Kevin Kimball kept a running record of notes, suggestions, and corrections, and fed these all back to Bill. The first boat, aptly named "Toms 3rd" for the fact that this is the third boat that Tom Drake has built, is fitted with an Indmar 5.7 liter, 330 HP V8 gasoline engine in a traditional ZF 63IV V-drive to an underslung propeller. Bill, on the other hand, is building a second boat that will be fitted with a Mercury Bravo I/O drive, so either power option is available. In the I/O version, the transom and engine stringers are a little different, but all the rest of the boat is the same. Fig. 5. Bill and Kevin were able to have an early showing of hull #1 at the framing stage at the 2009 Sunnyland Antique Boat Festival in Tavares, FL. That's Bill in the bright blue shirt and tan baseball cap behind the boat at left, and me talking to a viewer on the right. I did not participate materially in the actual building of this boat--I'm too expensive. But one of the priveledges of being a boat designer is getting to meet the people at boat shows. There are other privledges, too, and more on that below. The photo above shows hull #1 in frame only, before the covering boards or planking are added. The fasteners that are shown are only temporary. In the next photo, below left, the starboard covering board is being fitted. Parts like these are cut in 3D, so you have only to set them in place, no bending involved, and they fit perfectly. In the photo below right, the deck planking is superbly done. Figs. 6 & 7. The photo at left shows a close-up of the starboard covering board, the transom, and the planking. All the joints are glued, and the temporary fastenings are removed and their holes bunged. On the right, the deck is shown before finishing and the new windshield, half of a two-part windshield (which I don't really care for) being placed on deck. One eventually must take the finished boat out for a ride, another privledge of being a designer, you get to ride your stuff! The photo below was taken shortly before the 2010 Sunnyland Antique Boat Festival, here at the ramp in Mt. Dora, FL. This was the designer's day out and a photo shoot with a professional photographer/videographer. Fig. 8. This stern view of Tom's 3rd on the trailer gives a good view of the transom, 20 deadrise, running gear, and finish. Fig. 9. Naval architect at 50! That's the speed; age is a little more. The following week, Kevin, Bill, and Tom showed Tom's 3rd in the water at the 2010 Sunnyland Antique Boat Festival in Tavares, FL, where it received very good reviews and an award for "Best in Class Contemporary for boats 1976 and newer". Below are two photos from the show. Figs. 10 & 11. The photo at left is Tom's 3rd in the water at the show. At right are the three wise men: Jim Beam, Johnny Walker, and Jack Daniels--Whoops! got that wrong! It's (L-R) Bill Sheunemann, Kevin Kimball, and Tom Drake. Hull #2, in frame behind and which will be fitted with the Mercury I/O drive, came down with Bill from Wisconsin for the show. Fig. 12. A really good running shot of the Saetta Classic Speedboat from their website. For more information on the Saetta Classic Speedboat in either kit or finished form, you may visit the Saetta Boats website at the following link. http://www.saettaboats.com. If you would like to discuss this boat or any similar project with SYDI, you may call or write to us at the Contact Us link below.
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