Bartender | In The Workshop | The Workshop

Bartender

Batender Heading here.
I have had a set of Bartender plans in the drawer since 1977. Always intending, year by year, to build one - but it all seemed too hard.

The Bartender was and is a popular and successful boat. It had at one stage a presence in Australia in the hands of the police and surf clubs but Its role was supplanted by the development of reliable inflatable's.

The surviving examples that I have seen have all been fitted with inboard engines and outdrive legs. They have also been built with heavier scantlings than the drawings would suggest to compensate for the extra power and weight of the inboard engine.

The designer emphasizes at every opportunity the need to build a lightweight boat. Did the examples I have seen survive because of the performance limitation brought about by their overweight construction? Where are examples of boats built to specification?

After years of prevarication, the decision was made. First, enter the offsets into AutoCAD. Strangely enough, a year after starting this project a method has come along whereby we do not even have to enter the offsets. That is a storey for later. From AutoCAD into Rhino. Now we have a three-dimensional model that we can manipulate.

As time has gone by the Bartender has crept to the top of my "must build" list. Of course, it has become easier, with the introduction computers to build, and enjoy building, these type of boats. The trick is to build them first on the computer, iron out any doubts, have the parts cut on a CNC machine and just fit it all together. Easy.

Now, part by part we build the model. This is always the most satisfying part of the process. Having converted the wire frame to a more believable structure we can see the boat emerge.

Now we can examine each piece, insert cutouts for stringers, insert battens to support floors, and from the drawing we can extract shapes for laminating forms for the curved cockpit ends. We can also clad the frame and examine its fairness. Of course, we could also change the length, breadth or any other dimension, but we won't because the bartender is perfect.

Now comes the fun part. We want, just because we can, to check it out. The individual parts of the boat are converted to machine code, and with little expense we can cut out a trial frame in chipboard. Having developed a simple jig we have set it up to admire.

Now further examination shows us some further simplifications/improvements we can make whilst still preserving the spirit of the Bartender.

So back to our computer for a few more cutouts, some reshaped parts and on to cut the whole frame from marine grade plywood. As the boat is assembled the second time, timber is added to some plywood edges to strengthen them, or to provide increased bearing area or to provide mass in highly stressed parts, i.e. the stem and stern. From the computer image or our trial set-up we can take any bevels or measurements we need, and easily complete most of the work on the bench.

In the case of the gunwhale and the chine, lamination is our usual method of choice for such highly shaped parts, but in this case to keep in the spirit of the times the Bartender comes from we will indulge ourselves with a bit of steam bending. It has been a while but nostalgia is a big motivator.

More to follow soon.