Hess 40' "English Channel Cutter"

BCC Forum
1

Bil,
My brother-in-law recently cleaned out some old files and found 2 brochures from the 1970’s from Ian Findlay at J & I Boatworks, Huntington Beach, CA for a 40’ FG Hess cutter. One brochure is 2 pages, both sides, and the other is 11 pages, one side.

There’s no indication in the brochures that any of them were ever built. I know you are “The Keeper of Information on Lyle Hess”, and wonder if you have a copy of them? If not, I can mail them to you, or I can copy them and email them to you.

This summer, I had a chance to look at Half Lucky, one of the 34’ Hess cutters built by Brian Gittens on Vancouver Island. It’s a beauty, big and powerful–I can’t imagine wanting a Hess cutter any bigger! Then again, we’re seeing a lot of boats on the water that I can’t imagine.
Dan Shaula

2

Dan: Hi!

Your brother-in-law’s find sounds wonderful.

I do not have a copy of either brochure. And yes, I’d love a copy.

I have not yet found the time to write a Wikipedia page on Lyle C. Hess. That’s been one of my aims for a few years.

What I’d love to do, should you be able to get a copy of those brochures to me, is to scan and OCR so a small but accurate digital version is made and hosted on the internet (and available to members of this forum).

I’ll send you a personal message with my snail mail and e-mail addresses. But I’d also be happy with a quality scan.

Cheers

Bil

3

Bil,
I made copies and I’m mailing the originals to you today. There’s some duplication between the 2 brochures. I wonder who owns the plans for the 40’ now?
Regards, Dan

4

This may be the Hess 40’ you’re referring to…

image.jpg
image.jpg799×581 61.2 KB

5

Here’s more -

Redeye, does this contact still work for Hess’s daughter Linda, who I gather sells the plans of her father posted on Lin and Larry Pardey’s website?

From

http://www.landlpardey.com/Tips/2007/November2.html

Lyle Hess Designs

Many folks contact us asking for information on plans for both Taleisin and Seraffyn.
Unfortunately Lyle passed away in July of 2002. But his plans are now handled by his daughter Linda and her husband Steve DeCoux. They have both study plans and full construction plans for five of his designs.

The plans are drawn for carvel construction. And though many of Lyle’s cutters were built using alternative methods (cold molded, etc.) the conversions were done by the builders.

There are drawings for a gaff rig design included with the 24’ and 30’ plans only.

Each set of plans consists of lines, table of offsets, construction drawings and rigs. The plans for Lyle’s 30 foot cutter – includes over 17 sheets of drawings including one of the interior we have on Taleisin

Study plans are available for $15.00 including postage.

Construction plans, with the rights to build one boat are priced as follows

24 footer (Seraffyn) -$775
26 footer 775
30 footer (Taleisin) 875
32 footer 875
40 footer 775

The bill of materials and specifications are not available for the 40 footer. There are complete construction drawings and line drawings which should be sufficient for an experienced boat builder.

Unfortunately, Linda and Steve can not provide technical assistance with these plans."

To order or for more information, leave a message at 1-714-680-0400
or write to:

Lyle Hess Designs
c/o Linda de Coux
P.O. box 2849
Fullerton, California 92837

These people have Larry Pardey’s Taleisin’s foundry patterns for her bronze hardware, for other builders to make use of and have cast.

http://www.spauldingcenter.org/resto...eypatterns.php

6

Here’s an older posting from Woodenboat regarding the Hess 40 -

Tana Mari the first started as a Hess 40 footer…
when the frames were finished and the planks etc cut…there wuz a fire that cleaned out the barn but I still had the frame patterns. I first wanted more bouancy forward…so we entered the table of offsets in a computer and refaired them…and found lotsa errors. Additionally Lyle Hess did not complete the drawings for all the stuff on the 40 so included on how the parts were made by using drawings for the 26 and 30…we just redesigned all the hardware. Then…about midway between the bow and frame six we measured out 6 inches from the centerline and sprung a new curve, then about 12 inches above the waterline sprung another curve and faired the entire forward section for inproved bouancy forward…I didn’t like the flat transom
so I measured out another 9 inches on the centerline and sprung and arc…then respaced the frames so instead of 40 feet…we got 44 feet plus the 9 inches in the transome…then raised the shear about 6 inches…
the displacement went up of course…and the ballast ratio went up a bit and 6 more feet of mast and more sail and she sails like a dream. She’s comfortable, dry, and sails better than a bunch of the fiberglass bathtubs around here…

We had an informal race from Cape May New Jersey to the Azores two years ago against a 46 foot Morgan (not an Out Islander) and one of the racy scoop transomed things that seem to be called "racer-cruisers…about 48 feet…we beat then by almost two days because the weather was rough and they had to reduce sail and to prevent diving into a wave…and we just kept on going, we did reduce sail just a little by bringing in the 125 percent genoa on the forward pro-furl rig, and running just a full main and a splinter jib on the inner forstay…we could go below, make soup or tea with no problems…

7

Years ago in a galaxy far far away there was a mold for the 40’ built. Actually, before he died Lyle showed me plans for a 40’ gaff rigged schooner. Boy was it knock down drag out gorgeous! Long bowsprit and raked masts…oh lordie!

I have heard rumors the Sumio and Geoff had priced out constructing one. But it had to be a million+. A 40’ Hess would be a BIG boat.

As of now the molds are located in Huntington Beach. Mike Hess at one time was trying to get one built, but no luck it appears. The molds are in the possession of Stan Susseman, in Huntington Beach.

That’s the latest from my “SOURCES”.

8

I wonder if Ian Findlay, of the Huntington Beach 40’ English Channel Cutter, had molds made? The proposed ECC was of course a fiberglass vessel. Could the 40’ schooner molds located in Huntington Beach be repurposed 40’ Cutter molds? Maybe the same hull mold and a different deck mold?

Gary, do your SOURCES shed any light on who built the molds?

Dan Shaula

9

Dan,
Schooner or cutter the hull was the same. I don’t think there were any deck molds done. I always dreamed of that 40’ schooner with a deck built out fir. If you really want to know the builder, contact Mike Anderson at Freehand Steering.
Cheers

10

Dan,
Schooner or cutter the hull was the same. I don’t think there were any deck molds done. I always dreamed of that 40’ schooner with a deck built out fir. If you really want to know the builder, contact Mike Anderson at Freehand Steering.
Cheers

11

traveler Wrote:

This may be the Hess 40’ you’re referring to…

Yes, that’s the one.

A few weeks back I received the hardcopy of J & I Boatworks brochure on the “English Cutter” that was kindly mailed by Dan.

I’ve been busy doing a refit: I’ve removed all the chainplates (the bobstay chainplate was tough work; I got it out yesterday after too many hours of work in a confined space.). I’ve had new chainplates laser cut from plate. And am working with a fabricator to bend, weld, and roll the hull shape etc. I’ll be at the fabricator again on Monday.

All going well, I should have scanned and built a pdf of the “English Cutter” brochure in a few weeks depending on how the rest of the refit work goes.

Bil

12

Funny - both of our BCC’s are in the midst of a refit. I’ve been on the hard now for almost six months…with a bit more determination I should be buoyant in a couple more weeks. So much work for so little visual reward, but the piece of mind and sense of accomplishment is most comforting. Thank you for all you’ve done for our BCC’s and this forum Bil, you are absolutely amazing!

13

Just saw this in Latitude 38

14

Just saw this in Latitude 38 -

image.jpg
image.jpg480×640 105 KB

15

What is “hull tooling”? Molds, components for molds? Rughts to the design?

16

What is “hull tooling”? Molds, components for molds?

17

What is “hull tooling”? Molds, components for molds?

18

Found the attached letters in the November issue of Latitude 38 -

image.jpg
image.jpg480×640 153 KB

image.jpg
image.jpg480×640 138 KB

image.jpg
image.jpg480×640 162 KB

image.jpg
image.jpg480×640 142 KB

19

Interesting. I have no idea what Michael Traum is about, but he is dead wrong on about everything he wrote about. Very strange indeed.

Dan, there is your answer. In the reply to the hoax letter Stan Susman stated that Ian Finley was the builder of the molds.

20

What I’d love to do, should you be able to get a
copy of those brochures to me, is to scan and OCR
so a small but accurate digital version is made
and hosted on the internet (and available to
members of this forum).

With thanks to Dan of Shaula, here are the fruits of my first attempt to scan the pages on Lyle C. Hess’s English Channel Cutter as envisaged in 1998 by Ian Findlay of J & I Boatworks.

First is a 4 page brochure that Ian Findlay put together for the 1998 Sailing Adventure Series run by Orange Coast College. That brochure was printed on yellow stock, probably using a mimeograph printer. The result is some shading. I’ve not had time to run a filter over the scanned image, so to make the file size reasonable I’ve used Adobe Acrobat to reduce the size to about 1 MB. With luck, you’ll find that *.pdf at:

https://sites.google.com/site/katshegne/Home/zygote/manuals/manual-files/English%20Channel%20Cutter%201998%20brochure%20r.pdf

I’ll try to find time to come back to the brochure and do a better job of scanning, using software to remove the stray color and pixels when scanning, rather than in post-scan production.

Second is a set of 11 loose leaf pages: one title page (J & I Boatworks); two pages of descriptive text; one page of key specs; and the remainder diagrams. These 11 pages were on white stock with clear print. And very probably also from 1998 (and possibly from the same Orange Coast College event).

If all goes to plan, a *.pdf of the 11 loose leaves will be attached (about 513 KB ) to this post for your appreciation and enjoyment.

Bil

English Channel Cutter 1998 loose leaves.pdf (513 KB)