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Old 08-28-2013, 07:46 AM   #1
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Why do I like this boat ? 56ft Huckins Linwood

Been looking at Huckins for about 4 years now, I just really like the Linwood 56. I drove 680 miles round trip yesterday to look at it, I'm sick

I know it's not a trawler type boat by any means but I still dig it....
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Old 08-28-2013, 08:50 AM   #2
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Been looking at Huckins for about 4 years now, I just really like the Linwood 56. I drove 680 miles round trip yesterday to look at it, I'm sick

I know it's not a trawler type boat by any means but I still dig it....
Probably the better question is who doesn't like a Huckins? Great boats. Here is one docked beside us at Green Turtle Cay.



Can you post a good picture of your Linwood?
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Old 08-28-2013, 09:18 AM   #3
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I'm still out here in Florida so I'm limited to my iPhone... Here is a link
56
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Old 08-28-2013, 10:01 AM   #4
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'Cause theyr'e awesome!
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Old 08-28-2013, 10:34 AM   #5
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Can you imagine the amount of power it takes to move that Huckins? Well most likely less than most all other boats. As I recall ther'e very efficient for a fast boat. They had the "quadraconic hull" as they put it and I often wondered what that meant. I was passed by a smaller Huckins in WA State and making about 16 knots and I was indeed moved. I remember the ads in Motor Boating in the 50s. And of course they made some PT boats.
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Old 08-28-2013, 11:05 AM   #6
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I too have looked at a few. I wonder about the composite hull structure and what it might take to maintian, repair, etc. Life span?
I really like the spartan, simple interiors.
I've stared at this more than a few times:

http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listi...ng_id=1417&url=
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Old 08-28-2013, 11:24 AM   #7
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Good boats if you have flat water, good knees, a really good back, and need to knock those old fillings out.......
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Old 08-28-2013, 11:47 AM   #8
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Beautiful boats, but suggest you take a ride in one in more than 3' seas before you go much further. The Huckins quadraconic hull is not known for its sea going ability.

We were docked next to a Huckins 63 ft in St. Petes and the professional crew was waiting until the seas calmed down before crossing to Apalachicola. Seems that crew didn't want to cross unless they had seas of 3 ft or less.

Their comment was that it was a beautiful party barge but not a seagoing boat.

Don't know whether they were right or wrong but I would determine the boat's seagoing ability before you take it to the Texas coast.

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Old 08-28-2013, 01:49 PM   #9
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They had the "quadraconic hull" as they put it and I often wondered what that meant.
As originally built the Huckins boats were a bit faster for the installed power due to the rather flat(low deadrise) bottom and Frank's fanatical concern with eliminating excess weight. The designs are stark to reduce weight.

In 1988, a couple of years before he died, Lindsay Lord told the story (as he saw it) of the Quadraconic hull. Lindsay was a student of Naval Architecture at MIT in the 1920's, prohibition years. The head of the NA department was Professor George Owen (famous for racing sailboats of the day) who could not openly accept design commissions for "Fast Freight" vessels. He could pass those commissions (though not the fee) to his graduate student Lindsay, "for experience". So Lindsay developed some lighter, and wider (for increased load carrying) forms of fast powerboats. When Frank Huckins learned about these successful rum-runners, he came to Professor Owen and again Lindsay got the job for experience(no money). He "worked out the lines using elements of two adjoining cones per side to make a developed surface. Frank Huckins, a master wordsmith, was watching at my side when I illustrated this conic method. "Four cones: Doc, do you realize we have the Quadraconic hull." Thus the name he made famous was coined. I also worked out a formula whereby the offsets could be scaled up or down in proportion to more or less length."

Frank Huckins went on to claim the design was his own, which I gather was not unusual for him. Lindsay got nothing and in a few short years Ray Hunt, Jim Wynne, and Sonny Levi would make it all academic.....though Frank never gave up on "his" Quadraconic name and the company continued to push it well into the 70's and 80's.......
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Old 08-28-2013, 03:59 PM   #10
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My 1984 Trendsetter 40 is not quite a Huckins .... but a similar flavour and quite simply the most fuel efficient 40 foot motoryacht on the water.
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Old 08-28-2013, 09:13 PM   #11
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There were two great Huck's that camped-out in the cozy cove behind our residence in Key Biscayne. This one makes me groan. Huckin's legendary grace and style is too lovely for me to even imagine a better Photo-Shopped version.
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Old 08-29-2013, 04:56 AM   #12
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The best boats make you feel good just looking at them.

Many of the Huckins are that delightful.

A friend way back had a 44ft. or so. With twin GM 6-71 it would do a K for each hundred RPM.

1600=16K 1800= 18K and on the pin 2100 was 21K.

Fuel was cheap so the ride was great.
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Old 08-29-2013, 10:45 AM   #13
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VERY interesting TAD.

I'd always wondered if there was some great scientific reason for the Quadraconic hull name. All those things can be just what some half drunk person said in a bar one night.

Back to the OP...

About some boats there is something special about the looks of the boat that makes one think that it's perfect ... no .. beyond perfect .. maybe even a little magical. Atkin's designs are such a boat for me. Atkin's Boat Plans are on my favorites page and I go there often just to look. I look at boats that I'm not usually interested in like sailboats. I did the same at the U of W Public Library in Seattle where Seattle Sporting Goods used to be when I was 12. Many here are attracted to Flemming's, Bertram's, Cris Craft's and others that have that just right look.

What is it exactly about a boat like the Picnic boats that just makes us Oooo and Ahwww at the pleasure of their appearance. Some people say "look at that sheer line" and others say "look at that flare" and others say "that's how a boat should look".

Most say boat design is half art and half engineering. About that there can be little doubt. It's not hard to identify the designers that are engineers and those that are artist's. And then there are some that are BOTH. Do the magic boats come off the boards of those designers? The best boats are probably from the engineer types but the greatest amount of attention and probably success in yacht design probably comes from the artists.

My mother was an artist and all her friends were artists so growing up I had a large dose of art and especially what was good and what was not. I can see that one part of a boat or car dosn't go w the rest or there's bad visual balance or .. the clown is painted dark green and grey. Much more than that actually.

But when it comes right down to it all I can say is that the magic boats have a marriage of details and an overall "stand back and look at the whole picture" (you've all seen artists do that(usually squinting)) that moves you so one can see the marriage of line, mass, color to create a balance that makes us think the boat is just right. Balance is , I think a big part of it. There are many parts of a design that need balance and all those elements of balance must come together. One significant thing lacking balance and the design falls down into the average boat classification.

The real good designer would see the good design in a bass boat, kayak, sailboat, hydroplane, megayacht or rowboat. Many people think an artist thinks w his but. But if he did and was to evaluate the boats above he'd pick the boat he LIKED the best even if he knew what good design was. As an example most here would pick a trawler over a cruiser even though the Cruiser resembled a Riva and the trawler was a chunky thing.

Every time one posts here one risks getting egg on one's self. I'm probably a beacon of yellow. So at the risk of tainting oneself yellow what do you think about what makes a boat a really great design?
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Old 08-29-2013, 11:55 AM   #14
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My brain file steward always stumbles when inquired of about the Huckins, reaching as he always does, into the PT boat file.
Maybe that nonexistent relationship draws me closer to the rail for a better view of its' profile which I do find enchanting.
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Old 08-29-2013, 12:22 PM   #15
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Eric asked "what do you think about what makes a boat a really great design?"


WOW! Eric, the devil in you is coming out. You knew that was loaded question.

Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It is just that some designs appeal to more eyes than others. What is that certain something that just looks "right"? I'm not sure. Being a building designer and builder for more that a few years, I learned a few things about it. I couldn't live in everything I built, so had to learn to design for the market.

With Georgian architecture, it is fairly simple. The mathematical ratios of proportions tell you heights and sized of things. The simple elements combine to produce an elegant design that you know when it is right. Boats are like that, but I don't know the ratios. I do know that to me a boat needs a pointy bow, and a {to my eye at least} a graceful shear. I think the balance is making it look capable of its mission while giving it the right grace and detail.

Now, if you will excuse me I am getting a brain ache.
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Old 08-29-2013, 01:17 PM   #16
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Every time one posts here one risks getting egg on one's self. I'm probably a beacon of yellow. So at the risk of tainting oneself yellow what do you think about what makes a boat a really great design?
Excellent post and a cry for more contentious debate if I ever heard one. You rascal! I hope your question bears fruit (but not to the degree of the "Anchor Debate.")

Well done!
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Old 08-29-2013, 03:49 PM   #17
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Design is different than beauty, although it may incorporate elements of beauty.

Great design is "fit for purpose". It does everything well that you intend it to do.

It is unlikely that a group of individuals would agree on a single great design as they would undoubtedly have different intentions for its purpose. Otherwise we would all buy the same cars, same houses, and same boats etc.
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Old 08-29-2013, 04:03 PM   #18
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Design is different than beauty, although it may incorporate elements of beauty.

Great design is "fit for purpose". It does everything well that you intend it to do.

It is unlikely that a group of individuals would agree on a single great design as they would undoubtedly have different intentions for its purpose. Otherwise we would all buy the same cars, same houses, and same boats etc.
Then eye candy has nothing to do with design... I might consider the thought that (eye candy stands on design), but that particular design may not be everyone's cup of tea.
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Old 08-29-2013, 04:10 PM   #19
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So at the risk of tainting oneself yellow what do you think about what makes a boat a really great design?
Simplicity.

We started our search looking for a much larger more complicated boat. Then after learning the compromise that all boats represent we focused on its mission. Identifying the mission put feathers on the dart that was our boat search. The first photo is our current compromise that checks all our design criteria. The second photo may well be our next one in a couple years when our mission is scheduled to change a bit. Still a very simple boat design with very basic simple systems.
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Old 08-29-2013, 11:01 PM   #20
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Design is different than beauty, although it may incorporate elements of beauty.

Great design is "fit for purpose". It does everything well that you intend it to do.

It is unlikely that a group of individuals would agree on a single great design as they would undoubtedly have different intentions for its purpose. Otherwise we would all buy the same cars, same houses, and same boats etc.

GL how true that is and basically design is art and engineering. If we know all the specs and all about boats we could speculate on the design as a whole. But the OP wondering about why he liked the Huckins so well was I'm sure talking about the artistic or aesthetics part of design. That's also the side everyone thinks they know something about or more.

Walt says it was a good post and that it was contentious. As soon as we have two sides that are contentious we'll have that contentious thread or discussion.

Don says beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I take that to mean that beauty is only an opinion. I LIKE that and therfore it is beautiful. But we like things visually because something or some things respond to our sense of what beauty is.

I knew a girl (then girl) that thought the 59 Ford was the most beautiful car ever. I couldn't get my head around that as I thought it was the uglyest car. After much conversation it came out that she had really great times in a 59 Ford so her perception of beauty was entirely a product of her association w good times. Had nothing at all to do w the car's appearance.

If beauty was in the eye of the beholder beauty would not exist outside the eyes of the beholder. But it does. It does because there are elements of beauty that are part of the object looked at. They have nothing to do w social associations or whims of the observer.

If you consider the shape of an aircraft tail (vertical stabilizer) and look at the shape the outline provides you will find a lot of variation in the degree of beauty the image provides. Some shapes are ugly and some beautiful w much in between. I think the average person can tell the difference. I think an artist can tell the difference much more often and perhaps nearly all the time. I think even the worst guessers could tell the difference some of the time.

If you couldn't tell anything about the beauty in front of you a large group of such people would be able to tell if something was beautiful exactly 50% of the time. In other words ... not at all. 50-50. One could do that w/o a brain.

But I'm sure we all know something about beauty even though there are great differences in peoples ability to identify beauty when we see it.

To me all this means beauty is NOT in the eye of the beholder. It is in (or part of) the object viewed. And there are many elements of beauty. And the way they interact or fit together is a very big part of beauty. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder but the beholder may not know what he's looking at .. beauty or otherwise. Unless he is trained and thus knowledgeable or knows through DNA or some other non-traditional learning means.

I don't think beauty is just an opinion of anyone passing by but a very complicated array of elements. Elements that can be learned (for the most part) or inherited in other ways.

So my opinion on beauty is that w much study and association w others that know a great deal about beauty and some help from nature one can recognize beauty where it is .... most of the time. And if we understand nothing at all about beauty we could identify it to some degree. Also if we were to have many people considered experts on beauty presented to several objects they wouldn't all agree as to which one was the most beautiful. But they almost certainly would come close.

And I didn't mean to imply that Great Laker said anything untrue. I took a course on design in college and we concluded (after a weeks debate) that design was "an organized solution to a problem".
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