Boats are the stuff that dreams are made of—sometimes of dreams recaptured, in places unexpected. Such is the case with the Sea Knight, a graceful 17′ retro cabin cruiser, a boat that Bill White claims, “anyone comfortable with basic tools can build in the space of a two-car garage.” He completed his boat in less than two years with a materials cost of approximately $6,000.For Bill, the Sea Knight’s creation was truly a dream reborn and rebuilt. He had once owned, loved, and lost a nearly identical boat back in the ’60s: a 1956 Scottie Craft cruiser. While towing the boat on a trailer, a nasty jolt from a sneaky bad patch of roadway “hammered a trailer roller through the hull,” Bill said. She sank upon launching at a local boat ramp. This painful image would remain with him and, in 2008, become the catalyst for his looking for a way to replace her. Bill would fill the void by completing the Sea Knight, a design first featured in Popular Mechanics magazine in 1957 and now offered by Glen-L. With a 17′ length overall (LOA) and a 7′ 2″ beam, the Glen-L Sea Knight is ideal for trailering. She has plenty of freeboard and a modified 30-degree V-hull capable of high-speed planing and dealing with moderate seas. She packs in a lot in a small amount of space.
Chuck Black
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My parents had a boat very similar to this one. It was great on the Lake of the Ozarks