Fitzke Boatworks

10/02/2025

Today’s musical performance…

10/01/2025

Some quick clips of Miss Moonshine at the show in Clayton New York.

09/20/2025

Incredibly honored to have won Platinum, the top award in my category (contemporary) for my design and build of Miss Moonshine at the Antique and Classic Boat Society International Boat Show!

09/17/2025

An absolute dream come true…first splash for Miss Moonshine. It drives amazing and is so smooth through the chop due to its v-bottom and chine flat bottom design. So excited to now show it at the 50th Anniversary of the Antique and Classic Boat Show (contemporary category) in Clayton New York this weekend!

09/13/2025

Sneak peek at some design details on Miss Moonshine. The dachshund fuel cap is a tip-of-the-hat to my dogs Porter, Finn and the late Hank. The mixed the color of the wood stain to look like Hank’s fur - I call it Hanky’s Wood Stain. The gauge cluster and dial face design is inspired by old Grand Prix cars. The dial faces are laser engraved on aluminum and a hand stipple pattern on gauge cluster. Metal fabrication by

08/15/2025

Preview on Miss Moonshine progress.

05/28/2025

I’d like to share with you all the latest episode of Mahogany and Chrome!

In this episode, we get hands-on at Fitzke Boatworks: cold-molding ribs, using a hand-held CNC machine to cut parts from wood, and getting the back-story on ...

05/06/2025

Fairing the inner Spanish Cedar planking on Miss Moonshine. I’m using dry guide coat and following it with various size flexible vacuum sanders. The guide coat is basically charcoal that you smear on and then sand over to show where the high and low spots are to dial in the perfect fairness of the surface. Then, it will all get epoxy and twill pattern fiberglass - creating a nice substructure for the outer Honduran mahogany planking to get glued to.

04/25/2025

I finally had enough of my old workbench and designed and built this much needed new woodworking bench. I designed it based on the classic split-top roubo bench but scaled it up and add features exclusive for wooden boat building. Boat parts are always awkward in shape and size to clamp so features like and oversized split top (approx 4’ x 8’), dual crisscross vises for long edge beveling of planks, one vise located on the end with cut-away top to allow for spokeshave work and a tail vise to hold long/thin parts for sanding or hand planing. The center strip can be removed for clamping access in the middle or more dog holes can be drilled for specific hold-down points. The bench is made of hard maple and Honduran mahogany. I still need to build the shelf surface underneath but figure I should take some photos before it all gets dirty and scratched up.

04/16/2025

Miss Moonshine’s inner planking getting wrapped up.

02/26/2025

Sneak peek at the 3d printed stainless steel bow cleat and engine hatch hinges. I designed these to contour to the torpedo shape of the hull. I’ll recess the hatch hinges into the framework and then polish them up. The bow cleat get bolted down via carriage bolt and a bracket that is welded from underneath the cleat to the stem.

02/26/2025

Some progress updates on Miss Moonshine so far. Exciting to see the interior, hydraulic steering and exhaust components coming together.