Wooden Boat People

By McKenzieDriftBoat.com

Convert to whitewater dory?

Since my first trip down the Grand Canyon in 1997 I've wanted a whitewater dory. However, money and time have delayed the dream until now.

Recently, I picked up a drift boat and trailer for $600 from a guy who got it from a guy who owed him money. I believe it might be a Don Hill 16' (approximately) design, but I'm new to this so could very well be wrong. It measures closest to his 16ST plan:http://www.dhdriftboats.com/driftBoatPlans.html

It has (had, I took everything out) floor boards, foot controlled anchor, front seat with removable backs, and a rope rowing seat.

A fair amount of the outer layer of plywood on the outside of the boat has delaminated and is gone (you can't really tell from the picture). The seller said that the builder told him it happened when he put on the finish. So, at the very least I plan to glass the exterior and have a drift boat. The guy I bought it from allowed water to accumulate on the inside to some degree, and the inner ply has some issues as well. I've scraped away all of the loose parts and what remains appears to be sound.

I'm not much into fishing (though a few friends are and I can see a symbiotic relationship forming if I leave it in drift mode) and I'd really like to deck it over and turn it into a whitewater boat. I realize it is smaller than the typical Grand Canyon dory, but don't know if/when I'll ever get back down there (did make it down this summer on rubber). Typically, my group of friends runs rafts down Cataract once or twice a year, tries to pull a Main Salmon, and sometimes gets invited on a Desolation trip.

My question is whether this boat is a decent candidate for conversion to a whitewater dory?

If yes, other questions will follow. Or, feel free to offer any advice or thoughts.

Thanks,
Jim

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Boat.jpg, 158 KB
IMG_3497.jpg, 1.1 MB

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Permalink Reply by Mike Crouch on October 23, 2014 at 4:14pm

Hi Jim-

I looked through some pictures and found a few showing the deck. It gives a bit of an idea on what was done. As I said, there is not much room below decks but we all love the deck platform. Let me know if you would like more specific pics. Makes we want to go on the river!

Mike

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Permalink Reply by Jim Schnepel on October 23, 2014 at 6:55pm

Thanks for uploading the pictures! I'm still debating the future of my boat. I'm headed down to my parents' place in Southern Utah to work on the boat soon -- it's much warmer there than here. Still plan to initially refinish the exterior with glass and paint, but may go back to start working on decking it over.

Jim

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Permalink Reply by Jim Schnepel on November 28, 2015 at 7:17am

Last winter I (almost) finished my drift boat project. I've been meaning to post some updates here, but like the finishing touches the boat needs, I've been negligent. And, despite getting out on the water quite a bit this year, it's all been on rubber, so the revamped drift boat is still a virgin.

Late last (2014) fall I towed the boat down to southern Utah with my "towing" vehicle, which joined the boat in a large garage for the winter. Over the course of 6-7 long weekend visits I rehabbed the boat and towed it home to Salt Lake in the spring.

Summary:

Due to the partially delaminated plywood from neglect by the prior owner, I decided scrape off the loose material, repair anything that didn't seem solid, and glass/epoxy it. It was tempting to try to smooth out a number of the rough edges in the interior where the plywood was partially delaminated, but since I may end up decking it over, and because I got lazy, I decided to keep the rough look. I coated everything with a couple of coats of epoxy and three coats of spar varnish.

The exterior was a lot more work. After removing the screws, I knocked-off the wood on the chines (that adhesive was strong!) and rounded-over the corners with a hand plane and an orbital sander.

Thinking that my drywall skills would fully translate to my being talented at fairing thickened epoxy, I figured I'd make quick work of smoothing out all of the rough edges and dips. I was wrong. Working with the epoxy proved to be more challenging than I'd planned, and I ended up fairing and re-fairing and re-re-fairing.... And still, I'm not 100% satisfied with the finished product. I'd heard of "20 foot" paint jobs, and now I understand the term.

Sagging fairing compound (I used wood flour, phenolic beads, and combinations of both) vexed me in the beginning, but I got a lot better at getting the viscosity right and applying it so that it stayed in place until dry. I also had trouble with my non-thickened epoxy running, but my skills on this front also improved.

I did not want to remove the upper rail from the plywood, so butted the glass to it. The frayed edges of the glass seemed to soak up the epoxy and create globules that were a pain to fix. If my schedule allowed me to let them dry for a few weeks, or longer, they weren't too bad to sand off with a heavy grit sand paper. However, if I was trying to get multiple coats on within a few days the globules did not set up enough and gummed up the paper quickly. Some of them I knocked off with a chisel after cutting the glass with a drywall knife. After removing the globules it took a 2-3 skim coats of thickened epoxy to smooth out the transition between the glass and rail.

Before starting the project I'd read that building a wooden boat would primarily be an exercise in sanding. Now I know that rehabbing a boat falls along the same theory.

I removed the UHMW shoe and started working on getting the bottom ready for glass. The finish proved to be sand papers' kryptonite. So, I tried some expensive "green" stripper. It also was a no-go. The first heat gun died after about an hour of use, but the second one survived the following four hours it took to remove the finish from the bottom of the boat.

I used glass and epoxy from Raka, primarily because my neighbor donated a nice starter collection of his left over materials from a wooden boat he built. I ended up with 24 (17+7) ounces of glass on the bottom and 13 (7+6) ounces on the sides.

I was amazed at how quickly I went through the mixing cups and stir sticks I bought from Raka. Thankfully, the cheap clear plastic cups I bought at the dollar store worked fine.

The bottom finish work was done the same weekend as I was trying to finish the sides, and it was a pain orchestrating the timing to get both done -- sanding, vacuuming, washing, epoxying...repeat...repeat...repeat...

I enlisted my parents, and having a second person to lay out glass, apply epoxy and paint was a big help!

I glued-on a rubber chine strip (which was graciously cut by Ben Folsom, who is a member on this site), filled-in the gap between the strip and the rounded chine with thickened epoxy, and finished it with graphite infused epoxy.

I used Brightsides paint and the recommended primer. It went pretty well.

I still need to cut and install wood trim on the transom, possibly re-install the anchor system, string the seat, add a name sticker, and assess the quality of the oars (I don't fully trust the handmade oars that came with the boat).

Thanks(!) for the advice people took the time to write at the beginning of this project, and all of the pages I read regarding other peoples' projects.