Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
Drift Boat Project #3
Here we go again. Taking a little road trip to Oregon this weekend to pick up a genuine piece of driftboat history – a 1960’s era Keith Steele McKenzie boat.
This will be my third driftboat project and I am super excited to have one that was built and used in Oregon by a legendary builder.
My first boat was an early 1990s Tatman kit that I built while living in TN and sold a few years after building it. My second one was all fiberglass of my own design and build. That one was stolen a few years back.
Now I’m living out west and it just won’t do to not have a drift boat. I have spent several months deliberating on whether to build a super nice wooden one, pick up a cheap used glass one, or look for a Woody Hindman or Keith Steele. As luck would have it, this Steele boat showed up on Craigslist and a friend, knowing I really wanted one snagged it before someone else could. An older guy in Oregon had the boat built for him by Keith Steele sometime in the 1960s after Steele gained notoriety for building the first Grand Canyon dories. He had a stroke a few years ago and realized it was time to let the old girl go.
The boat looks all original and complete and the owner says it is solid and perfectly usable as-is but my friend and I are going to go through and restore her. But maybe we’ll do a float or two in her first.
So what do y’all think… should I finish the whole boat with a bright finish or paint the outside? If paint, what color? My first one was hunter green with a tan rub strip and bright inside. I liked that look. Also thinking of maybe a turquoise color. It currently looks to be painted white.
I'd also really like to go by Steve Steele's shop while I am nearby. Anybody know how to contact him?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by CWarmouth on
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Anyone have advice on removing frames from a Keith Steele boat? There are a few that I want to replace due to rot. The horizontal frames along the bottom seem easy enough but I am a bit nervous about those ring shank nails on the vertical frames.
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Permalink Reply by David Witton on
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This sounds like a great excuse to buy a multi tool if you don't already own one.
https://www.boschtools.com/us/en/boschtools-ocs/multi-tools-23414-c/
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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on
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I had great luck using a sharpened cat's paw tool. It is the smaller version with a broad blade used for prying moulding away from walls. drive it behind the frame, tap it with a hammer and the ring shank will break right off.
Did you know that you can put your Tatman's boat frame in the wrong place in more than one way? I had a couple of opportunities to try my Shark tool to learn how well they work! I used to sell these tools and had a couple that came in very handy. The head of the ring shank will pop right out and the body of the nail will be buried in the wood in case you have to reuse it.
Here's a link http://www.sharkcorp.com/prybar-10-250mm/. They used to make a six inch one that I call a kitten's paw tool!
Rick
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Thanks Rick. I remembered your cat's paw tool from earlier advice you gave me when I wanted to remove my rub strips. I never did buy one but I found that an old chisel and a screw driver accomplish the same goal.
So I made a big decision about this project this week that will set back my launch date but will ultimately result in a much better boat. I have decided to take out and replace all of the frames. This is something that has been weighing heavily on me for a while. There was so much paint slathered on the hull that there was no way I could get it out of all the nooks and crannies around the frames. I have spent 165 hours on this thing so far, most of it sanding, so it wasn't for the lack of effort. Then as I was working on it I discovered rot along the bottom of one of the frames. Then another. Then another. I debated on whether I should dig out the rot and repair the voids with thickened epoxy or just build new frames. Replacing them won out. So I found a local source for vertical grain Douglas Fir (the original wood that Keith Steele used) and started pulling the frames out. Well, today I went to buy the wood and when I got there the guy quoted me $6.58 per board foot! So one board was $45.00! And I need about 10-12 boards for the whole project (frames, seats, floor boards, etc.) No thanks. Here is where good ol' Craigslist comes to the rescue. I found another local lumber yard with 1X12 DF for $1.19 per linear foot. I spoke to the guy on the phone and he is going to meet me tomorrow tho help me pick out some nice boards. Hopefully it is good stuff.
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Sounds like a wise choice. I ended up with a bunch of Shark tools, Enderes punches, chisels, pry bars, etc. Also a bunch of thin kerf saw blades. Some of them have come in handy. I think you won't regret your decision.
Rick
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Some of my frame bottoms are pretty rough and difficult to get a good angle measurement off of for the bevel. Does anyone happen to know the bevels for frames 1-9 of a Keith Steele boat?
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Just thinking and typing. If you had to determine the intended bevel could you place a level on the bottom of the boat. Maneuver it until you had an upright face that was plumb to the floor that the boat is sitting on not the floor of the boat and then place a bevel gauge against it to measure the angle that the bottom is in relationship to 90 degrees or plumb? If you were at a location where the floor was 90 degrees to the level your bevel gauge would show a right angle. As the angle changed it would decrease by a few degrees as you move forward or back from that point. You wouldn't even need to know what the angle was just transfer that angle to a story pole or something similar. I wonder if my Tatman would have the same angles or if they would be close enough to start?
Rick
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I had to read this a couple times but it makes sense. Good idea. One question... what is a story pole?
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A story pole is a stick, board, something that you place marks on to indicate measurements you will repeatedly use. As an example when I built electric fences we put the wires/insulators at the same point on each post. Rather than remeasure the various heights at each post we would transfer the marks. When you build 7,000 feet of fence it can save a lot of time! A shingle or piece of plywood could substitute and you could transfer the angles from the bevel gauge without having to translate them from a protractor. Make sense?
http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/tools/a14185/story-pole-new-ol...
Rick
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So as you know, I am building new frames for my boat. I was planning to build a taper jig to get the angles of taper on the vertical frames and was kind of having a hard time getting my mind around how to compensate for the various lengths to end up with an inch and a half at each gunnel. Especially on the frames with the steeper bevels ant the longer ones towards the bow. Then I actually measured the original frames at the gunnels of my boat, and guess what... not one is the same as the next. They range from 1" (frame #9) to 1.5" (frame #7). Frame #7 is actually the only one that is 1.5". I would say the average is 1.25". So it seems to me that Mr. Steele must have cut out many frames to an initial measurement of, say 3" tapering to 1.5" then added the bevels, nailed them in place, and chopped them off at the gunnel line. Does that make sense? Is that how I should do it?
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Since Steve makes multiple parts for a series of boats probably at one time this would make sense. My Tatman Boat frames came this way. As long as the longest frame piece is longer than the widest side height there would be no reason not to cut a bunch of 1 x 4's to length and then fine tune the bevels. When the frames are initially installed they all extend beyond the sides of the boats. Then you cut them to height. If I can find the picture I will show you later. Thinking about it some more the widths at the side of the boat will change based on the angle of the side. As the boats side angle changes so does the length of the the frame and hence the width of the frame member at the top. A boat with parallel sides with sides of the same heigth from front to rear would have the same width at the top between the inner and outer gunnels.
Rick
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