Guy's Wooden Drift Boat Project

Hello Everyone,

 

My name is Guy and this is my first post in this forum.  I am here because I want to build a wooden drift boat and, undoubtedly, I will occasionally need advice of the pool of experts and experienced drift boat builders on this forum.

 

In preparation for this project I have read and studied three books: Drift Boats and River Dories by R. L. Fletcher, Boatbuilding with Plywood by G. L. Witt, and Covering Wooden Boats with Fiberglass by A. H. Vaitses.  I have also developed my own set of construction plans based off of the "Original McKenzie Double-Ender with Transom" in Fletcher's book.  I used and MS Excel spreadsheet to calculate all of the dimensions, cut angles, compound angles, and bevel angles of all frame components and I used Pilot3D software to calculate the as-cut dimensions of the plywood sides and bottom.  At this point I am pretty comfortable with the mechanics of construction and I think that I am just about ready to start purchasing lumber.

 

Presently, I plan to use Meranti Hydro-Tek plywood; 1/4-in. on the sides and 1/2-in. on the bottom.  I found plenty of places to purchase these materials, but they are all far away from Idaho Falls, Idaho, and as a result shipping costs more than the materials.  Are any of you aware of a business within a few hundred miles of Idaho Falls that sells this plywood?  I have a few requests in to the local lumber companies, but I have yet to talk with someone who has heard of this material before.

 

I also plan to use Port Orford Cedar (CVG) for the straight frame sections and White Oak (quater sawn) for the bent frame sections (chine logs and sheer rails).

 

Thank you, Guy

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Permalink Reply by AJ DeRosa on March 2, 2012 at 11:30am

Guy,

Here are a few things to consider.

Seats mounted on "stringers" or thwarts allow you to mount the seats, both passenger and rower's, on parallel rails to create adjustable positions according to weight.  This is important in trimming the load in the boat for proper handling.  The seats then are easily removed for maintenance or to reconfigure the entire interior.

Down side to this is that you must step over the seats while moving about.  No big deal.

 

Box type seats allow easier movement but they are usually  fixed.

Downside is lack of adjustment for trimming the boat.

 

For epoxy work in a cold shop it is an easy fix to create a warm spot around your work.  We work in a cold shop here during the winter in Jackson Hole.  Our solution is to use an oil filled radiator 120volt heater.  Suspend your work on saw horses and then tent it with any old tarp.  The radiator type heater then is paced under the work and adjusted to the proper temperature.  The radiator is warm, not hot, and is a very safe heat source.

Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on March 2, 2012 at 1:08pm

Guy, with your talents I'll bet that you can devise a floor level track system that will allow the oft needed trimming that AJ mentions. Perhaps a track system without any hardware to catch on flylines with the mechanisms for the seats or stools contained within. Thinking out loud now, the rails may have to follow the contour of the floor which would mean that the seats will have to be self-leveling. However if you could install a level track built like a barn door track a cam and follower system could ride in the track or tracks. When the lever is engaged an overcenter cam could tighten on the inside top of the channel. That way dirt and detrius would have less of a chance to gum up the works.

Solving this problem should take your scientific mind about fifteen minutes to solve. Every time you post I expect to see that you have completed your boat and that you are floating down a river. We've got to come up with something to slow down your incredible progress.

I am in awe of your abilities and your progress, keep up the good work!

Rick Newman

Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on March 3, 2012 at 7:57am

Guy, I looked through some old photos and grabbed a copy of a photo of Sanderson, Randy's son posing with a driftboat he built a few years ago. The concepts for seats and seat tracks might not fir your needs but they might help someone I will post them here.

Sandy's system features galvanized pipe running almost the full length of the boat and stand off from the frames with standoffs that are almost carbon copies of the standard Tatman style pieces. I plan to use this system in my vessel. The cross members are then built to fit with swinging locks to hold the seats in place.

As I write about this I am wondering if a similar system could actually run between the numerous floor frame members in your boat and do the same thing. If you use floorboard you could perhaps "bury" the system and actually have adjustable pedestals like you wanted? Just typing out loud, maybe it would work.

M.L. Webb's boat has a unique and adjustable system. I really like what he has done with a mix of available materials and ingenuity. His entire boat features a wonderful mix of craftsmanship and design features.

Permalink Reply by Guy Fredrickson on March 3, 2012 at 9:25am

Those are great looking boats.  I really like the raised seating in the second picture.  This is clever.

Permalink Reply by Guy Fredrickson on March 3, 2012 at 9:32am

Thanks AJ. I may be ready to start scarfing plywood in about three weeks and it's not going to be 70°F in Idaho Falls in three weeks. So I may have to rig up a tarp and heaters in the garage to keep things moving. I think that I'll make final decisions regarding seating after the hull is complete.  I might even float it in a calm lake first (without seating) just to see how the boat rides in the water.

Permalink Reply by Guy Fredrickson on March 3, 2012 at 9:24am

Rick,

Thank you very much for the thoughts. It's interesting, I've started paying closer attention to seating and you see much variation.  For example, look at the table below.  The only three permutations that I didn’t find are shaded in grey.  I even found a drift boat with two benches (of three passengers each) in front of the oarsman and a drift boat that was handicap accessible.

I’m not building a guide boat for two or more passengers in front of the oarsman, so that narrows things down.  I want a drift boat to accommodate one, two, or three people; so it’s either the oarsman, the oarsman with one up front, or the oarsman with one up front and one in the back.  I figure that the oarsman’s seat should be slightly adjustable not to accommodate trim, but to accommodate the oarsman comfort in rowing.  The aft seat will be fixed and the fore seat will be adjustable to accommodate trim; generally, for two people it is moved back and for three people it is moved forward.

 

Maybe having three pedestal seats is a good way to go.  The rear seat is a fixed pedestal and fixed seat.  The oarsman’s seat is a fixed pedestal with a sliding seat (7 inches of travel fore and aft).  And the front seat is a fixed pedestal and fixed seat, but with two mounting locations separated by about 18 inches fore and aft.  I'm just not sure if the boat will be strong enough for this type of seating arragement.

 

This is the permanent deck plate for mounting the pedestal.

This is the fixed pedestal.

This is the slide for the oarsman's seat.

 

 

 

 

Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on March 3, 2012 at 10:59am

Guy, pedestal seats have often been mentioned for use in wooden driftboats. As you noted developing a mounting system has been the difficulty. The leverage that can be transferred by a fisherman requires a strong base. While building sufficiently strong base is possible developing an elegant one featuring wood is a difficult proposition. Maybe the right combination of ideas and materials has not yet been assembled and that is why we haven't seen such a system.

Perhaps a combination of the metal bases and posts you have found may work perfectly well for you.

The great thing about wooden drift boats is the amazing amount of choices and the opportunities to customize them to fit our individual needs.

Keep up the good work!

Rick Newman

Permalink Reply by Guy Fredrickson on March 3, 2012 at 7:43pm

Here are some more pictures.

This is the jig I showed earlier to hold the frames while the epxoy sets up.

And here is the jig used to cut the outside bevels on the frames.  It's not much of a jig, it's just lumber clamped to the tablesaw fence.  Each time I adjust the angle, I raise or lower the blade to that it just touches the wood above the blade and then I move the fence in or out so that the blade just barely cuts all of the wood as it passes.  The maximum bottom bevel is 12.3° and the maximum side bevel is 29.4°.  These are one the most-forward frame.

 

Permalink Reply by tungsten on March 5, 2012 at 6:08am

Thanks for the pics,a question if you don't mind.Most frames i see have bolts or screws in them.Do you plan to put them in later or is the epoxy by itself strong enough?

Permalink Reply by Guy Fredrickson on March 5, 2012 at 5:29pm

I plan to use 1/4-20 carriage bolts.  After I cut the bevels on the bottom and sides, I'm going to cut the notches for the chine logs.  Then, once all of the cutting is done, I'll install two or three carriage bolts (1/4-20) on each of the frame joints.  I hope to get the lumber for the chines this week; I didn't want to cut the notches until it arrives and I know the exact dimensions.  It's supposed to be 3/4 by 2 1/2 white oak.  And I have to bevel the narrow edges of the chines logs.  But I'm pretty sure that the epoxy would be strong enough provided it never loosened up over time.  I've got a few more pictures of the gluing that I can post.

 

I am using the West System epoxys because they had a lot of good on-line technical information.  I'm using the 105 Resin, 207 Hardener, and the 403 Microfibers Filler on the frame joints.  For each set of frames I mixed up about 25 g of 105 and 6.8 g of 207.  I'd wet the surfaces of both overlapping joints with this clear mixture as shown below.  The cedar really likes to soak up some of the epoxy.

Then I'd go back and add some of the 403 filler to the mix and apply a second coating to one of the overlapping joints as shown below.  Then I'd clamp it together as shown previously.  Later I'll coat the frames with a clear mixture of 105 and 207 to "encapsulate" the wood in epoxy.  Also, I roughed the surfaces of the overlapping joints with 50-grit paper before applying the epoxy.

 

Permalink Reply by Andrew on March 5, 2012 at 7:33am

That is a very clean build & shop.  Great progress in such a short amount of time. 

Andrew

Permalink Reply by Guy Fredrickson on March 5, 2012 at 5:31pm

Thanks Andrew

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