Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
Inexpensive 1st boat attempt
So being that I tend to learn better from a hands on approach and I've been bored at home during the winter in the mountains, I decided to build a Rapid Robert as a test boat in my small workshop 16'x12' after reading through Roger Fletcher's book numerous times in the last year. I decided to cut splines out of clear pine and use luan 1/4" mahogany for the sides and 3/8" fir for the bottom. All went pretty well and costs were cheap- $300 for materials (I was happy). Then I got to paint and fiberglassing and my costs look to double. I thought about not even fiberglassing this boat because it was a test, but I needed to learn to fiberglass. Now I am using a 3M Bondo polyester resin and some fiberglass cloth from Home Depot (don't even know the weight) to fiberglass the entire boat with one coat. Then I will use a spar varnish on the inside and a Rustoleum marine paint on the outside. Here the question that I keep having- Did I just waste a whole lot of money $600+ on a boat that is pretty useless? I was trying to stick to under $400 and get a few days on some flat rivers out of it and a few days on local lakes, I fish and run whitewater out of a NRS raft otherwise. So in hindsight, I should have probably dropped the coin on good materials from the get go, but now that I'm here how can I make sure I get a useable boat from where I stand now? I won't be sure until the boat hits the water and ice won't be off the pond for 2 more weeks and that's about when I'll be done with her. Thanks for any input and I hope to one day build a boat worthy of this forum's users.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by AJ DeRosa on
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Mark,
Your boat should give you years of service inspite of the less than perfect materials you have used. My first attempt at boat repair reads very much like your build. In 1980 I replaced a bottom on my first boat. I was clueless but determined. I replaced a few rotten floor frames with pine and the bottom with 1/2" CDX plywood.
This was all glued together with plastic resin glue and held together with sheet rock screws. The whole bottom was covered with hardware store fiberglass of unknown weight and polyester resin. Wrapped the whole mess over the chine and laminated strips of pine with plastic resin glue and ring shank nails. That boat worked through the heyday of my guideing career at the tune of about 120 days/year for over 8 years. After that it worked a few more years for my buddy and didn't give up the ghost till the mid nineties. It wasn't pretty but it worked. This boat was painted inside and out with porch and deck paint. Because there were very few woodies traveling the Wyoming, Montana circuit at the time it got lots of compliments. Go figure!!!
You did good and learned alot. Your next build will reflect what you learned. Keep up the good work.
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Permalink Reply by Brad Dimock on
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I'd agree--that boat, with reasonable care and decent boatmanship, should last a long time. When you think of some of the old-timers, their sub-standard materials, no fiberglass, and the boats they built that lasted many years--you're way ahead of the game. Just because we now have access to all sorts of fancy wood and space-age epoxies, doesn't mean you need them. You might not need to build the next boat!
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Permalink Reply by Jason Knight on
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Just a thought... I would oil the inside of that boat... no glass no varnish.
You can make your own boat soup and it is the easiest thing to maintain on the boat.
my .02
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Ditto on that.
There's a variety of recipes for boat soup and all seem to work fine.
Linseed/turp (or thinnner)/varnish, 1:1:1
Linseed/turp (or thinner)/pine tar/japan drier 4:4:2:1
etc.
More durable, easier to maintain, cheaper.
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Permalink Reply by Den on
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Its great to hear from other dory men on a limited budget. It seems to me that a lot of guys can lay down $5000. The other frustration is when well intended advise has no consideration of cost. I say every boat that gets people out on the water is a great boat! My first boat was a sea kayak because I couldn't afford to buy a sea kayak - hence I became a 'boat builder'. I'm currently trying to figure out how to make my own oars since a pair of wooden oars can easily go for $400.
Lastly, In my opinion the two things that destroy boats are sunlight and soaking in water [especially salt water]. Since river dories are only in the water for 8-10 hour a day, thats not too bad. But, keeping boats out of "prolonged" sunlight is even more important. A tarp is minimum but a garage or barn is a life saver. Keep up the good work.
From a working class guy in NH - Den
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In the case of planked ocean dories, however, the salt water is actually more of a preservative. The boat would be happy to sit in salt water for ages, and some have. It's the fresh water--rain accumulation and on-shore moisture, that allows the rot to propagate.
Maybe the plywood isn't so happy being salt-preserved?
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Permalink Reply by Lawrence E. Long on
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Den: You are right as to the sunlight and salt water. The best way to combat these problems is carefull maintenance. I have a skiff and a lapstrake peapod that sit on their moorings in the bay from late May to mid Sept. Insides get a coat of paint about every 2-3 years and outsides get the same- in alternate years. The bottoms get bottom paint about every 2 years. If you stay ahead of it bad problems don't seem to appear. I would think a well painted?varnished drift boat kept in a barn would last 5 or more years before needing a repaint job
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Permalink Reply by mark hilbert on
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Thanks for the positive encouragement all. As I'm starting to find out the fiberglassing step is the most challenging and time consuming process for me, not to mention the step I know the least about. I can't wait to get her glassed, primed and painted, so I can flip her over and play with the inside. Few more questions:
I'm glassing the entire outside with one layer of fiberglass. Can I go over that original layer of 3M Bondo polyester resin and glass with an additional coat of the resin after I sand it. I have a lot of extra resin (enough for the boat) and my first coat if rough and bumpy because I suck at glassing right now.
Question 2 Why "boat soup" and not spar varnish? I also know very little about paints/stains.
Thanks for the help and I love looking at all the pictures of cool boats and great rivers that you guys get to fish.
Mark
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