Wooden Boat People

By McKenzieDriftBoat.com

Introduction/Question

I`m a life time Olympic Peninsula resident and fisherman. A guy doesn`t see many wooden drift boats in this neck of the woods but I have always admired the few that occasionally show up. I came across this website about a year ago and have been lurking ever since. The knowledge and the helpful nature of the members here is something that is not found in many of the websites that I look at.

I purchased and plan to follow Mike Bakers 17x54 Assembly Manual. I have been keeping my eyes open for bargains on materials, mostly Craigslist, and with a little patience have been able to round up enough to get started. Port Townsend Wa. as alot of you know is a major hub of wooden boat building and I am fortunate to live near by.

So here goes with my first of maybe many off the wall questions that I hope doesn`t lead you to believe that I am just a dumb fisherman! I plan to use Alaskan Yellow Cedar for the frame material. What I purchased is beautiful stuff that measures 7/4x5 rough sawn. I am thinking of building my frames out of 7/4x 2.5 inch stock rather than the tradional 1x4 material. Any thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by Jim Hill on January 18, 2015 at 6:23pm

I thought about resawing the lumber but that really won`t leave me with useable runoff. My thought was that if I went with the 2 1/2 inch width it would reduce overall weight as well as doubling my wood supply. I was thinking (hoping) a lineal foot of 7/4x2.5 would have about the same weight and strengh as a 1x4?

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Permalink Reply by Mike Baker on January 18, 2015 at 6:58pm

Hey Jim,

What if you resawed it with the plan of having one piece be a frame (3/4" thick) and one piece being a floor board (1/2" thick)? That way you would have minimal waste.

By the way I love Alaskan cedar and would use it in a heartbeat if I could get it locally. It makes great gunnells as well.

Mike

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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on January 18, 2015 at 7:27pm

Jim, I have a feeling that the standard dimensions for the frame material will be just fine. They have worked in many drift boats. Framed drift boats get their strength from the combination of their parts. The frame members hold the plywood in place, connect the seats to the sides and connect to the inner and outer gunnels. This combination provides great rigidity and offers great resistance to the forces that want to collapse the sides of the boat. The main stress that the upright frame members needs to resist is from the outside of the boat, not from the front or the back, hence there is no need to add weight by using thicker wood.

Time for a bandsaw or tablesaw to rip the 7/4 in half or at least run it through a planner to get it down to 1" in thickness. Good luck on your build. I hope to get to Forks yet this year. I want to float and fish there again. I'll let you know if I am coming so we can meet.

Don't forget to post pictures so we can see your progress.

Rick N

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Permalink Reply by Jim Hill on January 19, 2015 at 5:04pm

Sounds like "If it ain`t broke don`t fix it" nothing wrong with that in my book!

Rick, Please do get ahold of me if you are coming this way, my local grapevine is big enough that I should be able to at least point you in the right direction. If you are able to be a little flexible in your planning that is best, high water fluctuations are the ticket.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on January 19, 2015 at 9:10pm

Jim, sounds good. I have to assume that showing up after a freshet has brought new fish in will be around. I have to assume that they move pretty quickly. The question is how quickly do I need to make a break for the OP. I have fished there a few times over the last few years but I am highly experienced at fishing when the fish have moved on.