Journey of Building a 16' McKenzie River Drifter

Hello from Minnesota!  Ever feel like you need a project?  No, not a "weekend building of an Ikea shelving system", I mean a real manly project with bloody knuckles, sawdust and strange looks from the wife!

Maybe it is early onset mid-life crisis - maybe it is guilt for not following in a long familial line of foresters - but one day in January of 2014 I felt an inexplicable urge to build a wood drift boat to float the Upper Mississippi and Upper St. Croix, and for our once a year trip to the "Golden Triangle" near West Yellowstone, MT.

After hours of research (most of it spent trying to convince myself I was not going crazy), I settled on the classic lines of the Don Hill McKenzie River 16' Drift Boat and pulled the trigger to travel down a course as irreversible as the river itself. 

What follows is my journey to make something beautiful with my two hands while raising a little girl and maintaining a healthy marriage. Tight lines and beautiful wood.

~~~ Gopher Dan ~~~

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Permalink Reply by Gopher Dan on May 27, 2014 at 9:06am

Oops

Putting outside rails on - snapped first one at scarf joint.  Applied enough pressure and three out of four snapped at scarf joint.

Probable causes:

  1. Too much pressure on clamp
  2. Insufficient T-88 epoxy
  3. Improper mix ratio
  4. Cure temperatures too low
  5. 12:1 not enough?

The joints are still in tact - no wood damage.  I will have to sand them down to bare wood and try again tonight - maybe using Titebond III instead?

I did the epoxy scarf joint on the rails all at the same time and haven't had issues until now at the joints on any of the other components I have scarfed so I am HOPING it is just this batch I did.

Permalink Reply by Phillip Westendorf on May 27, 2014 at 4:41pm

GD, 

Be careful with clamping pressure when using epoxy, you may have clamped them too hard and squeezed the epoxy out trying to get "tight" joints.  I have used Titebond II on all my scarf joints and have not had one fail yet.  I clamp them in a jig with wedges and they are tight.  12:1 is plenty, I have at mine at 8:1 with good success.

If you check out my posting when I was adding the outer sheer rails, I busted a set of Cherry Wood and a Set of Ash.  Neither broke at the scarf.  Both broke due to distressed grain.

Remember, you'll be coating them with epoxy after they are made and installed which will encapsulate them so water won't get to the glue/wood.

G'Luck,

Dorf

Permalink Reply by Gopher Dan on May 28, 2014 at 11:30am

Rainy days make rivers

Of course, dealing with disappointment and exercising patience is a big part of boat building, much like many things in life (like the time I lost a big football sized rainbow on Henry's Fork Harriman Railroad Ranch when it broke off - due to the fact I was wading in deep water and it swam right through my legs at full tilt).

I am finding that the further I get on this project, the EASIER each set back is to handle.  Experience plus knowledge equals wisdom.

While my partially installed rails were being re-adhered after their dry joint failure at the scarf joints, I got to work on the seat sub-assembly. I also picked up some of the various hardware I will need to float.  And today, I got a great box in the mail from Don Hill - so read to the bottom to see the anchor system.

This will be rather pic heavy:

Mostly completed seat assembly - leveled and installed.  

Still have a little left to do like installing the bottom of the trays - but I was too anxious to get this installed.  It will make it a little more difficult to install the bottom of the trays but there is still room to do it or I can always pull it back out.

Still some sanding and cleaning (mostly to remove the laundry detergent lubrication from screws) left to do - but mostly ready to go.

Rope for Seat and Turnbuckle

The plans call for Nylon for the rowing seat.  Nylon I was finding has 12% stretch at 20%, and 2000lb. breaking strength.  

I actually went with something a little less stretchy because for one thing there won't be a person oaring this boat that weighs under 200lb.  Secondly I just like how this particular rope looked and felt.

This is West Marine 243675, 1/4" Sta-Set, 2500lb. breaking strength

In red, blue, green or black with a bold white fleck and fine red tracer or red with a bold white fleck and a fine white tracer. 

  • Best Use: All cruising applications, racing control lines
  • Construction: Double braid
  • Cover Fiber/Construction: Smooth braided polyester
  • Core Fiber/Construction: Polyester braid
  • Stretch: 2.4% at 15% of breaking strength

You will also see pictured a fancy stainless turnbuckle, which I wish was a little less expensive, but at $4/gallon for gas I can't be driving all over the state to save a few bucks.

Front Seat Hardware


Here is the rail for the front seat, the waste nuts (aka floor flanges) and the caps, all 1/2" galvanized.  The plans call for 29.5" rails.  They only have 24" and 36" at Menards.  I will have to see what works better as I have no way to rethread the rail if I cut it, and didn't find any press fit caps, only threaded.

Side pull, center mount Dierks anchor system.

I purchased this Dierks system from Don Hill.  Frankly shopping online for an anchor system is so impractical and difficult, I (for a very brief moment) considered fabricating my own out of parts from Fleet Farm or something.  However, after pricing out pulley's and components, it just didn't make monetary or practical sense to do so.

I was actually shocked when I picked up the anchor arm how solid but light it is.

I have a few other components (oar locks, drain plugs, anchor) coming from Clacka tomorrow.

That is all for today folks - the yard is 6" long and needs to be mowed about every 4 days lately and it isn't mowing itself - I have considered going the goat route but would need a fence.  Pretty sure they don't like barbed wire fences in our suburban neighborhood.

Permalink Reply by Mike Baker on May 28, 2014 at 2:50pm

Dude, you just can't go wrong with goats!

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Permalink Reply by Gopher Dan on June 15, 2014 at 7:31pm

Well I have been very busy - we are leaving for the Madison and Henry's Fork this coming Friday.  I haven't had a chance to take too many pictures of the miscellaneous detail work, but here are a few updates.

I will try to take some pictures of the various interior components at some point along with more details of the hardware.

There is still some sanding and glossing that needs to happen on the varnished surfaces, and one more coat of oil on the interior.

Inside Oiled with Boat Soup

I mixed Turpentine, Boiled Linseed, some pine tar and japan drier in the approximate quantities listed elsewhere on this site if you search for "boat soup".  I love it.  After all the epoxy and varnish work over the last few months, this stuff is a welcome relief! Just wipe it on with a rag. It seems to pretty much be dry already after just a couple hours, although still outgassing a little a few hours afterward.

The pine tar I had to go to Fleet Farm in the horse section to find - all other ingredients at Home Depot.

Trailer Beta Test

The trailer wasn't designed for a drift boat, so I changed the layout to better suit the drift boat.

I still have a few adjustments to make to the trailer, including painting the rims white, the steps which I am epoxying Meranti for, adding rear frame covers (at the rear of the trailer to protect when loading), increase the height of the rear bunk to cradle the boat a little snugger (I have three bunks), and pick up two more of the yellow boat saver strap things at the gunwales.  But for the most part this should give you an idea of where I am at.  Most of the detail work and fine-tuning will get done this week.

The trailer is a 1982 standard boat trailer I ground to bare metal and painted with epoxy (tractor) paint after several coats of Rusty Metal Primer.  I put in new bearings and bearing buddies and new trailer wiring and lights. All new straps, new spare, and a bunch of new bolts.  The axle looked decent - a little pitted in non-contact areas between the bearing areas, but decent enough.  I am still going to be a nervous nelly for a while on the highway.

Inside the PVC roller is a galvanized pipe that is supported at each end by very long galvanized bolts that extend into the pipe.

I was able to take the boat from the carpet on the garage floor to the trailer by myself rather easily - so mission accomplished.

Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on June 16, 2014 at 7:21am

Dan, looking really good. You will greatly enjoy your boat and in a while you will miss the building process. I know that we will soon see, "I'm going to build a ____." Good work and a great job. And you did it!

Rick Newman

Permalink Reply by Gopher Dan on June 16, 2014 at 10:17am

I already asked the wife, well now what do I do?  Her reply was to build the deck.  Meh - not nearly as much fun.

Permalink Reply by JAY STRUGNELL on June 18, 2014 at 6:49am

very nice Dan, thank you for the complete story with all the photo's. I bet you will have people admiring it wherever you go, even those that have never seen such a boat. Jay

Permalink Reply by Gopher Dan on June 18, 2014 at 7:23am

Took it out on the lake yesterday - dry as a bone on the inside.

An old guy said that is an awesome boat from the shoreline a few hundred yards away.

Some kids that stopped down to the dock to fish hit the brakes on their bike and said - whoa - that thing is sick.  I think that is good these days.

More pictures will come soon - thanks all for the encouragement and pictures and knowledge!

Permalink Reply by Gopher Dan on July 8, 2014 at 9:59am

Some photos from the Christening to come later.  The boat is now forever to be known as the BRAEBURN BOMBER, (hey, my apple eating habit isn't the worse habit a guy could have).

Things we learned on the trip:  

1)  Don't use a lag-style eyebolt -  It had a major malfunction when we hit a bump (it broke actually).  We replaced it on the road with two stainless eye-bolts all the way through the bow stem.  This way the trailer can hook to one and the bow safety strap can hook to another spreading shock load to two bolts.

2)  The angle of the oar locks should be more upright - not following contour of boat side.  This allows more flexibility if you need to lift an oar over a rock.  Will be redoing oar blocks.

3)  Really should have had the extension style oar locks.  I improvised by cutting some extra oar lock bushings to raise the height so the rubber stopper on the oar doesn't hit the oar block.

4)  Boat soup - first two coats absorbed nicely while out in the sun for a week.  Wish I could have gotten a few more coats on before we left - we got stuck in a few thunderstorms while the boat was in transit where we couldn't immediately drain the boat and there was some staining on the floor where the water sat for a few hours.

5)  Drain plug - I ended up adding one to the mid-section on the bottom - starboard side - we went through some extremely heavy rain storms in transit, and this is the only practical solution if you don't have a cover on the boat. 

6) Travel is slowed - Sure you are towing a trailer and need to slow down to under 70.  What I mean is that at every gas station and other stop, we had folks coming over checking it out and asking questions.  Add 10 minutes per stop.

My buddies anchored on the Madison


We didn't take too many big hits on the rocky Madison surprisingly. A cold front came through and fishing was a little slow from the boat, but when we hit the edges of runs some big fish were had.

Campsite locker room


One of the campsites on Henry's Fork (river in background).  Floated Warm River to Ashton section - some good hidden rocks in that section!

Fish Porn

Me with photo proof of a Madison River trout caught from the Braeburn Bomber.  My buddy Jeff looks like something very serious is about to happen ahead of us.  What actually happened is we forgot to bring our rain jackets, and got rained with 45ºF rain, and then hailed on.  Good times!

A Nice Henry's Rainbow

The boat took us to this spot, where I got out and fished and landed a nice one. The guy floating by in the other drift boat commended me on the leaping 'bow and the boat.  

Home from duty

A few good bottom chine cap knocks (surprisingly mostly from some hidden rocks on Henry's Fork, not the Madison) but happy, clean and oiled back up (she sucked up a lot of boat soup on the trip being out in the sun for a week).

Trailer held up well - was sure to keep the bearings well lubed all trip long with the grease gun.

Permalink Reply by JAY STRUGNELL on July 8, 2014 at 5:03pm

Great, Thank you for the stories, let me know if I can send you a piece of walnut to make new oar lock blocks. Jay

Permalink Reply by Matt K. on July 9, 2014 at 3:02pm

I've enjoyed following your thread for some time now.  Being from Idaho, I can't wait to take that same fishing trip!  Me and my two sons have recently started building our first boat off of the same Don Hill plans.  Thanks for sharing your adventure.

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