Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
New here and looking to start my first drift boat
Hello everyone and thanks for having me. I've been looking for a new project with all my time off and I decided it was time to follow through with building a drift boat/dory after a long time of having it on my bucket list. Being a home owner I know my way around some basic carpentry but I'm not super experienced with it at the same time. I purchased a half dozen books on the subject which are in route and I plan on mulling over extensively over the next few weeks. My early research is leaning me towards a stitch and glue boat although a framed boat is certainly an option. I'm an obsessive fisherman but I also love to run whitewater. My home waters are the Arkansas river which can be bony and rocky so I do have some concerns about a wood boat. However, I have a mini cataraft to manage floating in 1000cfs water without difficulty. My thoughts are to build a river dory/drift boat in the 13-15 ft range with a closed deck that will accommodate a fisherman up front and if possible one the the back while still allowing me to be not too concerned about loosing a boat on bigger whitewater. Anyhow any thoughts and suggestions are greatly appreciated and as the build goes on I look forward to hearing from everyones experience.
Josh
Views: 883
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on
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Have you looked at the Brigg's style boats? Roger Fletcher's book, Drift Boats and River Dories covers the original design quite well. A point to consider is one boat may not satisfy all needs. I have found that I really enjoy the ability to maneuver and avoid obstacles and hit the waves in a manner to keep them out. Not that I am always successful! I have tried to keep my boat light so that I may. After rowing heavily laden rafts for years with 1,000 plus pounds it is real treat.
Rick N
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Permalink Reply by Josh Blake on
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That book is infact one of the ones I ordered and the Briggs style boats are at the top of my list as of right now but I will probobly spend another month researching before I settle on a design. You make a good point that trying to build a boat to do everything may become more hinderance that help. Is it reasonable to build a driftboat that could accept airbags similar to a ww canoe. I really like the idea of hitting bigger whitewater but would be crushed if i sank a boat.
Josh
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Big truck inner tubes can be stuffed in a drift boat. I have never seen any air bags for drift boats, pretty small number of people that want them. I have always wondered about building drop in "tanks" that could provide floatation but you wouldn't have to carry that weight around.
Rick N
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Josh: When I built my 17 ' Tracy Obrien I designed and installed water tight compartments fore and aft with hatches. We store cameras etc in them - anything that you want to stay dry. This boat has never been swamped but I am positive it will not sink.
Good Luck
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Permalink Reply by Phillip Westendorf on
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Josh,
It's not too difficult to build airtight compartments as Lawrence has suggested. Beckson screw-in deck plates provide an easy access where you can store things that don't like water, cameras, wallets, or a good Cuban Cigar. I have waterproof compartments with these plates in my canoe. They work good!
Here's a link to a supplier for the deck plates.
http://www.starmarinedepot.com/beckson-8%22-smooth-center-screw-out...
Dorf
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Those Beckson screw deck plates look pretty nice and user friendly. I was thinking of building hatches that were waterproofed with seals much like a traditional river dry box used in rafting but it seems like a lot of extra work to waterproof and build in general not to mention the maintenance. I had also thought of building a wooden removable dry box that would serve as storage/seat/extra floatation but that brings with its own problems of how to securely fit it to a boat that is not framed. Rick brings up a good point that I could stuff inner tubes or even have jacks plastic build custom tubes if I really wanted to take up space not occupied by dry bags or coolers. I'm sure lots of these ideas have been tried but I'm more or less brainstorming right now. Good news! Drift Boats and River Dories has arrived and the reading begins. Thanks for the advice so far. More questions to follow.
Josh
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Josh: Dorf had better lay off the Cuban cigars or the CIA might confiscate his boat. As to hatches I used Bomar Poly-Carbonate access hatches with locks and hinges. They are sized up to12"x18". Not cheap but work well vertically mounted underneath the fly deck and the rear seat. The rear bulkhead requires a copper or plastic pipe to run the anchor line through the compartment. Screw in deck plates are cheaper and go up to 10" dia.
Good Luck
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Josh,
Her's a pic of the waterproof air chamber on my canoe with the Beckson Deck Plate. there is one at each end.
Just a simple bulkhead with fillets around the perimeter to seal it.
There's a 1/16" dia thru hole in the bulkhead just under the deck to let it breathe as the air trapped inside expands and contracts with temperature changes.
Hope this helps,
Dorf
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Permalink Reply by John Weston on
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so just a ?. with a hole in the bulkhead how is that water tight? if you had stuff in there that you didn't want to get wet and you swamped the boat I think you just ruin your good stuff unless they are in watertight bags. I would hope that wouldn't happen.
JW
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John,
The hole is 0.0625" in diameter, that's a little on the small side. With air trapped in there the chances water will ''flow" in there is mighty slim. I suppose if the canoe remained sunk for some length of time water might seep in. That's why I keep a small towel in there, to soak up any water that might seep in.
So far I have rolled the canoe twice with stuff in it and so far it's remained dry in there. Each time the canoe was full of water and I had to move it to shore and empty it to continue fishing. I did lose a fly box the most recent time, so far that's the extent of my problems with the canoe besides getting wet.
Just another opinion....
Dorf
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thanks for your reply. just wanted to know if you had any problems. so, I am glad you haven't.
JW
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