Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by sanderson on March 19, 2009 at 1:13pm

the easyest way to do this is to scarf two pieces together the long way to get your 60" and then take two 4' square sheets and scarf them on the end. your scarf will be an i shape.

this is a wavy scarf but you can do it with a straight scarf as well. for this to work you need to make sure that the boat is at or less than 48" where the top and bottom scarf are. take a look at Jason's bottom install blog.

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Permalink Reply by Bryan McDade on March 19, 2009 at 1:17pm

Thank you, that is what I needed. I will look at the blog too. I'm jealous of the wavy scarf, it looks great! Mine are straight.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Paull on March 19, 2009 at 9:21pm

I want to add a comment about scarf joints. On my 16 footer with wavy scarfs I believe it would have been possible with careful planning to have the side scarfs meet the bottom scarf exactly. In other words there would be one wavy scarf line passing completely across the inside of the boat instead of three discontinuous lines. I think it would be elegant. It would require a symmetrical mirror image positioning of the scarfs on the sides and then positioning the bottom scarf to meet the side scarfs when attaching the bottom.

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Permalink Reply by Randy Dersham on March 20, 2009 at 8:39am

This is a good idea Daniel. I'll look into it.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Knight on March 20, 2009 at 5:22am

The scarfs look pretty nice on the interior floor of my boat... do I have the only wavvy scarfed drift boat in the Great Lakes region? maybe...

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Permalink Reply by Herb Jacobsen on March 20, 2009 at 9:57am

I had an interesting experience with matching scarf joints some years ago. One of my boats had the joints lined up on the sides and bottom. Unfortunately I hit a rock right on the joints and it caused both joints to let go. What a surprise that was. I had to do an on stream repair with a styrofoam cup and some flat pieces of wood.

Sure that was one of those really rare incidents but it just goes to show how some things happen. The boat was totaled and I had a new one built. Remember this is not fine furniture, they are boats and you have to use a little caution about how they go together.

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Permalink Reply by Randy Dersham on March 20, 2009 at 8:22pm

Guess this is not a good idea. Thanks Herb.

I'm such a sucker for things that line up.

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Permalink Reply by lhedrick on March 21, 2009 at 5:27pm

The boat was totaled????? What did you hit?

Have any photo you can share.

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Permalink Reply by Herb Jacobsen on March 21, 2009 at 6:50pm

Sorry no photos, never thought about it at the time. I came down on a rock in a small pour off, maybe a 4 foot drop. Should have gone the other way but those things happen.

The insurance company totaled it, I thought it could be fixed. The two scarfs were lined up and the hit was right on them. Smashed the chine and the scarfs just let go. It was a really rare thing I think. I have hit harder than that with other boats and never had that kind of damage. I have always wondered if the scarfs were done properly. I am sure they were as Greg buuilt the kit. I had a couple of fisherman that had some weight so that could have influenced the happening........

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Permalink Reply by Dave Z on March 21, 2009 at 8:41pm

eeek. that's a bummer.

I don't think I'd want my scarfs to line up. Kind of like laying block. I'd feel more comfortable staggering them. Randy's wavy scarfs are nice looking, that's for sure. And better than a straight scarf too- more surface area for glue.

I'd prefer 16' continuous pieces with no scarfs at all. But we know that isn't possible.

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