What are the personal "touches" you added to make your boat unique??

One of the best parts of attending the McKenzie River Wooden Boat Festival is looking at all the wooden boats and seeing the unique ways we have personalized our boats. I get a couple of good ideas every year. Here's one of my own - a way to keep track of my three oar locks (and make sure they didn't get left behind in the garage) and secure my oars for transportation.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on March 10, 2009 at 8:40pm
I notice many things that make your boat special. Are those drawer slides under the guides tackle boxes. Oh yeah the tackle boxes are actually boxes!, Beautifully finished too. Custom Oar holding strap, perhaps from an old belt? Where do you find the matting for the rear floor? Nice touches where the chine logs meet the frames. Is this something other beautifully contrasting wood or do they serve a special purpose. What are your chine logs covered with? Also nice inlay work on the stem and knee locks! Is the interior of the sides epoxied and glassed too? Great work. I go to Bellingham on Friday to pickup an unbuilt 16' Meranti Tatmen kit. Beautiful examples of construction like yours set the standard very high. I hope that many others contribute to your blog. Well worth the time. Also neat guide setup for your anchor rope. What did you mount your foot release to?

Thanks for showing your boat, it is very educational!

Rick Newman
Permalink Reply by Greg Hatten on March 11, 2009 at 7:04am
Thanks for the nice words and the sharp eye, Rick. I put lids on the guide tackle boxes and added drawers after I got stuck on the river in the rain & my fly boxes started floating. The holding strap came from my wives old Hartman luggage (she was happy to contribute). I saw the rubber matting in a restaurant and found out where they got it... I picked up a couple of 4' x 4' pieces and cut it to fit all the places that take the most wear and tear (great protection from wading boot spikes). The chine log "half moons" are from scraps I had leftover from the boat floor... I spent hours and hours on those & they serve no real purpose - other than I like them. I covered the back chine logs with Arma-Coat - several coats... that back "transom" section takes a beating - it is where I enter and exit my boat and I wanted to protect that chine section a little better. Interior sides are epoxied and varnished... no glass. The anchor position is centered and attached to the ribs, not the floor - it's called the Bo's System and Randy has it available with the Tatman kits - it will fit most any boat.
Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on March 11, 2009 at 12:12pm
Thanks for the response. Great job on the craftsmanship! I've used the Bo's system in an older Santiam Drifter. I know, it was before I was converted.

I too used to have an old Land Cruiser. 1971 with a 327 Chevy. Lots of horsepower, not so good steering, poor gas mileage but it was fun to drive, especially in the woods. Never cared for or resurrected like yours.

Thanks again,

Rick Newman
Permalink Reply by Mike Dearing on March 10, 2009 at 8:51pm
I agree Greg's boat is sweet, very, very nice. Mine is total stocker compared to his.

What are those little caps on the chine Greg? Good solution for the spare oar too, nice and out of the way yet easy to access.

Mike
Permalink Reply by Greg Hatten on March 11, 2009 at 7:08am
Thanks Mike... the little chine caps don't really serve a purpose - I cut them out of left-over wood from the floor.
Took me quite a while to figure out a good way to store that spare oar in a place that wasn't in my way but still accessible. Got the strap from a piece of my wives old luggage.
GH
Permalink Reply by sanderson on March 10, 2009 at 10:41pm
just for fun, here is a pram that I have been working on called "tubby".

It's based on a classic design from a friend of Roger Fletcher.
Permalink Reply by Jason Knight on March 11, 2009 at 5:17am
The pram looks sweet Sandy. Nice work...
Permalink Reply by Greg Hatten on March 11, 2009 at 7:09am
I love the Tubby!!! Nice work.
GH
Permalink Reply by Dave Z on March 11, 2009 at 7:24pm
This is basically a 16' double-ender with the ends chopped off, right??? neat.
Permalink Reply by sanderson on March 11, 2009 at 9:49pm
closer to a 14' double-ender with the ends chopped off
Permalink Reply by Jonathan Clarke on March 11, 2009 at 7:34am
My boat is ordinary in appearance, but there are some subtle things on it that I'm sentimental about. The boat is a Tatman 14' kit boat. A group of volunteers from a TU chapter assembled it as a fundraising project. I was among the volunteers, but I certainly wasn't the driving wheel. We raffled it and I bought the boat from the raffle winner. Anyway, all the volunteers put their signatures on the bottom side of the fly deck. They're out of sight, but I know they're there. Also, the boat was built in 2004. We inlaid a 2004 Lewis & Clark nickel in the stem to commemorate the year. The coin was chosen because of the expedition's reliance on boats and because the expedition's terminus was the Pacific Northwest, the orginal home of the drift boat. Lastly, the guy who did really understand woodworking suggested that we laminate this little quote from a Longfellow poem to the stem:

Build me straight, O worthy master!
Staunch and strong, a goodly vessel,
That shall laugh at all disaster,
And with wave and whirlwind nestle.
-H.W. Longfellow

P.S. Greg's boat is absolutely gorgeous.

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