Wooden Boat People
17-foot McKenzie drift boat
I'm deep into building my McKenzie drift boat using the Don Hill 17' Flyfisher plans from driftboatplans.com. The previously documented builds here have been a tremendous help, answering many of my initial questions. I'll certainly have many more questions as I progress, and hopefully the community can continue to guide me in the right direction.
Art Page
It's been a while, but contrary to popular belief, I didn't forget about you guys (the two or three die-hards that still follow this board!) :) Other than taking a 3-1/2 week flyfishing trip down to Chile, I've been pretty much consistently chipping away at the boat. I did see remnants of an old McKenzie on one of the lakes down there....it might take some effort to restore it :)
Here's one of my favorite pics from the trip...
Mar 18
Art Page
When I scarfed the 1/4 ply together for the sides, there was some color mismatch between the panels. I ended up staining the sides to help blend the colors together...
6 oz cloth was applied to the sides. I didn't get any in-process pics but here's a completed side freshly fiberglassed...
We ended up with some minor blemishes on one side of the hull after applying the fiberglass, so I ended up covering it with a vinyl wrap. It's the same material used on vehicles. The brown trout pattern was generated by Gemini AI...
Mar 18
Art Page
1708 cloth was applied to the bottom followed up by a couple coats of graphite/epoxy mix (~20% graphite by volume)...
Chine battens were attached before fiberglassing the bottom so the cloth would overlap the chines. No pics of attaching the chine battens, but here's a pic of the epoxy bottom after trimming...
Mar 18