Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
Maiden Voyage of the "Cat O' Nine Tails"
We couldn't finish in time for the festival in Jackson, but we managed to get her out on the North Platte this weekend in Casper, Wyoming. Pretty pleased overall with the boat, although the high sides were rough in the Wyoming wind.
There's still a good amount of work to be done, as we have not installed the anchor system yet and we still need to Spar the entire interior (just expoxy right now). The System Three book says to wait two week after the last epoxy coat to start spar varnish. I could not wait that long to get it in the water and test things out. We'll probably change a few things based on what we learned.
The boat took on a little bit of water, which could be from the drain plugs not sealing well. Over a 5 hour drift, it wasn't enough to be an issue. I bought the hull unfinished, so who knows if it has a leak elsewhere. Great fun on the Platte though. No fish were harmed/caught on our fishing trip. Apparently, even really cool looking boats don't attract fish....
The name "Cat O' Nine Tails" was the name of my Grandfather's B-17 bomber in WWII. The plane was badly damaged on the "Black Thursday" bombing of ball bearing factories in Germany. Even after being very badly damaged by german flak and fighters, the Cat brought her crew back to England, where they bailed out when landing her was not an option. We had only pencil sketched the name on her before we left for our trip, so you can't see it in the pics yet. Not sure if it's good or bad luck to name a boat after a crashed plane, but if my Cat treats me as well as my grandfather's, we'll live to fish another day!
Views: 155
Comment
-
Comment by Brant Jaouen on October 9, 2010 at 9:39am
-
That's amazing Julie. Power of the internet! Thanks for commenting.
-
-
hi i live in england,your grandads plane crashed in my dads garden in england,my dad spent years tracing the crew and our family goes to madingley american cemetary in england every year to lay wreath in memory.we go tomorrow.i found your blog as evey so often i google cat o nine tails to see if any new stuff has been added about the plane on the internet,was amazed when found your blog yesterday,great to see cat o nine tailes lives on,take care julie pendered u.k
-
Comment by Dave Z on June 4, 2010 at 1:06pm
-
Hats off to your granddaddy. thats a great story. they dont make men or planes like they used to. but we DO still boats like they used to!
-
-
Thanks for the comments. The North Platte will be the home river for this boat. I think I'd have better luck jumping out of a plane than swimming in the North Platte right now. I could barely stick my hand in the water, let alone swim!
Grey Reef is pretty clear right now and should be fishing pretty well in the mornings and evenings. The weather was too nice for us to catch fish mid-day. Red reef worms and grey leaches seemed to be working for people, although we didn't have a ton of luck with anything until we got cloud cover in the afternoon.
-
Comment by mark hilbert on June 2, 2010 at 11:38am
-
Love that boat, the interior is beautiful and the blue is eye catching. I'm heading up to The North Platte this weekend to fish Grey Reef in my boat. That is unless we decide to keep driving and hit The Bighorn. I like the name as your grandfathers plane did it's job and got them back to England before "parachuting out." But I could see your cause for concern if the boat was taking on water-you might have thought you were going to get to the takeout and swim to shore. That's what you should have done to christen it-swim the last few hundred feet in nice 48 degree water. Great boat, maybe I'll see you out on the river someday.
© 2024 Created by Randy Dersham.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Wooden Boat People to add comments!
Join Wooden Boat People