Comment

Comment by Christian Lazarides on June 3, 2011 at 9:23pm

I have ordered the book today, by the way did you all know John Gierach's new book is also out and available!

Comment by Ben Kittell on June 3, 2011 at 9:47am

Christian,

I was just like you, only I even had little experance running a table saw. Taking the advice of many people I got Rogers book. Very helpful in deciding the boat you want to build, how to build it and the plans to do so. Then as i would come to a problem I asked questions ALL the time to the wooden boat people on this site. Never once did I get a useless answer, everyone is extreamly helpful and full of lots of experience. Now I have a super fun dory of my own and will hopefully be starting on another build at the end of the summer.

P.S. We all love pictures, so if you have a camera it helps everyone see the problem or how wonderfully everything is coming along.

Good luck,
Ben

Comment by Rick Newman on May 29, 2011 at 10:45am

Christian, you are very welcome. I think that you will find a design or at least what you need to consider to build your boat. Keep asking questions, you're in the right place!

 

Regards,

 

Rick Newman

Comment by John Greenleaf on May 29, 2011 at 9:45am

Christian, I would give a thumbs up for the book as Rick mentioned. Even having moderate furniture making experience, it was of great help to me as a first time builder.

It explains many design and construction techniques, discusses the nomenclature, gives the history of the different boat types, and has plans for about 8 boats (many of which you may see on this site and each fulfilling different needs). JG

Comment by Christian Lazarides on May 29, 2011 at 9:28am

P.S. Thank you for your welcome. I am very anxious to get going on this project.

Comment by Christian Lazarides on May 29, 2011 at 9:27am

Rick,

Thank you for the reply. I absolutely will be building a drift boat. I will be fishing on lakes and very mild rivers. I would like to build a large boat so that I have plenty of storage for weekend trips, however I do not want to make it so big that I can't handle it my self.

Comment by Rick Newman on May 29, 2011 at 9:20am

Christian, probably the first ting to decide is what you want to do with your boat. The majority of the boats on these pages are drift boats made for floating rivers and fishing from them. Many of the boats here desended from the McKenzie River style drift boats. If this is the style you are interested in then there are some great resources to investigate. Online you can visit a couple of sites, the first is: http://www.mckenzieriverdriftboat.com/ and the second is http://www.riverstouch.com. There you will find some nicely written and illustrated definitions and descriptions of drift boat design and terms. At the River's Touch site you will find Roger Fletcher's excellent book "Drift Boat's and River Dories", Roger has explored and documented the history of the builders, designers and the boats you see on these pages. Many people have used Rogers' book to build their own drift boats.

Explore these resources and see if they answer your questions. This should get you started and perhaps give you an idea about building your own boat. Feel free to return here and continue to ask questions.

To answer you initial question about width to length it all depends upon what you plan to do with it, where you will be using it, etc. Some designs have set ratios and others are free-form, whatever their designers or builders wanted. Boat design is a combination of function, tradition and personal choice, hence my question, "what will you be doing with it?"

 

Good luck with your exploration and welcome aboard!

 

Rick Newman