Comment

Comment by Rick Newman on March 1, 2012 at 7:25am

Dale, after rereading you initial post again, I don't remember the thickness of your side panels. How much does a 16' piece cost?

Speaking of the Clarkfork River and the other Western Montana rivers perhaps we will see each other on one of them this summer. I ran in to the outfitter I used to guide for and I am planning on guiding on the Kootenai, Clarkfork and St Joe. I live in Spokane, actually not to far from you. I lok forward to meet you and I would really like to see Uncle Kenny's boat in Saint Ignatious(sp).

Regards,

Rick

Comment by Rick Newman on March 1, 2012 at 7:15am

Dale, since your design and most driftboat designs obtain a great deal of their strength by using the side panel as tensioned member you should be fine. In my opinion as long as either the inner chine log and the gunnels or an epoxy fillet and gunnels are securely fastened to the side and formed as an arch the strength will still be there. I think because of the size of your gunnels and inner chine logs and the thickness of your boats bottom you will have considerable strength. Do Hanson's suggestion for using a solid piece of lumber with appropriate grain direction will provide more stiffness.

My major concern for your design revolves around the permanence of 5200 and the outer chine logs. With my limited experience with 5200 it is tenacious. The most often damaged part of your driftboat can require repairs. 5200 can be so difficult to remove that it can pull apart the plywood beneath.

Based on your choice not to use epoxy I questioned if you were going to use Resorcinol as a glue. It has been decades since I used any of it but on the Wooden Boat Forum it is a common choice when epoxy isn't used. The major concern with Resourcinol is the requirement to keep the ambient air temps at 70 degree F or above until cured.

An alternate choice to 5200 on the outer chine log would be to use only a bedding compound, perhaps one of the Skiaflex products or Dolphonite. Then use stainless steel screws and a Ray Heater type stainless steel protective strip. If I were building your boat I would size the screws to pass through both the steel and to act as the connector for the outer chine log. I have chosen a Sikaflex product which is outside in the shop and I am not traipsing through the snow to find out which. I purchased it from Jamestown Distributors. One nice thing about Jamestown is there propensity to offer free shipping every so often. In fact they are offering that until midnight tonight. Use coupon code SPRING.

I perused the past posts on Wooden Boat Forum under Tools / Materials /Techniques / Products. I was trying to determine which bedding product would act as a removable bedding compound that had good recommendations as far as not too messy to apply but would remain pliable after long term  use.

Best regards;

Rick Newman