Rear Casting Brace - Gunnel to Gunnel

Hi All,

Long time lurker, fist time poster. I recently picked up a 20 year old 16ft Greg Tatman wooden drift boat. Took it down the Lower Yuba with some friends last weekend and had a blast.

As we will mostly be fly fishing, I am interested in adding a curved casting brace to the rear (bow?) of the boat from gunnel to gunnel (see attached image). I am looking for advice on fabricating the formed section. Thanks in advance.

Charlie

Views: 2778

Attachments:

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by craig curtis on November 19, 2014 at 11:17pm

I was going to put one of those in mine but was talked out of it. I put a block on the front of my rear seat that sandwiches between your calves. it is really stable and allows quick access thru the middle of the boat. I can post a better picture later if you want to see more closely, kind of like a mushroom shape. I fish and drive from there in fast water with no problems.

Permalink Reply by Lawrence E. Long on November 20, 2014 at 5:55am

Charlie:  The best way to develop the cross brace from gunwale to gunwale is to clamp up a batten of thin wood- 1/4" by 2" to get the wanted height off the floor and take measurements to reproduce the desired shape.  Then lay it out on  a work table or top of your work bench.  Screw in wood blocks - or in my case bore holes in the bench for 3/4" pins/bench dogs.  I decided to steam bend the "arch"  from a single length of white oak( don't use red as it will tend to blacken over time unless kept well varnished)  You could also  laminate the arch from 1/4" slats and epoxy.

As to the "knee locks"  I used steam bent WO 1/4" slats around blocking to the desired radius.  The front and rear braces were different shapes.  After the locks dry out they are laminated  with epoxy to give a 3/4" x 3-4" wide  place for your leg. 

Can't send you a picture as the boat is in WA hear the Klicitat (sp?) River.  Where - according to my son- they don't allow fishing from a moving boat.

Steam bending is more work but you can almost tie white oak into a knot- look at ash snowshoes.

Good Luck 

Permalink Reply by Charlie Benton on November 20, 2014 at 8:32am

Thanks for the info Lawrence, great advise. If I followed the laminating approach, what type of 1/4" slats would you use and how many? Why epoxy over wood glue?

Steaming is a little over my head... but I'm sure I will get there eventually.

-Charlie

Permalink Reply by Lawrence E. Long on November 21, 2014 at 8:25am

Charlie:  Steaming is not rocket science.  The wet towel approach by Chris  sounds easy but I have never tried it.  If you use 3/4" thick oak for the arch there will be no need to use 1/4" slats provided steam bending is used.  If you don"'t steam bend then you can laminate 3 slats of 1/4" stock bent around your forms and glued  with all the clamps you can lay your hands on.  Slats can be ripped on the table saw- a 10" saw can give you up to around 5-6" in widthby "double cutting".    If you don't have a table saw then get some Merranti PW around 1/4" thick and rip off 3 strips at your desired width/length .  They will easily bend around the arch forms/pins.  I prefer epoxy as it can be thickened with wood flour/cabosil to fill in gaps etc  and does not require high clamping pressure.  Wood glue- Titebond 2 or Titebond 3( more water resistant) requires high clamping pressure, tight fitting joints.  I just finished gluing the corners of a sea chest with hand cut dovetails using Titebond 2 and clamped the thing as hard as possible.  one other thing- if you go the steam bent route make sure the grain run out is more than 18" -have tried it at less than that and split the section

Good Luck - Chris  is Jack Daniels appropriate?

Permalink Reply by chris towles on November 21, 2014 at 1:28am
nonsense...keep it simple. your brace is only gonna be like 6 ft long for the back of the boat.

1. find a beat up old beach towel. wrap your wood in it.
2. boil a boat of water and then soak the towel
3. repeat after 20-30 min
4. take the wood out and bend it over form. clamp quick!
5. smile. drink a beer.
Permalink Reply by craig curtis on November 21, 2014 at 9:29pm

aren't you suppose to drink a beer while the wood soaks every time?

Permalink Reply by AJ DeRosa on November 27, 2014 at 6:22am
A rear casting position might sound like a good idea but only in a hull that is specifically built to carry a load behind the rower. The 16' Tatman, like most 16' west coast hulls, are built to carry the entire load up front. If you put a seat/knee brace system behind the rower it will turn a lovely, nimble hull into an awkward,dangerous boat. To create fore and aft seating the hull needs to be built for this purpose. You can move the rowers seat a full frame forward to help the hull trim with added weight in the back but you still end up with with a very clumsy boat. If you insist in doing this at least keep the fat guy in front.

Poorly trimmed boats are dangerous!
Permalink Reply by chris towles on November 28, 2014 at 11:27am
Aj is spot on. Those Oregon style Mackenzie's do not take a rear passenger well. They are made for steelhead fishing with 2 guys pulling plugs in the front. My old boat was a hankinson 16' Mckenzie. It had a lot less width at the beam than a don hill or tatman, and consequently less rocker. It was also a bit more symmetrical than the more pear shaped Oregon style boats that carry most of their volume right in front of the rower. That boat did ok with a rear passenger. I bumped the rowers seat forward in addition to having forward oarlock positions, and had the rear brace literally right being my rowers seat. It was workable with two guys fishing front and back. However, my buddy has the same 16' tatman u are speaking of and the boat turns into a back heavy slug with a guy in the rear. I think you will be hard pressed to get that boat to perform as you wish with a rear passenger. You could bump the rowers seat forward or put it on a sliding track or do side pocket running boards, but if you go really far forward..like a full rib like Aj talking about, then you have to move the oarlocks and foot braces too, as well as the front passenger seat so the rowers footwell isn't too cramped...something to think about. If you wanna go forward ...EVERYTHING needs to go forward. I think if you did all this, and kept the brace immediately behind the rowers seat you could probably fish 2 guys ok. The problem is, when you are not fishing. The rear guy needs a place to sit down, and that place is that back deck between the last frame and the transom. I don't know why they ever put those in there because when someone is sitting in that spot, the boat becomes very back heavy and difficult to maneuver. I think if u bump forward and kept the rear passenger close enough to strangle the rower with a fly line you may be able to fish standing ok, but as soon as the guy sits down to drink a beer or sit thru heavier whitewater, performance will most likely immediately suffer.
Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on November 28, 2014 at 12:02pm

Chris, I have to totally agree with you. My Tatman is a corvette with one or two up front and a wallowing horrible 59 Oldsmobile with no shocks. I only have a rear seat for those times I have to carry a client and I try to keep their weight to under 150 pounds. Put a 275 pounder back there and life is terrible!

Rick N

Permalink Reply by Bryan Barlow on May 27, 2015 at 2:20pm

I just stumbled across this post as Im looking to add a rear casting brace in the back of my ( what I think is a greg Tatman) boat.  Im not sure if the boat i bought is designed to handle a load in the back?  I believe it is an 17x54 tatman.. there was a seat already in the back, so I assumed it would be set up to fish front and back at the same time.. Do you recommend that I put in a rear casting brace with this hull?  

Attachments:
Permalink Reply by Dave Z on December 8, 2014 at 4:12pm

I'll throw my 2 cents in..... Depends on water type.  Out East here, we fish flat water that poses no real handling threats.  That said, my daughter stands behind me (shes light) and it makes no difference.  But if you put Big Mark back there, it makes the water feel thicker. 

I hate the way a Hindman 16 handles with an adult in back. On flat water, I'm not worried about fast maneuvers, so its safe.  But prepare to have miserable rowing.

Better idea would be to redesign the boat and slide the "weight forward" section back with a nice, big flat spot in the middle of the boat.

Or build Sandy Pittendrigh's Beavertail.  Made for this.  Where is ol' Sandy?

Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on June 21, 2016 at 4:40pm

The boat in the first post is a stitch and glue, has a little more freedom being all open. I made my boat a little wider in the back half and I can stand or sit and fish from the rear just fine, of course I`m not fishing white water either in MIch. I dont think your boat is a good design to do that with. I have a stitch and glue guy down the road and he makes a stantion (post) with a curve pc to stand in the rear. You can see it behind the rowers seat. I have no idea what that box is there....

I think with a framed boat the curve slat would be best but hard to get around, and if you had someone there full time the problems mentioned above would be a issue being thin on the rear floor and alot of rocker. Then again you`ll never know for sure till you try it :)

I could add a brace to mine but dont feel the need. I made it wider to sit back there and run a motor, more even forward and aft vs. wide in just the frt, and less rocker so it is very stable and floats very shallow, but our rivers do flow pretty fast, but way different than out west for sure.

RSS

© 2024   Created by Randy Dersham.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service