Eric's drift boat build

Finally got to a point that some progress on the build is visible so I decided to start a post. I hope the pictures come through....

A little on the boat I'm building, I decided on the 16' Honky Dory by Montana River Boats. It's a stitch-n-glue boat with a 56" wide bottom. I am building it out of Okume plywood, 1/4" (6mm) sides and 1/2" (12mm) bottom and sticking it all together with West System 105/205 epoxy.

Decided last winter I was gonna finally do the build, by the time I got the garage cleaned and organized I made very little progress on the boat, just completing the strongback or temporary frame.

No time in the summer to work on a boat, to much work and fishing to be done. Picked up my plywood on Christmas eve.

A few fits and starts over the last month, went through materials faster than I had assumed and had to wait for more. All of the tools I already had and thought were good enough for this project have now been replaced!

I used the West System scarfer to make the scarf joints, very nice tool, once it was mounted on a new saw. I removed all the safety crap and was able to use a 8 1/4" blade.

Turned out nice with minimal finishing with a hand plane.

Side panels glued up.

Bottom is 56" wide so I had to scarf some extra width to the bottom.

 

Once I figured out some epoxy mix issues, as detailed in a separate post, made some forward progress.

Stem and transom.

Side panels cut and glassed.

 

And finally some real progress!


 

Next step is getting the bottom glassed and ready to install next weekend, I hope. My goal is to have the boat ready for the McKenzie Wooden Drift Boat show in late April.

More to follow as I complete it...... 

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Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on January 24, 2016 at 2:40pm

Hey thats looking good. Its not a stitch and glue boat though as you have frames. S&G is frameless. Nice size boat though. Will be cool to watch it all come together. Oh ok, those frames are temps and come out?

Permalink Reply by Eric Berry on January 24, 2016 at 4:09pm

Thanks and yep, just temps until the bottom and gunnels go in.

Permalink Reply by tungsten on January 25, 2016 at 4:22pm

Nice work,the frames look to hold it all  nice and fair.

Permalink Reply by Mel Buchanan on January 31, 2016 at 3:14pm

Man your working fast!! Looks good

Permalink Reply by David Witton on February 1, 2016 at 6:06am

Eric

Looking good! Hope to see you at the festival.

Permalink Reply by Eric Berry on February 1, 2016 at 9:59pm

Thanks all, I have learned a ton with the build especially with the help from this forum. I am already planning my next build!

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