Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on May 26, 2016 at 7:45pm

Thanks Rick, thats very nice of you. Its not a western white water boat, but its just what I wanted for our rivers here. I took the boat on the trailer and got it weighed yesterday, the boat weighs exactly same as the trailer to the pound,340 lbs also, what the chance? So its a little heavier than I was planning, but thats ok.

Just towing it to work and back I realized a issue. The trailer is stiff and I could hear the floor boards banging on rough road, so I think I need some latches, like the throw bolts David used. I was gonna add them anyway, but now I know I need them.

It does tow really nice. I tried out the pulley system with a 30lb anchor and it works pretty good, not too hard to pull up and seems plenty sturdy. Thought maybe 30 lbs might be too much for it.

Hoping to try it out this week in the Ausable trophy water with Dorf. He offered to take the chance with me!!! What a guy :)

I dropped it in the lake down the street, floats nice in a couple inches of water, no leaks, nice and dry, and my rocker is gonna be just right. Rows easy. My oar shafts feel heavy on the blade ends so they will get shaved thinner. Also the plastic seat releases, that I tried 2 different sets of, and really wanted, raised my seats a little more than I wanted too, so they might get replaced with just swivels bolted to the benches.

Permalink Reply by chris towles on May 26, 2016 at 6:41pm

That's a cool imprint of the trailer lights on the garage floor. Looks like one of the gobo patterns we use at my job for artistic lighting.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on May 26, 2016 at 8:03pm

Those LED`s are bright and kinda cool, a guy on the Michigan sportsman website said I should get a strobe hooked up to them so we can have disco dancing at the wooden boat outing next month, I`m not too sure about that one ;)

Permalink Reply by chris towles on May 26, 2016 at 8:22pm

I'll save you some time and heartache. Those sliding barrel bolts will be a pain in the ass to hold the floors in place. When you drive down a bumpy road the rattling will easily unlatch the barrel bolt...every time. In addition, the little handle that threads into the barrel will constantly rattle loose and you will be searching in the floors of your boat for it amongst sand, fishing line, and whatever the heck else has collected. You can epoxy the handle in but the barrel will always rattle loose regardless. Mabye you have a good idea to keep it closed, but on my boat I tried everything for many seasons of guiding every day without much success. I might try something differant...like some kind of latching deal. I'm actually trying no to figure out right now how to mount my removable floors in my boat. My boat is a decked dory with bulkheads and I'll probably just glue a small piece of ply with tnuts in it and use aluminum angle to bolt it to the boat. Well secured but still removable seems to be the best way to go. I fought those floors in that boat for years b cause I relied too heavily on gravity to keep the whole works in place. I'm say bolt em in somehow where they are still removable for cleaning/repair.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on May 26, 2016 at 9:04pm

Dorf told me a good idea he came up with that might be a good one. My floor boards have a few cross braces that run next to the frames. I left a little gap there, but would have been better tighter. Anyway, that center cross brace for each section, drill a horizontal hole at the end(sides) and epoxy a tube in it, then drill a hole through the frame and epoxy a tube in it(to seal the wood hole good) then run a bolt through the tubes with a wing nut.

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Permalink Reply by chris towles on May 27, 2016 at 7:21am

That sounds like a pretty good plan to me. Depending on how big the gap between the frame and the floor, you could mabye shim it with wood or washers, mabye even nylon ones. Only thing I might worry about is drilling a hole too close to the top of the frame where it could crack, I dunno how thick your center supports are. I might go with nylock instead of wing nuts. The rattling of the boat on bumpy dirt roads tends to rattle just about everything loose. Check your gunwale bolts and oarlock nuts periodically. On My last boat any hardware that wasn't nylock all came loose, usually after just a few days of use. I was constantly fishing acorn nuts, and barrel bolts out from under my floorboards. No fun. Nylock or bust brother. When you think about it, how many times do you really need to remove them. For me it was once a season or so. You are in Michigan so it sounds like repairs aren't gonna be done on the regular, why not bolt em in where they won't move.

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Permalink Reply by Nick Rivers on May 27, 2016 at 12:19pm

Mike,

Your boat is simply fantastic.  You should be well pleased.

I have been following your build from the beginning and have a question.

I have been dreaming of a wooden DB building for over 10 years.  Basically waiting on the right time and space...primarily the need to move houses with garage space to allow for the work.  I am in the middle of Roger Fletcher's book and am learning a lot. I have yet to decide on exactly what style boat to build and yours is the closest thing I have found to what my brain thinks I need.

My boat will be for FISHING, primarily the waters of PA and NY.  Upper Delaware system which is very easy and friendly water...but also the Lehigh River which is quite a bit more technical.  

My one question is surrounding the potential for an occasional use of a motor...and the need for a wider transom. I think the Rapid Robert is a bit to beefy but I want to make sure that I am going to build a boat that will be able to respond with a small motor.

I know you have not spent hardly any time in the water with your boat yet but I am wondering if using almost your exact design with just a bit wider transom would provide the stability I am looking for while maintaining the handling of a traditional DB?

Any thoughts Mike? Or anyone else for that matter?  Any designs I should be looking at?

Thanks! 

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Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on May 27, 2016 at 4:19pm

Ya Chris, I only have 3/4" braces under those 1/2" floorboards. I was thinking the same thing, add another pc of 3/4" (just a block) that doug fir is tough stuff, and run the tube through the block, that will get the hole through the frame somewhere closer to the middle, also giving more room for a wingnut. I like the idea of being able to pull them out somewhat easily. Dorf is a pretty sharp cookie, I think its a pretty good idea he had, I might have to try it. First time I loose a bunch of those shiny/pretty acorn nuts I might go to all nyloks. Ive used those on everything else except the top rails.

Hey Nick, thanks a bunch. Not really sure my boat was worthy of this western boat site, but it is a drift boat, just a little different. I dont really think I can help you much. Heres a few thoughts though to your questions.

I copied that pic out of Fletchers book of the guy in Michigan with the 16 ft McKenzie dbl ender w/transom and hung it on the wall for a couple months before I started.(its still hanging in the garage) I love the look of that boat. That boat is just so pretty, and that launch picture is where I`m going tomorrow with mine for the first river trip. Ive been a renter, so when I was able to rent this house with a garage, and have all my tools in one place, I figured this was my chance to have a drift boat.

I got a tiny bit of advise from 2 guys before I found this site. One guy just builds stitch and glue with little to no rocker at all, said his boats fish great. I thought about it, but really wanted a framed boat, for the traditional look. The other guy drew me a frame and gave me a angle to run with, and told me about a strongback. Then I starting building. I went with constant angle on the frames, so its more like a dory I guess. if I had it to do over, I might go a little more angle and vary the frames, but for here I still think its gonna be fine.

At some point I`ll bolt a motor on this thing, I have no doughts it will handle just fine. I have a guide buddy with a 20` Ausable boat, like a canoe almost but little wider, flatter bottom, little rocker on the ends, and he put a 5 hp on that and he scoots across Lk Michigan in that thing, and it flys. Most of the time though he just moves the boat with a pole. I`m thinking a 3 hp w/ built in tank in the shroud would be perfect just to return to a launch when I`m by myself.

The transom Ive got will be great for a motor, thats why I made it low too. Might slip a pc of plexi glass on there to not mess up the walnut. I really dont think a wider transom would be any better, unless your looking at a big motor and need more stability or strength. I shot for enough rocker I could anchor off the rear, letting the current go under the boat, but not alot like a white water boat. Sounds like our rivers are much like yours, though we do have some pretty fast ones. I dont really need that huge rocker of the Mckensie, even though it is pretty. The little bit I rowed it the other night, it turns on a dime still, which might be sensitive with any bigger hp. I was kinda amazed too how far and fast it would go with a couple row strokes compared to rowing that jon boat. I`ll post about it first time I get to try it. I have a 8hp w aux tank but thats just to big, too heavy and way to fast. My little 12 ft jon boat flys with that on it. Ive used it in rivers, the frt works good with current but the transom does not and its hard to row in a river. Good for little lakes though.

My DB was just planned in my head as I went along. Not a easy way to do it. All the help I got on here for ways to do things, and ideas was priceless. I wore out the search engine here researching everything, and browsed the photo pages, completely many times over looking for ideas. I went through Dorfs and Guys builds a few times too. Theres alot of fine craftsman here.

I dont know about any designs you could look into other than that book. I googled drifts boats many times and looked at everything I could find. I`ll know more how its gonna work out in the next month. Its either gonna be great, or I`ll be making payments on the most expensive bon fire in history :)

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Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on May 30, 2016 at 12:17am

So Dorf came up and we did a test floatt in the boat. We did a all day long float in the Ausable River. Pretty fast flowing river, and it was pretty windy. The boat did ok, it was a little hard to control in the wind for my first time on the sticks. The 30 lb. anchor wouldnt hold us a few times but overall worked good most of the time.

The oarlock/ seat height needs some adjustment. The oars were heavy on the blade end, I need to move the frt seat forward a few inches on the bench for more room to get a good power stroke (I have long arms) and a anchor pulley failed that we were able to temp fix.

I started thinning the oar shafts between the wraps and the blades today. Took them to about 1 5/8", hoping that will help. I also added 3 more inches of wrap so I can pull them in a little more and stay off the varnish while just drifting.

So out of this, I have a punch list thats not too bad, a couple things I want to have stowed in the boat, like just a few tools and a first aid kit.

So one thing I would still like to do is add rub strips to my boat just for looks. I dont have any plywood left over, any opinions on planing down some boards? Or should they really be plywood?

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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on May 30, 2016 at 6:49am

Your boat looks great. come on out and I will give you a set of "rub strips" that I didn't use! Glad to see you had a successful float. I didn't notice a report on the fishing however.

Rick

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Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on May 30, 2016 at 8:11am

Thanks Rick but I dont think I can make the trip. Theres a chance a boat builder down the road here might have some long scraps, almost not worth buying a sheet of plywood.

I guess it was successful in that we made it from the start point to the pull out..

And now,,,,,, the rest of the story

We didnt get there too early, around 8 am, and the livery there was lining the shoreline with canoes and rafts. It was the kick off to the aluminum hatch, which included some serious alcohol consumption. Not everyone was hammered, I`d say only about 85% were, but after the first hundred drunk people yelled "catching any fish" and "nice boat, did you make that?" I wish I had a recording I could just playback to them saying "few small ones", and "yep, thanks"

We caught a few small fish, but there were so many canoes and party rafts it s a wonder. Had a chick run right into the back of my boat with a alum canoe, and a couple rafts hit us too, it got kinda a little out of control. Best advise is go super early and later in the evening, or fish a different stretch. We saw a couple real nice fish bolt out of cover and grab something, but werent able to get one. Phil caught this bruiser pretty fast, and a little one I caught, but we didnt focus too much on fishing. Next time out we will.

The float didnt go without mishaps...

So the wind and a eddy caught me and I right rowed when I should have left rowed, and frt rowed when I should have back rowed, (and rut-row) I ran us right into a big tree hanging out into the river, we smashed through the branches, and I thought we would be ok until I looked back and saw my fly rod hanging in the branches. In 2 seconds we were 100 yards past and there was no rowing back. So we got to the other side, got out and walked the boat back upstream just past the tree. I tried to walk across but it got too deep and the current was too strong. I`m really lucky it got hung up and didnt end up in the current. It was a Thomas and Thomas 5wt with a Hydros reel. Phil took the oars with me leaning on the deck and tried to shoot me hard into that tree, which he did a fine job of. The first branch i tried to grab broke off, with my right hand I grabbed for another branch and it almost pulled me out of the boat, with my left hand I managed to grab the rod and in a 3 second panic we were out of the tree with the rod. Close call There was no time for pictures...

But the Idea of the float was to get the punch list together to get the boat ready for our wooden boat outing June 11th. Heres a couple pic of Phil and me checking out some of the eye candy at the launch ;)

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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on May 30, 2016 at 8:22am

Thanks for the "rest of the story"! That would have been a shame to lose any fly rod, let alone a T&T.

Rick

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