Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
16' Double ender w/ transom
My first glimpse of a drift boat was on the Cal Salmon as a kayaker in the late 70s - i was intrigued by the way the boat rode through the wave trains and could handle the water. I got a better look a bit later on a couple of Rogue trips, watching them through Blossom Bar... I thought I'd like to try that. The idea of building one was cemented a few years ago after a visit to Andy Hutchinson's shop and seeing his build of a decked boat in sapele - what a beautiful boat. So as a start, I got Roger's book and built a model, getting an idea of how things went together and where the challenges might be. This spring, I traveled to Flagstaff to attend Brad Dimock's class, where I met an incredible variety of skilled folks, all interested in building - not to mention a shop to die for. Then it was off to Oregon and the wooden boat festival. I stopped in Bend, where I picked up a trailer and a bunch of great information from Mike Baker - now I had a trailer, and needed a boat. Materials were a bit of a challenge - I originally wanted Port Orford Cedar for the frames - in Bend, there's a reliable supply from Orepac, but in Victor, where I live, no such luck. I ended up with Alaskan Yellow Cedar for about $7/bf. Hydrotek was next on the list. McBeath lists it on their web page, but there was a 2 month wait, so I ended up getting mine from Edensaw. Following Brad's lead, I'm using epoxy from Resin Research. Now for the fun stuff...
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mike Baker on
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Hey Dave,
"normally" the transom is out of the water. Add the weight of the motor plus you likely standing behind the rowers seat and that transom will be very much in the water.
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I can't speak to the Tohatsu but I have used an old Sea King long shaft a lot on my drift boats with no issue. Once you are underway the motor will suck the rear of the boat down anyway.
Mike
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Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on
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I had a long shaft honda that was pretty darn long. Next time in the water measure top of transom to the water. Most have plenty of tilt
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Permalink Reply by David Witton on
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I've been sweating over the selection and mounting of a motor - two things made this more difficult. First, because I installed knees, my transom is a bit higher than normal
it has a total vertical rise of 22". Second, I chose a 4-stroke 3.5 horse long shaft Tohatsu motor that only weighs 47 pounds. When I tried it on the boat with a rower and passenger on board, I had two problems - the upper cooling water intakes were at water level, and the motor's limited trim adjustments didn't allow it to sit vertically, which the dealer said was a no-no. My plan was to build a bolt-on transom to address those issues. I built a prototype that lowered the motor 2.5 inches and took it out for a spin on the local lake.
The motor worked well - at a quarter throttle it drove the hull at 5.5 MPH, and 5 MPH against a 15-20 MPH wind. My dummy transom, on the other hand, had one major problem - I couldn't tilt the motor up - so back to the shop.
This newer one allows the motor to tilt up, and seems to fill the bill. Our next trip is 4 days on the Missouri wild and scenic section. The BLM specifically says driftboats aren't recommended, 'cause of the wind - we were there in June last year and it did blow a bit. We'll see how the motor works.
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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on
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I can vouch for the wind!
Rick N
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Thats a pretty good clip at 5 mph. Those 4 strokes are heavy. Thats about what my 2 cly 8 hp mariner weighs. But its way too much for my boat. If my day ever comes, I`ll seek a 2.75 merc with the tank in the shroud, thats my dream setup :)
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How about a 1928 2.5 horse with the tank in the shroud? I have one I would sell you. No I don't remember the brand right now but I am leaning towards Evinrude. I repaired about thirty years ago and got it running for my step father. He later gave it to me.
Rick N
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Now all you have to do is hang it off your transom for the next Missouri trip!
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After 5 years of floating, I figured it's time to flip the boat over and do a bit of maintenance. First, transfer the boat from the trailer to the dolly
and flip it over. The bottom looked a bit beat up -
the trailer bunks had caused a bit of wear, and there was a hole into the structure. The bottom is a composite, the inner layer is 1/4" of hydrotek, covered with 10oz of glass, then 1/2" of Nidacore then another layer of 10oz cloth coated with West Systems graphite. During the build, I had plenty of advice suggesting a layer or two of 1708 cloth instead of the last layer of 10oz - I should have paid attention to that advice. After a bit of hemming and hawing about the cost and effort of another layer of cloth, I decided to do the right thing. At this point, I need to tip my hat to Guy Fredrickson (and others) on this site who set a high standard and inspire the rest of us. Adding a layer of cloth meant I needed to remove the chines, which gave me a chance to fix something that had been bugging me about the boat's handling. The chines were 3/4" thick, and then gave the current quite a bit of purchase on the hull when entering and leaving eddies. I'm hoping to improve that by resawing them down to 3/8 before reinstalling. I removed the stainless bang strip
and then the chine - at this point I was grateful I had used a polysulfide bedding compound when I installed them - taking them off was a snap. The residue cleaned up with a sharp chisel.
the hull had a few scratches and a couple of dings
that I filled with some mahogany sawdust mixed with epoxy.
I took a belt sander with an 80 grit belt to the bottom and patched the hole to get it ready for the next layer of cloth, and sanded the hull with 220.
Where the varnish was scratched I got more aggressive, taking it down to bare wood in places, and will need to add several coats of varnish in those spots before a couple of coats to the whole hull. I'm planning to use Jamestown's Lust varnish for these spot builds, mainly because of it's quick drying time.
At this point I'm scratching my head about just what to do with the drain plugs.
I need to protect these holes with something before I add the layer of cloth - I'm thinking of filling them with paraffin, which I'll dig out later. Perhaps someone out there has a better idea....
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Permalink Reply by Shawn Baker on
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Great updates, David!
Yes, I'd use paraffin or hot glue in the drain plug bores and glass right over it; dig/cut it out later.
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David, I think you are doing well with your refinishing. I recently used the Lust Varnish and while I haven't had it out on the water the initial results and application procedure were great.
Rick N
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On my original build I had used Resin Research epoxy and supplies from Fiberglass Supply in Washington. This time I went with Totalboat 2:1 resin from Jamestown Distributers, mostly because I wanted to try out their Lust varnish without paying shipping. The package arrived Tuesday, so I masked out the hull and got to work, first wetting out the bottom, then laying on the 1708 cloth. As expected, that stuff is tougher to work with, both in wetting out and later in trimming. I used about 64 oz of resin to wet out the cloth, and 36oz each in 2 subsequent coats to fill in the weave, each one mixed with West System 423 graphite powder.
When I trimmed the edges, I got out a tool I hadn't used in quite a while
it was quite a bit easier than just holding on to the razor blade. Next step is to strip off all the masking and get to work on the varnish.
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