Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
Finished my 1983 Keith Steele restoration
I am finished! At least for this year, I am sure I will find a few more things to do this winter on her. A blow by blow of my restoration can be found on my "Starting a Steele 16 drift boat restoration" discussion.
I have had her in the water for a month and officially christened her as "Ghost Fly" due to the painted fly that emerged when I stripped the green paint off the hull. For the christening I used water that I collected from the McKenzie River while travelling through Oregon last June.
I have attached some finished shots and finally pictures of her on the Flathead River. I am hoping to get her down to Idaho Falls, ID this fall so the original owner can see her. He also offered me the original oars that came with the boat (next winter's project).
Thanks for all of the direct advice on my questions and the enormous amount of information within these discussions.
I started as a rank amateur on this project and can provide the following advice to other beginners:
Search and read the discussions and either bookmark them or print them for future reference. I wasted a lot of time trying to go back and find the details on how to handle the chine cap or pick varnishes because I didn't keep good records.
Power sanders are great, but they can be overused to the detriment of your project.
There are many different opinions stated here, so pick the people that make sense to you and follow them, jumping between philosophies can create problems.
It will take 3 or 4 or 5 times longer than you think, so plan accordingly. My 3 month plan became 7 months. The interior is the big time sponge with all those nooks and crannies to scrape, sand and finish.
Views: 760
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on
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Kirk, you have honored Keith Steele with your restoration. Very nice work. It took me more than three years to build my boat from a kit. First I had to clean out the garage, add nailers to the ceiling so I could hand insulation and sheet rock. I did better sheet rock work in my garage/shop than I did in my house, experience helps! I don't have enough heat to use it in the winter so I could only do work in the warm seasons. I went back to school and earned an AAS degree and resanded the sides several times because of problems and changes in design philosophy.
I have my boat torn apart right now and am also enjoying the joy of sanding the interior and resolving some issues that bother me. I started in June. It has been in the high 90's much of the summer so not much has gotten done. Time to get busy so I can fish for steelhead.
Again, you did a great job and the boat looks great!
Rick Newman
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Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on
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That came out really nice and looks good in the water. I like you left the fly there, gives it character!!
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Permalink Reply by Kirk Miller on
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Thanks Mike
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Thanks Rick, good luck with your project
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Thanks. My challenge now is finding fishing partners skilled enough at the oars that I trust them with her. Hence, I haven't spent a lot of time standing in the bow this summer! I really appreciate your commitment to this site, it was priceless.
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Permalink Reply by Phillip Westendorf on
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Kirk,
You have yourself a great looking drift boat. It'll give you many hours of enjoyment fishing in it and answering all kinds of questions from those you run across on the rivers.
Dorf
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I do get lots of comments and questions when I have her out. I was watching video clips from the Mckenzie River wooden boat festival the other night, so I really want to make that next year. Thanks for all of your informative posts, they saved me a lot of do overs and helped the project turn out so well.
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