Wooden Boat People

By McKenzieDriftBoat.com

fishing for two

so i am the proud new owner of a wooden drift boat..just picked her up yesterday. she is a stich and glue kit boat...16"...looks like a regulaur mckenzie but it is a bit highsided..don't know what the height dimensions are. I've been reading this site and looking at pictures and have come up with a ton of good ideas. anyhow...the boat is gutted right now, and i am attempting to put in a new interior this month and an exterior paint job trying to get the boat on the water by june or so. i;m going to use the old interior pieces as templates and do the interior as it was originally ( front and stern cabinet hatches and running boards along the side). i plan on making a rowing seat that removes to become a table, and front passenger bench seat with a box underneath that removes to become a camp couch. these will all fit in between the running boards and be adjustable too. the last piece i also need is a knee brace for the rear guy.

i plan to use this boat primarily for fishing, but mabye for the odd overnighter too. my question is this..i want to fish with a man in front and a man in back..(setup like a clacka or hyde fishing boat). however, from most pictures i have seen on this site, most people only have their boat setup for a man fishing in the front. i have read this is because the boat does not trim out well with weight in the back of the boat, and so most boats go with 2 people in the front seat (sounds like tangled lines). nevertheless, i have seen a few pictures of guys with the dual fishing setup on their mckenzie. i realize that the rowers seat may need to move to trim the boat and all so i plan to make the seat adjustable forward to back. if i want to set my boat up this way, where approximatly do i want to put the fisherman for best weight distribution. does the rear guy need to be up as close to the rower as possible. does the front guy need to be farther forward in the boat to trim out the rear guy? any rough guesstimates on how far up the rear guy needs from the stern and the front guy from the bow. i'd like to plan these estimates with guys standing up against knee braces and not sitting (front brace will be mounted to front of the bow compartment, stern brace will span the running boards behind the rower and have a brace attatched to the top). i'd like to figure this out before i start building the cabinets so i know how deep into the boat to make them. any advice on the subject would be much appreciated

chris

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Permalink Reply by Robb Grubb on May 4, 2010 at 11:17am

Chris,

What I would suggest as the most efficient and fun way to plan / experiment with your very valid concern is take your boat to the nearest boat ramp, hopefully having slow moving water (based on the fact the boat is in a 'gutted state, I assume it is floatable?). Along with your boat, bring 3 friends, fishing poles and some beer, and a camera and have your buddies get in the boat and move around while you take pictures of the water line and the 'trim' of your overall boat in different loaded combinations, (side profile pictures) ie: two guys up front, one in back, one in front, seated (use a milk crate seat), standing (like you suggested), etc. and then go back to the shop and start building. Obviously building your seats and knee braces in the stations that keep the boat level.

A poorly balanced boat, especially when there is too much weight in the back is both a pain in the butt and somewhat dangerous in moving water. It is kind of like driving a Ferrari with low tire pressure, The potential is there but the contraption is not being set up and used properly.

Cheers, Robb

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Permalink Reply by chris towles on May 10, 2010 at 1:54pm

so, i've been out in the driveway today doing a little planning and working on the boat. when i put the old cabinet pieces in place i realized that i could only extend the rear cabinet out about 3" or so before i covered up the drain plug hole, so i guess thats how big the cabinet will be. currently the plan is to have the cabinet extend out 34" from the transom. i do plan to do a test float with guys in the boat before installing the rear knee brace so that i can make sure the rear guy is in the right place for proper trim while fishing. the rowers seat, front seat, and foot rest will be on tracks (unistrut my buddy has laying around his shop) and will be fully adjustable for fine tuning once the boat is dialed in. i guess my big question now is how far from the bow is the front fisherman? the current fly deck that i have measures 21" from the back of the stem to the point the knee brace is mounted to (or 23" from the front of the boat accounting for the 2" stem which is notched out of the deck). looking at most of the pics of boats on the site, it seems the fly deck generally goes to the first frame back on a framed boat. what is this distance on a 16" boat? or rather what is the distance from the peak of the triangle to the middle of the bottom side? just looking to get an estimate of what everyone is doing. i'm hoping to get this boat into a shop this week so that i can start plugging along on the carpentry for the cabinets and running boards.
chris