17-foot McKenzie drift boat

I'm deep into building my McKenzie drift boat using the Don Hill 17' Flyfisher plans from driftboatplans.com. The previously documented builds here have been a tremendous help, answering many of my initial questions. I'll certainly have many more questions as I progress, and hopefully the community can continue to guide me in the right direction.

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Permalink Reply by Art Page on October 26, 2025 at 11:13pm

Thanks David.  I'm thinking about mimicking some of the details you did on your boat, like the walnut accent strip on the outer gunnel, and the walnut gunnel blocks on top of the ribs.  I also noticed you later added 1708 cloth to the composite bottom.  For my 1/2" ply bottom, I'm now leaning towards just 1708 with several layers of graphite/epoxy.  I'll only be on class 1 or 2 rivers...what do you think, should this be sufficient?

Permalink Reply by David Witton on October 28, 2025 at 8:24am

Your plan of 1/2" ply with a layer of 1708 is a very standard treatment. It should hold up well. 

Permalink Reply by Bennett Yarbrough on Thursday

1708 with graphite on top has held up to a lot of boat dragging for me

Permalink Reply by Art Page on October 25, 2025 at 9:36pm

The dry fit up/assembly revealed no surprises...it looks like a boat!  I then disassembled the parts and epoxy coated the inside hull panels while they were flat.  I still need to purchase fiberglass cloth.  I think I'm going with 6oz for the sides and 10oz for the bottom.   The bottom will be capped with a layer(s) of graphite/epoxy.

Permalink Reply by Art Page on October 25, 2025 at 9:51pm

 In the meantime, I machined up a bow eye from 1/2" aluminum....

Permalink Reply by Art Page on October 25, 2025 at 10:04pm

I designed an anchor arm bracket that will mount in the center of the stern.  The plan is to make the bracket from 3/4" plywood with aluminum pulleys.  I think the wood will be robust enough to handle a 30lb anchor...if not, I'll swap it out for an aluminum one.

Permalink Reply by Art Page on October 27, 2025 at 7:29pm

These machined pulleys and small bracket will be used as part of the anchor system. I plan to purchase a Dierks foot release from driftboatplans.com, unless someone has a better recommendation?

Permalink Reply by David Witton on October 28, 2025 at 8:25am

pretty looking parts!

Permalink Reply by Art Page on October 28, 2025 at 9:53pm

So I'm kinda dragging my feet on fully assembling the hull since I'll need to do this where I currently park my truck in the garage (my workshop isn't big enough for a 17' boat). In the meantime, I'm making a set of oars. Guys with similar size boats recommend 9'6" oars minimum...the set I'm making will be 9'8" square tops.

Started off by epoxy laminating 3X 3/4 ash into 2.25" square shafts...


Then used a large round over bit...

Permalink Reply by Art Page on October 28, 2025 at 10:03pm

The 2-1/4 diameter shaft is tapered down to 1-5/8 at the neck.  I didn't have a spokeshave so jerry-rigged a section of pipe with a cutting edge.  It worked, sorta.  I'll be going to an old tool swapmeet held this weekend and will keep an eye out for a rounded spokeshave.

Permalink Reply by Art Page on Friday

The blades are from some tight grained red wood I found in my lumber stash.  The pro of redwood is that it's fairly light weight, the con is that it's not very durable and dents easily.  To help protect the edges I steam bent some ash to wrap around the edges.

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