Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
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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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by David Witton on
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Looks like you've got some perfect weather for boat building!
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Permalink Reply by Art Page on
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Yeah, we've had some un-seasonally warm weather recently (Encinitas, Ca). However it's currently raining and 71F. Which brings up a question about applying epoxy.
I've always used medium cure hardener (Total Boat 2:1) for previous wood working projects and plan to use this for fiberglassing the sides and bottom. I *think* med cure will give me enough time without prematurely setting up. I'll have a helper dedicated to just mixing in small batches and use a shallow container to reduce heat build-up. I'd like not to use slow cure for fear it'll be more prone to runs and sags since I'll be applying on a near vertical surface of the sides. I've never applied this much epoxy over a large area like this before, but looking at YT vids of canoe glassing looks like runs/sags on a vertical surface isn't much of an issue. All that being said, I think med cure will give me enough time to do one side by myself with the help of a dedicated mixer. What do you think?
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I think you'll be fine with the temps in the low 70s. One thing I could have been better at is babysitting the project for a few hours after you're done applying the epoxy.
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And just like that, the bottom is screwed down with 5200 applied to the frame bottoms and chine logs. Used 2 alignment pins (actually nails) with mating holes in the bottom to register it to the outline of the boat and to minimize smearing the 5200. The front 18" or so of the bow section was the most challenging to get to conform and bend down to the stem. Not shown are all the weights, clamps, and ratchet straps to make that happen.
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To trim the 1/4" overhang on the bottom flush to the angled sides, I kluged up a jig for the trim router to hold it perpendicular to the sides with a flush cutting bit. It worked better than expected and 15 minutes later that task was done. I'm still recovering from tennis elbow/tendinitis so it sure beat having to break out the hand plane :)
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It's been a while, but contrary to popular belief, I didn't forget about you guys (the two or three die-hards that still follow this board!) :) Other than taking a 3-1/2 week flyfishing trip down to Chile, I've been pretty much consistently chipping away at the boat. I did see remnants of an old McKenzie on one of the lakes down there....it might take some effort to restore it :)
Here's one of my favorite pics from the trip...
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When I scarfed the 1/4 ply together for the sides, there was some color mismatch between the panels. I ended up staining the sides to help blend the colors together...
6 oz cloth was applied to the sides. I didn't get any in-process pics but here's a completed side freshly fiberglassed...
We ended up with some minor blemishes on one side of the hull after applying the fiberglass, so I ended up covering it with a vinyl wrap. It's the same material used on vehicles. The brown trout pattern was generated by Gemini AI...
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1708 cloth was applied to the bottom followed up by a couple coats of graphite/epoxy mix (~20% graphite by volume)...
Chine battens were attached before fiberglassing the bottom so the cloth would overlap the chines. No pics of attaching the chine battens, but here's a pic of the epoxy bottom after trimming...
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Nice work! Interesting use of vinyl wrap, that's the first time I've seen that.
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