Boat building

I’ve noticed a lot of people using these in shallow water around here. Basically a small diameter spud with a holder. Seems like it would be pretty easy to make something homemade that would work to have aboard. Most guys have two in the back of their boat but?? A little easier to deal with than an anchor.

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rob3232 said:
I’ve noticed a lot of people using these in shallow water around here. Basically a small diameter spud with a holder. Seems like it would be pretty easy to make something homemade that would work to have aboard. Most guys have two in the back of their boat but?? A little easier to deal with than an anchor.

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I had a similar stick in my old Gheenoe. Great little tool.
 
rob3232 said:
I’ve noticed a lot of people using these in shallow water around here. Basically a small diameter spud with a holder. Seems like it would be pretty easy to make something homemade that would work to have aboard. Most guys have two in the back of their boat but?? A little easier to deal with than an anchor.

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Pretty neat idea, but probably not something that would work for me. I don't have a suitable attachment point and I will probably be in hard gravel bottom rivers or deep lakes most of the time. The never lost design uses a cable tie to attach the chain to the top of the anchor, if the anchor becomes lodged the cable tie breaks and the welded bottom attachment point takes over. Hopefully pulling from the bottom dislodges it and you don't loose the anchor.
 
Hadn't thought of it that way but you could be right. Saw that one while bonefishing a few years back and thought it was worth a photo.
 
My boat saw it's first sunshine today, hopefully it will see water soon. Got it out of the shop finally, what a mess I have to clean up. I reshuffed a lot of stuff to make room enough and barely had room to move. The floor will get it's first complete sweep in about a month. I'm really happy how it fits in the truck. It's a tad heavier than I had hoped for but the transom end is by far the lighter end, as long as I can lift it onto the tailgate I should have no problem loading it alone. My homemade oars didn't come out too bad, I used pinned oar locks because I get bad cramps in my hands when I grip hand tools tightly for too long, I imagine oars will do the same thing. They will also work better for my grandson if he wants to give it a try. A anchor rope and bolt the seat down is about all I have left.


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sprucegum said:
My boat saw it's first sunshine today, hopefully it will see water soon. Got it out of the shop finally, what a mess I have to clean up. I reshuffed a lot of stuff to make room enough and barely had room to move. The floor will get it's first complete sweep in about a month. I'm really happy how it fits in the truck. It's a tad heavier than I had hoped for but the transom end is by far the lighter end, as long as I can lift it onto the tailgate I should have no problem loading it alone. My homemade oars didn't come out too bad, I used pinned oar locks because I get bad cramps in my hands when I grip hand tools tightly for too long, I imagine oars will do the same thing. They will also work better for my grandson if he wants to give it a try. A anchor rope and bolt the seat down is about all I have left.


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Maybe I should build a boat and then I have valid reason for not sweeping. :yipee:
 
Sweet looking boat Dave. Looking forward to seeing the first time it gets wet and the first time you blood it with fish slime. Good on'ya.

Did you get some of that rubber honeycomb mat to protect the deck under your feet? One other thing I just remembered, figure out a way to put retention straps on your oars just case one comes out of the lock when you're not ready and allows you to simply let loose of them if you need to do something in the boat, rather than shipping the oars. I know a lot of drift boat captains wrap their oars with cordage to help keep the noise level down. Are you planning to row facing forward or backward (relative to the direction of travel?). And maybe a rod holder if you plan to fish by yourself. Makes it easy to move about without bringing your rod all the way on board.
 
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Not much of an update, but feel like I should at least post once every 3 pages of this thread. :sarcastic:

Got my keel, runners, and sheer clamps scarfed together and keel dry fit this weekend... and marked the location for the runners. Today I built up a slightly low section near the rear where I had a slight hook - felt like doing this with glass would lessen the fairing I'll need to do. And taped the keel seams. Hopefully will get the other outside seams taped tomorrow, then get on with epoxying and fairing the bottom next week.

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DLJeffs said:
Sweet looking boat Dave. Looking forward to seeing the first time it gets wet and the first time you blood it with fish slime. Good on'ya.

Did you get some of that rubber honeycomb mat to protect the deck under your feet? One other thing I just remembered, figure out a way to put retention straps on your oars just case one comes out of the lock when you're not ready and allows you to simply let loose of them if you need to do something in the boat, rather than shipping the oars. I know a lot of drift boat captains wrap their oars with cordage to help keep the noise level down. Are you planning to row facing forward or backward (relative to the direction of travel?). And maybe a rod holder if you plan to fish by yourself. Makes it easy to move about without bringing your rod all the way on board.
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Hopefully I have my oar locks positioned for rowing from the rear facing forward and center facing rear. The center seat swivels and will move forward around 2' so I will probably add another set of oar lock sockets. The lock stems have holes in the bottom so if I put a pin though it they can't come out. Fitting it out will probably take a few tries to see what works.
 
SENC said:
Not much of an update, but feel like I should at least post once every 3 pages of this thread. :sarcastic:

Got my keel, runners, and sheer clamps scarfed together and keel dry fit this weekend... and marked the location for the runners. Today I built up a slightly low section near the rear where I had a slight hook - felt like doing this with glass would lessen the fairing I'll need to do. And taped the keel seams. Hopefully will get the other outside seams taped tomorrow, then get on with epoxying and fairing the bottom next week.

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Looks like your joints fit good, mine did for the most part but a few places took a little extra block plane work and epoxy. My boat hardly has a straight line on it. Good idea building up the low spots with glass, I have a couple spots that I should have done that to.
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Are you guys reinforcing the keel area? Or putting on a "sacrificial wear strip" that can easily be replaced? I think if there's anywhere that gets beat up it's the keel, beaching onto shoreline rocks, etc.
 
DLJeffs said:
Are you guys reinforcing the keel area? Or putting on a "sacrificial wear strip" that can easily be replaced? I think if there's anywhere that gets beat up it's the keel, beaching onto shoreline rocks, etc.
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Mine is flat bottom, the chine has 3 layers of fiberglass tape. Bottom is sheathed with fiberglass cloth then coated with a mixture of epoxy, ground fiberglass, and graphite. This is a pretty tough of coating that can be recoated as needed.
 
DLJeffs said:
Are you guys reinforcing the keel area? Or putting on a "sacrificial wear strip" that can easily be replaced? I think if there's anywhere that gets beat up it's the keel, beaching onto shoreline rocks, etc.
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Yes, mine will have a 3/4" thick by 1.5" keel (and similar sized runners/strakes running parallel). They will each have 1/4" thick aluminum strips on them, in hopes I won't need to replace the wood anytime soon.
 
Finally floated it! I wish it was a little bigger but if it was I would need a trailer, can't have it both ways. It rows very easily and it's easy to keep it straight, but I can pretty much turn it around with one stroke. I'm not a small person but I rowed it right up to the shore in 3" of water. I didn't test it too hard because the ice went out less than a week ago, stayed close to shore and tried not to rock the boat.
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