Bob E
07-16-2008, 06:16 AM
I'm getting to be an old telephone worker now, 34 years and nearing retirement. The only boat that I have built was a 13' canvas over frame (with a plywood floor) kayak.
My father had told me that I could not build it so I fired up the table saw while he was at work. He went down to the shop for something and found the completed frame. "I guess you can build it." was all he said.
I built it before I got my drivers license, age 15 most likely. I know this because I had to have my older brother drive me to the airport to buy aircraft dope from the local flying service. I spent about 70 dollars on the build and the 50 that I spent on that paint was, at the time, the most money that I had ever spent at once in my life. Baling hay was how I got that money.
On a later family vacation, after being assured by a Teton National Park ranger that the "kayak" was certainly adequate for the Snake River, my older brother and I climbed into the elongated open cockpit and set off in the 12 mile per hour current. Four hours and forty miles later we rounded a bend and saw our worried parents and younger brother at the landing. My first words to them were- " Were you trying to get rid of us? "
It is now over forty years later. I enjoy doing a variety of things outdoors. I do some canoeing, deer and duck hunting, fishing, drawing, carpentry and even more dreaming. Our three kids are grown, still costing though, the youngest a Marine recently back from an uneventful tour in Fallujah. He did see snow, ice and frost while he was there, things that the locals had never seen before. It must be global warming.
I have been working on and rejecting designs for a one man marsh boat, 12' in length and 4' abeam. The boat will have through holes for staking in the decks at both ends as well as grassing rails, oar locks, and a floor rack to keep me out of the mud and water while lying down as well as flotation foam, structural members, bottom rub rails and all the rest.
The boat will be used in very shallow water, and be poled, paddled, rowed or towed. I've even given some thought to a very low powered mud motor. People are making them out of weed whackers.
I'm pretty well set on my top side form but I am still working out the hull shape. In my image I am leaning towards the hull on the far left. Even though my program is not meant for boats, I can develop patterns for that one and the one next to it and construct using stitch and glue. The other two would require strip planking around the bilges. Are there any thoughts as the the relative characteristics of the hard chine verses rounded? Again, I'm leaning towards the simplest, on the far left. It only takes me about two minutes to change the rocker, flare or roundness of the hull so nothing is set at all. I like the overall size as it will handle two people with little gear or one person with a dog, gun, lunch, decoys, and all of the other stuff that I must have with me. While hunting I will be using a low chair or lying down depending on the vegetation around me.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Bob
My father had told me that I could not build it so I fired up the table saw while he was at work. He went down to the shop for something and found the completed frame. "I guess you can build it." was all he said.
I built it before I got my drivers license, age 15 most likely. I know this because I had to have my older brother drive me to the airport to buy aircraft dope from the local flying service. I spent about 70 dollars on the build and the 50 that I spent on that paint was, at the time, the most money that I had ever spent at once in my life. Baling hay was how I got that money.
On a later family vacation, after being assured by a Teton National Park ranger that the "kayak" was certainly adequate for the Snake River, my older brother and I climbed into the elongated open cockpit and set off in the 12 mile per hour current. Four hours and forty miles later we rounded a bend and saw our worried parents and younger brother at the landing. My first words to them were- " Were you trying to get rid of us? "
It is now over forty years later. I enjoy doing a variety of things outdoors. I do some canoeing, deer and duck hunting, fishing, drawing, carpentry and even more dreaming. Our three kids are grown, still costing though, the youngest a Marine recently back from an uneventful tour in Fallujah. He did see snow, ice and frost while he was there, things that the locals had never seen before. It must be global warming.
I have been working on and rejecting designs for a one man marsh boat, 12' in length and 4' abeam. The boat will have through holes for staking in the decks at both ends as well as grassing rails, oar locks, and a floor rack to keep me out of the mud and water while lying down as well as flotation foam, structural members, bottom rub rails and all the rest.
The boat will be used in very shallow water, and be poled, paddled, rowed or towed. I've even given some thought to a very low powered mud motor. People are making them out of weed whackers.
I'm pretty well set on my top side form but I am still working out the hull shape. In my image I am leaning towards the hull on the far left. Even though my program is not meant for boats, I can develop patterns for that one and the one next to it and construct using stitch and glue. The other two would require strip planking around the bilges. Are there any thoughts as the the relative characteristics of the hard chine verses rounded? Again, I'm leaning towards the simplest, on the far left. It only takes me about two minutes to change the rocker, flare or roundness of the hull so nothing is set at all. I like the overall size as it will handle two people with little gear or one person with a dog, gun, lunch, decoys, and all of the other stuff that I must have with me. While hunting I will be using a low chair or lying down depending on the vegetation around me.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Bob