Building My Own Fly Fishing Boat?

[Jim Hatch]

Hey Dave,

Yeah, I kind of took some liberties with the original design.*G*
This one was 8 foot long with a 60 inch beam (adjustable). Very
stable. Without motor and battery weighed 80 pounds. Took a
chop with no problem but really excelled when the water got
skinny.*G* Warm regards, Jim

[rtzden-1]

Aaagh yes the power of creation and voyage! Almost causes anybody to launch the Tom Sawyer flag and become young again. However, today?s young at heart boat builders have a couple advantages over the old school. Where as, we have applied chemistry that gives us high strength glue, easy fiberglass, and numerous other materials to choose. Hence the dreams can be laid and plans drawn for a lifetime of adventure with little maintenance.

On a similar note, my old canvas kayak was fabulous and truly gave the feel of Eskimo travel. Sadly, a stick near a beaver dam punctured the bow and it went down like a popped inner tube. Recently, my plywood and fiberglass skiff took a rock across the port and it was beyond repair. Hence, the next version will be the urethane board and fiberglass pontoon boat. Nearly similar to Jim?s, but a little less edge and 50 pounds lighter.

Here is the web page that gave me guide to using foam and fiberglass.
http://www.rqriley.com/frp-foam.htm

Here is the web page for plans to build small boats or kayaks.
http://www.jemwatercraft.com/materials.php

Hope you have some success! As for me, my station forms are cut and ready for assembly. Hopefully, by the end of Summer, the pontoon will be ready to float and the next step will be adding human power.
http://www.recumbents.com/wisil/hpb/boat98.htm

Who says fishing does not count as exercise?

[PCRusty]

I see this post is a few months old but I've been gone a while. It sounds like the boat you're looking for is called a pirogue. Try checking out www.southernpaddler.com. that site is all about boat building of smaller vessels. A pirogue kit is considered a great starter.

Rusty <><

[PG Flyfisher]

Dave - - -

Didn't I see on a previous post that you were working on a Sweet Dream Canoe? Just curious, how is that turning out?

[Joe Valencic]

This is my own design, and was built with stuff laying around the trailer park. Not pretty...but functional.



Joe

[MontanaMoose]

Joe, that's the coolest boat I've seen in 50 or so years !

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

[J. Marcus]

When I was a kid (long ago...) my dod, a civil engineer, drew up plans for a "kayak." At least it was a skin boat. It didn't have dimensions very similar to the real deal, though, It was rather short at 14' and wide at 36." Thus, it was stable. Part of this may have been due to the weight. He over-engineered the hell out of it, used 1/2" to 3/4" plywood to cut the parts out of and covered it with heavy cotton canvas and then sealed it with polyester resin! The resin worked OK for a couple of years until it went brittle and then you could hardly touch it without breaking a hole in the thing. Nonetheless--it was the best watercraft I have ever fished from--while it lasted. It was stable, roomy, swift, and could hold at least 2 adults or up to 4 kids... sort of. I found his plans a couple of years ago and have s-s-l-l-o-o-o-w-w-l-l-y-y-y started to redo them. It's biggest disadvantage was too much freeboard and it really caught the wind--one of many reason that I don't like canoes, too. I purchased a little molded polyethylene sit-on-top last year to see if I still liked the concept. Took it out last spring and almost sank. Got across the lake and cast a couple of times, realized I was going down and went like mad for the access! Didn't get there any too soon, either. You got any idea what the water trapped in a half-full kayak weighs??? Anyway, seems that a few holes in it that I thought were above the water line probably would have been if I'd weitghed 90 lbs... rather than a multiple of that... Boy!!! Absolutely nothing sticks permanently to polyethylene!!! Finally solved that with spray-in foam, rubber cement and gorrilla tape. Don't laugh! it workeds!! Took it out in the salt chuck day before yesterday and man was it great!! ...except it has all the directional stability of an upside-down frisbee. Caught a couple of salmon too! Kings, even. The big ones! One was 10" and the other was at least a foot!! So----where was I in this ramble? OK. I would recommend a shallow draft, wide, "kayak" type boat over anything else. especially if it has a keel or rudder or something so you don't start to turn circles as soon as you quit paddling! I'm gonna be right back at it now! This winter I guess I'll just have to dig out those plans and get back to modifying them. I'm thinking light, wide and low. Oh yes--some kind of a keel or rudder as well. Whatever you do--stay sorta dry!!!!!!

J. Marcus
http://www.flyrodjewelry.com