How many of you have built their own boats? How did they work out? Did the boat work out well for you for fly fishing and have a good lifetime?
I’ve wanted to build a small plywood fishing boat. Have wanted to do this from the time I was fairly young. Hadn’t thought about the idea for years, but now that I am a bit older and have a little more time, am planning to build one some of these times.
I’ve thought about canoes, kayaks, etc. Now I have come down to a small fishing boat (maybe 13 or 14 feet) for fly fishing lakes, really coves in lakes, and a small pram for fishing ponds. The pram would be small enough to carry in a pickup. I want something big enough for at least one friend.
I am pretty good with tools, my hands, wood working, and have a high apptitude for this sort of thing. Also my background with solvents, and as an applied research chemist gives me a good understanding of glues, etc. In short, I am fairly confident that I can be sucessful using old plans from 1950s issues of Boat Builder’s Handbook.
For the bigger boat I may use plans such as GlenL marine sells.
I like plywood because of it’s strength and light weight. Will likely either fiberglass it or may use the old technique of light weight canvasing the boat. The canvas approach appeals because it is cheaper than glassing. The canvasing approach won’t last as long, but should be good for several years.
Where can you find a product like the old “canvas cement”? Is it still made?
I’m building one of the Glen-L boats. If you decide to do this i would strongly recommend them regrdles of type or size of the project. Their service is simply the best. Join their boat builder forum and post any questions you might have. It’s just like this one. You will get bombarded with answers… :roll:
I caught the boat building bug back in the 80’s when i built my first cedar stripper canoe. I’ve since built /assisted on nearly 8 more. I can’t recomend it enough. It’s a soul altering experience . ( Like tying a flies time 10,000.) I the last 10 years, I’ve built two boats of similar “need’ as you described.
First, the Larger boat was a 13’8” rowing skiff designed by Ken Swan. It’s a great boat that is simple to build yet pleasing in appearence and performance. Kens plans and designs are easy to follow without allot of specialized boat building experience. It moves at 6 knots with 1.5 hp but I rarely powered it as it rows nearly effortlessly. I could stand in it easily for flyfishing due to it’s flat bottom ( that also allowed it to float in 3" of water. I built mine from 1/4" marine plywood with a fiberglass layer outside to toughen it up. Weight built to my scantings was about 130#. I hightly recomend this boat as a FF boat for reasonably sheltered lakes and rivers.
I don’t have pics of mine handy but here are a few from another fans site.http://www3.sympatico.ca/herbert.mcleod/gem.htm
As for the smaller “truck boat, I actually took lines from a 9’ aluminum pram I had and streatched them. The result was a 42” x 11’ cedar stripped boat that had some unique features that made it as functional as it was beautiful.
First, it went in and out of the truck/water easily becasue it weighed only 88" fully rigged with oars, removable battery compartment and wheels. ( yea, wheels!) I installed axel sockets in the transom which allowed my to add ( in 30 seconds) 12" pnumatic wheels that allowed EASY transport from truck to water and back.
It also had nice storage trays on the sides of the seats for spreading out fly box’s , cameras etc without then ending up on the deck. Lastly, it rowed well and was stable enough for standing in calm water.
FWIW, I’d advise agains canvas. It’s high maintanance , heavy weight and not very durable. Glass cloth is MUCH cheaper when bought in bulk. It’s also much lighter, tougher and near maint free.
Note the cedar stripper pram above is completely covered in epoxy and glass so that it’s basicly a fiberglass/maint free boat.
I have a book I check ed from the library when I was ten or twelve I think and it never got returned but it give excellent instructions on building a good wooden John boat and I have built seven of them now for myself and friends. I love mine it is super stable, enough so I usually stand to cast in it and never fear it throwing me out. I will look in the shop for the book today and see if I can post the title of it tonight if you would like.
Steve
Weehooker, that is an absolutely beautiful jon boat. Thank you also for the advise not to go with canvas.
Thank you all for the advise. I have never built a boat, so you all have a lot more experience than I do.
Steve, if you find the name of the book please advise. Or if the instructions on the boat are only a few pages long would you mind sending me a photocopy? I will gladly pay you what ever it costs to do so.
Thanks, Just be advised, boat building delivers about as much satisfaction as a person can get with his pants on. Once you build one, you’ll start planning your next !
Weehooker, Exceptionally fine looking boat. Makes me wish you’d posted larger pictures so I could see it better. Cedarc strip boats have such a beauty to them, when they are well done, the look is hard to beat. Thanks for sharing.
I don’t know if you recall or not but more than a few years ago
you sent me a set of plans for a small pontoon boat that really
gave me the bug. It was the catalyst that led to this design of
mine which served me quite well. It scooted through anything
wet and took me to spots that perhaps had never seen a fly.G
Undoubted the most fun I ever experienced in a small craft of
any type. Contemplating the building of another like craft this
year even though I now have a nice bass boat. It was a ton of
fun.G Warm regards, Jim
Well Jim, it took you mentioning it to jog my memory but I DO remember (. That’s something these days for me!) I’m glad you gave it a try. Very functional looking little canal crawler you got there. I’m guessing you modified my plans somewhat though :o What are her dimentions/details?
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
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.
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
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.
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!!!
