Come ‘n listen to my story ‘bout a man named Jed A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed And then one day, he was fishin’ at some pool. And up through the surface come a bubblin’ tube - Flat, that is, sprung a leak…
Well, the first thing you know, old Jed’s a swimin’ fur shore. Kin folk said, Jed, gotta’ swim a little more. Said, Californy is the place you oughta be. So they loaded up the kick boat and they moved to Beverly - Hills, that is, fishin’ pools, movie stars.
[This message has been edited by Dave E (edited 16 May 2006).]
What sort of information are you looking for, Robin? I have one of the boats, not the one pictured, but similar. I use it with fins in tanks around here. It’s slow, but allows you to sit higher than a typical kick tube. It’s easier to handle myself than a jon boat or canoe.
I made two of them in the early 90’s and the lasted about 8 years of use on the Yakima R. there were two others on the river at that time as well. Other than that there were two water otters and a King Fisher, the rest of the boats on the river were driftboats and rafts.
I don’t seem to have any shots of the first one I made stored on my computer but here’s the second one. (also still one of my favorite fishing pictures)
As I understand it Pat Oglesby in Gunnison (or a friend of his) bought the what was left of the"company" that started them originally. The original name was Water Skater I think, with a guy in Hamilton MT. They are mentioned in one of the early articles on kickboats in Fly Fisherman (I think springtime of 92 or 93) You could buy a completed boat or $15 for plans…the plans were mostly to get the information on the glue coating that wouldn’t eat the styrenes.
I watched kickboating skyrocket on the Yakima sitting on these things. Early on Bank anglers and boaters would stop and ask, “did you make that?”, my reply was always “you think I’d pay for something this ugly?” The problem with them was although fairly abrasion resistant the coating could puncture easily on sharp rocks and limbs and then the foam would soak up water before being patched and over time gain a fair amount of weight. Nonetheless there are some definite performance characteristics of the slab design that are outstanding. They turn effortlessly and draw almost nothing due to the much greater displacement of the slab. Super stable on a smaller platform than boats with comparable stability.
My 3rd generation was built on fiberglassed polyurethane pontoons (I wanted a rowing frame) but by this time there was no savings in home made (except I got the foam for free) and I wasn’t good enough at fiberglassing to keep the weight down where I wanted it.
No, I am not that good a crafsman I bartered for it, traded a fellow a mess of furled leaders for it. Seems to have been made up in Canadian TX by a company that appears to no longer exist according to my Google searches which come up zip nada.
I’ve been thinking of making myself something like these for a while. I think they look cool. The lawn chair seat gives it a special look. Question, how are they when some Merc 300 creates a wake???
Dave E,
Please e-mail some technical specs regarding chair model # and manufacturer. Duct tape brand,chewing gum,bungee cord, glue and battery ?. Perhaps a drawing?
Hey Marco,
When that kick boat comes into contact with some immovable hard object and falls apart, Martha says you can use the pre-soaked foam pieces to make this lovely floral arrangement.
Which might come in handy at the wake.
In my mind the amount one invests into a life vest or a water craft should be directly proportional to the value they place on their life. But that’s just me.
I’ve played with small boats for many
years. In deference to our healthy gator
population here in SC, this was my version
of a solo pontoon boat.
Exceptionally stable and would transit very
shallow waters. Great fly fishing platform.
I used 1/4 inch ply for this one but worked
up the figures for a version with foam
pontoons as well. We have a architectual
trim company here that makes columns and
other commercial building trim and coats
them with a cement product. They quoted me
50 bucks for a shaped pair of pontoons from
foam with no coating. The Rhinohyde dealer
did a test spray on a large chunck of foam
for me and it completely encapsulated the
foam and added tremendous durability. Maybe
one of these days I’ll get around to
building it.G Warm regards, Jim
[This message has been edited by Jim Hatch (edited 18 May 2006).]
You have passed on some inspirational data. Those are all great ideas.
On the pictured pontoon boat, did you build the pontoons, fill with foam and then cap off with plywood? Or some other method of manufacture? A proprietary trade secret perhaps?
I’ll have to look up the Rhino Liner or similar service here in my area.
I bartered for it, traded a fellow a mess of furled leaders for it. Seems to have been made up in Canadian TX by a company that appears to no longer exist according to my Google searches which come up zip nada.
