The pictured craft was plywood with
aluminum deck frame and leaning post. I
replaced the seat with a small plywood
cabinet and mounted a bass seat on it with
the trolling motor battery inside. Looked
lots better.G The pontoons were simply
1/4 inch fir ply fastened to fir cleats
with with 1" deck screws. It took me a
weekend from start to finish including the
first coat of acrylic house enamal as the
finish. Total cost was about 80 bucks. It
lived outside for 4 years and was used
often. Total weight without motor and
battery was 80 pounds. The Rhinohyde and
foam looks promising though. Bit more
pricey perhaps but it will never rot.G
They use it here for commercial fishing
boats as a deck sheathing and they build
huge ice boxes by just attaching foam and
spraying Rhinohyde over it for durability.
Warm regards, Jim
Point of interest. Rhinohyde contains
no solvents. It does not eat the foam. It
is the only product I am aware of
that does not. It uses a heat process.
The finished product is not unlike a molded
poly finish. Warm regards, Jim
Jim Hatch, That boat you have pictured is EXACTLY what have been thinking about building! What is the overall length and what are the approximate pontoon dimensions. I am not sure If I am going to do the boat in wood (1/4 inch plywood, framing, and glass) or if I should do it in glassed styrofoam. I would like to build real similar to yours except possibly put the trolling motor in back or possible a 3 HP outboard. I currently have a home built jon boat that is a much altered version of Jim Machalak’s Jon Boat. She is a beauty, fully glassed, livewell, two casting decks, trolling motor and 10 hp outboard, fish finder, onboard battery charger, nav lights, and tons of storage. It handles like a dream and draws about 3 inches of water. Took me about 150 hours to build! I get compliments everytime I put her on the water. Besides fly fishing, now I am hooked on building boats. I love the simplicity and low cost of your rig. Nice job! P.S. - Don’t tell my wife I am thinking about building another boat!
Thanks! I got a lot of comments on the
little pontoon on my local waters. Often
folks would come charging up in their $30K
bass rigs and want to know what in the heck
I was fishing off of and where could they
get one.G It’s very basic, as I am a
full fledged founding member of K.I.S.S.
Length is 8 foot and the sides and top are
12". In other words, each pontoon is three
equal rips lengthways in a standard sheet
of ply, producing 4 panels. The sideones
got a little shape and the first one was the
pattern for the other side.
I’ll be hosting the FAOL Chat Room this
evening from 9 to ll p.m. EDT. Drop by if
you’d like to ask any questions. Warm
regards, Jim
[This message has been edited by Jim Hatch (edited 19 May 2006).]
You can easily design a pontoon setup to
comfortably carry a predetermined amount of
weight. The one I built would be rated at
at over 400 pounds. Figuring 1 cu ft of
water displaced will support 62.42 pounds.
Multiply the number of cubic ft in your
design and you’ll have the floatation factor
with the hull submerged to the level of the
water. Figure how much of the hull you want
to remain above water. For me it was 1/2
the hull depth or 6 inches. That meant that
1/2 of the total displacement minus the
weight of the craft, would leave me about
450 pounds of usable capacity for my boat.
Hope this helps. Warm regards, Jim
Using thus figures and my 300 lb but I figure at 4’X6’x12" thick with a 24" slot in the rear will afford me a flotation factore of a giant bobber.Just tie a rope on and a hook and you could bobber fish for a whale.This thing should work real good 24 sq ft wow heheheh
Dennis
OK, I realized what has been lurking in the back of my head (I mean besides all the empty space). What about the structural integrity of foam? I mean by that that if one were to buy a big old hunk o’ foam and cut out a slot to sit in would one need to worry about reinforcement of some sort? Or could the two pieces of foam left sticking out after cutting the slot in the block of foam stand up to the everyday wear and tear loads that fishing would put on them? I am pretty sure that there would be no real danger of “sinking” but it’d be nasty ugly as well as embarrassing to arrive back at port with one or both legs of the kick boat busted off and floating out in the lake.
Giving thought to the breakage issue.I went out today and glued up my pannels for mine.using 2 inch thick 4x8 pannels of styrofoam but laminated in some 1x2s in the glue up.it should hold up after it has been hot wired.
Dennis
I am going to laminate the foam pontoons and place the foam blocks between two preshaped pieces of 1/4"luan plywood, and then hot wire cut following the shape of the luan sides. I will also probably cut in 3/4" by 1 1/2" pine stringers for strength. I also plan on glassing the pontoons for durability. I am thinking 10 feet long and 48" wide for the boat. Jim Hatch’s picture of his wonderful creation sure has new ideas popping into my head! I plan on using this for sections of a river that has some shallow sandbar stretches in it, making it impassible to most fishing boats. This section also has poor landings that are pretty much carry in boats only. Will look at putting a 3HP outboard on it.
Gosh, the storms rage across the tattered prairie of my mind as the ideas blow and rage. Pretty poetic huh? But that seems to be what is happening here as you guys post some thoughts to ponder.
First of all, I am thinking that plain old pine 1x2s would last pretty much forever once ensconced in foam and fiberglass or Rhino lining. Will make for some good “rebar”
A plywood sandwich that was glassed or Rhino lined ought to be one heck of a floater as well. That sounds to be the sort of thing that would float across the Pacific and wash up somewhere across the Humboldt current intact and ready to go fishing.
