16' Mckenzie River Wood Drift Boat Build

[cbond3318]

Well, for some reason a few weeks ago I woke up with the insatiable urge to build my own drift boat. Why? not sure, have never even looked at buying one or felt I needed one. Maybe it was my bloodlines leading to my greatx2 uncle building Salmon Gillnetters in AK or maybe living here in Central Oregon around some of the roots of drift boat design, either way the feeling could not be ignored. So here I am, thought it would be cool to post a follow along and maybe keep myself motivated for a timely construction.

First step of the process to me was to research different options and designs. Seeing how I am not a fly fisherman or done much skinny water exploring, I can't say design preference is stemmed from necessity as much as it is the love of classic lines and design which were originated by necessity of some of the first boulder bouncing, channel shooting explorers of skinny water. In my quest for information, I ended up in a Barnes and Noble to pick up a copy of Roger L. Fletchers book "Drift Boats and River Dories". The book is full of what I love,  history. A complete history equipped with tales of the maiden voyages of these boats and why they chose certain lines to accommodate their needs.

After reading through I ended my search on the "16' Mckenzie River w/ Transom, something about the perfect rocker and classic lines had me hooked instantly. Included in the book among the stories is complete plans derived from the original builders shop or measurements taken from one of the original boats. Being a carpenter by trade, the plans were fairly easy to pick through and make sense of. Some things are left to the builder to determine but the meat of it is there.

Once I had the plans figured out and I had built the boat in my head a few times it was time to get out the poster board and build a 1:12 scale model of the boat. This did 2 things for me, one it furthered my understanding of sequence and two, it gave me the confidence that I might actually be able to pull off this build. It showed how the angles of the frames made the boat and how bevels will be determined. I recommend to anyone going to build one to do this, it was a tremendous help.

At this time I have the model built and am now shopping for the right materials. I am leaning towards standard lumbers, this being my first boat I will save the fancy stuff for a build when my son is old enough to join me. So, 1/4" AB Marine Grade Ply for the sides, 5/8" for the bottom. The frames I am going to use clear grain Doug Fir. Fairly inexpensive and durable. All the hardware is going to be 304 stainless steel.

I will be welcoming input from anyone who has been through this process for ideas related to finishes, bottom protection such as lining with UHMW or Glass, interior set up, so on and so forth. Any ways that is where I am at and will update as I work through this build, again any input is welcomed. Hope you enjoy!

[GurrCentral]

Awesome! Nothing beats rowing a wood driftboat! Let me know what you find on the uhmw bottom. I'm thinking that would be the way to go.  Good luck!  I wish I had that model!!

[Timberstalker]

Nice!  Look forward to seeing some blood in the bottom of that thing!

[jackmaster]

tagging along, from the looks of it, you have built a few things, the only advise is something you already know, do it snug, tight and flush and it will save you a ton of tedious finish work time, everytime you get to the finish you always tell yourself, damn i should have sanded this another 16th or i should have added another degree to that angle and on and on, i have learned to go slow, make sure its how you want it before you anchor her down, it dont have to be done in a day i seriously use to think that i had to have it all done in a day

[762Armo]

It's been two month. Where are the progress updates?

[Evil_EdwardO]

I built this about 4 summers ago. Was definitely a lot of fun and very rewarding to be able to sail in something I built from scratch. For me I had to fiberglass the seams on the bottom to keep it from leaking. Hasn't leaked since. I also used an oil based paint, about 5-6 coats and used marine varnish for the inside, about 4 coats.

[Machias]

If you run into any snags along the building process, the Glen-L boat building forum is awesome site for advice, photos and just good old encouragement.  When I move back out west I'm going to build my own boat as well.  Probably a 25 foot V Dory with a cabin.  Good luck and thanks for taking us along on the build!!

http://www.glen-l.com/phpBB2/

[RadSav]

Definitely go with the UHMW bottom.  First time you go through a bolder garden you will be glad you did.  Next best choice if paint/varnished finish would be Gluvit.  If using oil finish Gluvit will work, but you have to be careful or the edges will lift over time.

One of my favorites was to finish with linseed oil.  Doesn't look as pretty with standard grade marine plywood, but you never have to worry about trapping moisture underneath glass.  That's very important to the longevity of the boat when using cheaper materials. 

The fir ribs sound perfect to me   My first two boats I used the same.  Third one I used cedar and ended up wishing I had used the fir again as it takes a lot more abuse as long as you router the edges nicely!  Plus the fir ribs and fir plywood will finish in roughly the same shades where the cedar looks out of place.  Cedar is also difficult to get a varnish to stick to.  Bubbles often.

If you build it right you should not need to seal the seams in any way.  It might leak a small amount if you launch after a long storage, but as the wood swells that will go away very quickly.  Keeping a good coat of oil on the seams will keep the wood swollen and shouldn't have any leakage.  Again if built right by an anal retentive builder with attention to detail.

If you have questions along the way you might wish to call these guys.  I did not use their kit, but they were a tremendous help to me when I needed assistance on how to best apply the UHMW.  http://www.gregboats.com/pages/driftboats.html

[RadSav]

I forgot about hardware;

My best build used stainless screws for the bottom edges and stainless bolts for the ribs.  Everywhere else I used bronze covered brass ring shank nails.  3/8" bottom and 1/4" sides.  Once finished with the linseed oil the nails were hardly noticeable.  I might warn you though, best be dang good with a hammer if using these nails!  Trying to remove them will rip up your wood in a serious way   I ended up just grinding bad nails down flush instead of trying to pull them.   Yeah, I had more than one

[Wanttohuntmore]

Would like to watch the progress on this.   I'm thinking of building a 10' drift pram ( already have a 16' metal db).   A small pram would work well for some of he places I want to drift.