Well I decided with the off season to build myself another duck hunting boat , 2 years ago I made a very useful layout boat for hunting the local STA's in south Florida , it proved to be deadly on the ducks , The big advantage is that I could pole right out into a open cell with zero cover throw out some decoys and get in the boat and start cherry picking my shots - last hunt I limited out with firing off 7 shells this is a picture of my last layout and the new one will be similar - when you get in the rail is drawn down to the waterline
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/OldGobbler1/waterfowl%20hunting/DSC05522.jpg)
this is a picture of someone else's setup to help you figure out how it works , when he sits in it the hunter disappears
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/OldGobbler1/waterfowl%20hunting/DSC_00091577.jpg)
My last design sat 4.5 inches above the water , but due to the rounded bottom I needed to carry concrete blocks to ballast the boat to the waterline - my newer boat has a rounded square bottom and a pulled in and rounded backside and is stretched out to 12 feet with 6 inches of room - I have some steelflex coating to apply to the boat to assist with poling it out into the hydrilla
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(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/OldGobbler1/iphonepictures028-1.jpg)
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/OldGobbler1/iphonepictures031.jpg)
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/OldGobbler1/iphonepictures035-1.jpg)
At this point I have 4 hours into the project on this picture below - I have cut out a template {my design} planed down the rails to eliminate volume and sadwiched the 2 main pieces between western cedar beams
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/OldGobbler1/iphonepictures036.jpg)
The hardest part is forming the 4x8 5mm luan ply to the boat , it has to be clamped ,bent and , screwed and glued in a precise order - then go in and plane out all the high spots so there is a smooth finish for fiber glassing - I have about 12 hours into that process so far
not quite done ,all that needs to done is clean up the shape and fiber glass it
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/OldGobbler1/iphonepictures041.jpg)
will add more pictures as I progress , with some luck I will wrap it up this weekend
this is an awesome setup shannon. looks like a simple yet very effective way to blast some ducks. I am still gathering gear such as decoys and calls.
Very Very nice!!! :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:
Super sweet boat there young man, love the caller on the side...lol...pappy
That is one sweet boat/blind!! Put them on the market already!
Looks good. :you_rock:
Thats cool but I got a question. Do you lay down in that thing? If so how do you shoot. Do you shoot in the long sitting position? First off I don't think I could fit into it. Second I could just see a cramp coming and then I would be in a mess. :help: How do you retrieve your ducks? Do you paddle over to them or do you have a dog? If you have a dog where does it stand or sit?
TRKYHTR
Looks great Shannon! What does a finished boat like that weigh?
Great looking boat Shannon! :you_rock:
brian
Quote from: TRKYHTR on October 19, 2011, 11:48:47 PM
Thats cool but I got a question. Do you lay down in that thing? If so how do you shoot. Do you shoot in the long sitting position? First off I don't think I could fit into it. Second I could just see a cramp coming and then I would be in a mess. :help: How do you retrieve your ducks? Do you paddle over to them or do you have a dog? If you have a dog where does it stand or sit?
TRKYHTR
Joe, you lay flat down like your laying in a coffin - you can have your gun muzzle pointed to the front of the boat {preferred } and pull it out when they decoy in , best shots are when the ducks are about to set in and they have to power up to fly away when they see you sit up at this point they are at there slowest and close and clean shots are easy - I can get 2 full limit hunts out of 1 box of steel shells easy
you can shoot from your back but better shots are attained from sitting up - The big advantage is that you can be in a mediocre area and decoy tons of ducks/geese making every hunt a great one - these boats work awesome - If a person is less than 230# they can fit into my new boat I'm making right now , sometimes you have to make left hand shots
it is the same exact methods as the field layout blinds that the goose hunters use , except instead of a cloth blind, hunters are using a saucer shaped low boat with the decoys all around them - I know for certain that the same trend that revolutionized goose hunting with layout blinds a decade ago is starting to take hold of open water duck hunting in the next ten years , the boats are getting popular and lots of people are starting to make them and use them
for open water hunting with a tender your partner motors over to the ducks and retrieves them for you - I hunt in shallow open marshes and get out my push pole and pole over and grab them before they drift away or the gators eat them on me {happens all the time}, if the duck is a cripple you have to pole over asap or they will get away for sure
these guys here in Utah have perhaps some of the best commercially made layouts , they have some videos to0 http://lblayoutboats.com/home/boats
Quote from: LX_Trkyhntr on October 20, 2011, 12:51:25 PM
Looks great Shannon! What does a finished boat like that weigh?
The one on the top is 100 pounds , but I carry 140 pounds of concrete blocks to ballast it down, it has a rounded bottom to it and adds volume that needs to be weighted down
The next one I'm making will probably weigh 110 pounds and will need very little ballast or none at all
A commercially made fiberglass boat will weigh in at 80 pounds and will never rot because it has no wood in it , they are the best option
Mighty layout Boys and
Lake Bonniville Layouts are all fiberglass they are very good products
If this last prototype works out I have a friend who has connections in the offshore boat business {boat factory }and has shown interest in making and selling these locally , we will make a fiberglass plug mold out of them and start selling them commercially on the East Coast US , website and the whole deal if we get the project up and going
Quote from: Old Gobbler on October 20, 2011, 09:57:03 PM
Quote from: LX_Trkyhntr on October 20, 2011, 12:51:25 PM
Looks great Shannon! What does a finished boat like that weigh?
The one on the top is 100 pounds , but I carry 140 pounds of concrete blocks to ballast it down, it has a rounded bottom to it and adds volume that needs to be weighted down
The next one I'm making will probably weigh 110 pounds and will need very little ballast or none at all
A commercially made fiberglass boat will weigh in at 80 pounds and will never rot because it has no wood in it , they are the best option Mighty layout Boys and Lake Bonniville Layouts are all fiberglass they are very good products
If this last prototype works out I have a friend who has connections in the offshore boat business {boat factory }and has shown interest in making and selling these locally , we will make a fiberglass plug mold out of them and start selling them commercially on the East Coast US , website and the whole deal if we get the project up and going
That's really exciting!! I can see how that could be a VERY lucrative business! Waterfowlers take their gear as seriously as turkey hunters!! LOL
Here is this weeks progress -- I went and sanded down the layout and cleaned up some of the lines and low spots with wood filler
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/OldGobbler1/iphoneboat006-1.jpg)
first coat of resin with a light tint to indicate where resin is applied , a thin coat to soak into the wood to assist with a strong cloth bond
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/OldGobbler1/iphoneboat007.jpg)
Glassed with 8 ounce cloth and poly resin with a color matched resin tint {battleship grey} I used black and white tint until it looked right - I let the over lap dry then cut, sanded till smooth
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/OldGobbler1/iphoneboat009.jpg)
a top sanding coat with more grey tint and a sanding agent/styrene-wax was put on
this is impact resistant roving tacked to the rail , its about to be glassed in on the next batch of resin
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/OldGobbler1/iphoneboat010.jpg)
The boat is about 95% done today but it got to dark to take pictures -
there is a nice coat of steel flex2000 on the bottom hull , its a slick coating airboaters use for their hulls and assists with moving over foliage and pulling up on and over hard surfaces
I glassed the bottom of the boat and I am 98% done with the exterior glass , only thing I need to do is touch up a few spots - then I will make some dry storage compartments brace up the cockpit rails with some teak or maple I have, and paint up the inside and out with grey color and add tow and rope anchor points - and take her out for sea trials in the swimming pool to see how she floats
will add some pictures soon--Shannon
That will get the job done Shannon. thats pretty nice.
Ive been wanting to buy a Momarsh DP Fatboy or a four rivers, but dont have the money and may build a hybrid. They work very well.
its looking really good. is it done yet? :icon_thumright:
I water tested it in the pool and the results and my math was dead on the boat I designed when empty will be weight forward , and when I get in to hunt or pole it though the marsh it will balance out level because of my weight -
It sat right dead on the rail line and my computations of my 150 lbs weight plus the weight of the boat 110 lbs , 30 lbs pounds of gun and gear equals the 4.5 cubic feet of displacement under the water line - 1 cubic foot of displacement equals 62 pounds
A plumber friend of mine gave me two fittings that I used to make flush tow/pull anchor pouts , I mounted them in with a 2 part epoxy them glassed them over , I also am cleaning up the rails with some glass work - Ill paint her up , and I think I will coat the inside with a truck bed coating and it will be all done
Sweet! I think you'll get a lot more enjoyment out of that than a store bought layout boat. Kinda like buying a storebought vs. a call you built yourself. Then again, you already know it since this is boat #2.
By the way, what ya gonna name this one? Every boat needs a name. Need to put it up in the General Section and let folks help you come up with a name.
Awesome build Shannon. I have a Bobcat pirogue that I have been using for a number of years. Eventually I plan to build my own as well. It truly is a good way to hunt ducks
The layout boat is all done ! I went and cleaned up the rails ,applied another grey tinted gloss resin to the top , rolled on 3 coats of base grey paint inside and out , added a skid resistant coating {beach sand thrown on top of the paint} then gave it a camo wave paint job with several colors of grey and black primer paint
I loaded in the back of my truck and took it down to a flooded drainage pond to test out how sea worthy it is - As you can see my math is dead on , and even with no weight the front rail goes right to the waterline , with my 150 lbs the entire rail goes flush to the water line , I poled it around and on top of some weeds and the steel flex does seem to aid with poling through weeds - It certainly aids with loading and unloading from the truck bead
Dont mind the slight haze of sawdust from making cedar duck decoys , It washes off
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/OldGobbler1/iphone2002.jpg)
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/OldGobbler1/iphone2004.jpg)
There is a shelf on the rear that functions as a head rest and somewhere to stash the dead ducks and keep the shells dry
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/OldGobbler1/iphone2003.jpg)
Here is a close up shot of the skid resistant sand that I added to the paint , this will keep you from slipping on the deck like wet bathtub - Also in the picture is of one of my Florida Mottled duck decoy heads I made ,these will be special decoys and will be styled to look and function like sinkbox decoys I have 2 decoys made so far and will make a few more to make the set complete - Turn of the century sinkbox decoys were made of cast Iron and looked flatter than a normal decoy to lend the illusion of blending in the bend of rise of the sinkbox - My decoys I will make will be set ant a angle and flatter than normal to blend the boat into the water more , I have some vitage pre WW2 handblown glass eyes on the way in the mail - and I will add them to the cedar blocks to give my rig the vintage flair
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/OldGobbler1/iphone2005.jpg)
Old school sinkbox hunters with sinkbox iron decoys , notice how they are flatter than a normal decoybut from a distance the decoy spread/heads look flat and level and hide the sink box - Sinkboxes were banned in 1918 in the US but are still legal in Canada - the distant cousin of the sinkbox is the layout boat now gaining popularity
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/OldGobbler1/sinkb.jpg)
New school layout decoys by body language decoys/Lake bonnivile layout made of foam with a magnet attachment system , a new twist on a very old and useful device
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh220/OldGobbler1/boat37.jpg)
Great boat Shanon,,it's a winner.
Well I think it turned out awesome Shannon! I hope you load it up with some quackers soon.
Very sweet. Love hunting out of a lay out or scull boat.