Layout boat

[Old Gobbler]

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


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



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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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  

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


will add more pictures as I progress , with some luck I will wrap it up this weekend

[MarkJM]

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.

[ghillie]

Very Very nice!!!   

[pappy]

Super sweet boat there young man, love the caller on the side...lol...pappy

[drenalinld]

That is one sweet boat/blind!! Put them on the market already!

[SumToy]

Looks good.   

[TRKYHTR]

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.  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

[LX_Trkyhntr]

Looks great Shannon!  What does a finished boat like that weigh?

[GOLD HUNTER]

Great looking boat Shannon! 

brian

[Old Gobbler]

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.  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

[Old Gobbler]

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

[LX_Trkyhntr]

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

[Old Gobbler]

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


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



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 


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


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

[savduck]

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.

[MarkJM]

its looking really good. is it done yet?