ZTW final installment

[Darin Clark]

Things got busy this fall and I haven't posted my progress, but I have been busy. It was right down to the wire, but I got it done in time to take it to Virginia with Steve and Tom. It's not 100% done, but close enough. I still want to put grass rails on the bow and have a dodger made. I had a really good time on the trip, even though the ducks didn't cooperate. I was very happy with my ZTW. It is slow, which I expected, but handles waves well and will motor in almost no water.

So here is the final installment

I made shelves in the bow to hold the battery and gas tank. I hated to give up the storage space in the bow, but wanted the weight forward.

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I went looking for a piece of oak for the motor mount and oar locks. I ended up at a little old mill and had a neat talk with an old Marine who survived three beach landings in the South Pacific. After trading military stories he GAVE me a beautiful piece of oak.

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I roughed out the oar locks and decoy racks.

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All decked and ready for fiberglass. I put one layer of 6oz cloth on the deck.

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Floorboards fitted and ready for paint.

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And here is the final result all ready to hit the water.

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I installed a switch panel. The running lights are all hooked up and I put a switch in for lights under the deck which will be installed next summer.

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Due to everything freezing up here, the maiden voyage took place in Virginia. Luckily it floated or it would have been a long drive for nothing.

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Tom hunted the first day with us, but unfortunately he hurt his back and headed home early.

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If you look close at the back of the dodger you will see Steve's bear arm, 74 degrees on the 21st of Dec. just not right.

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My golden Luke was along to handle the retrieving end of things, he didn't get much work, but like us is still happy to be out

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and of course I can't leave out the celebrity of the trip. Jersey Boy is one good looking decoy, even if he didn't coax any of his kind in.

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[Huntindave McCann]

Darin,


Nicely done.

 

[Jon Yenulonis]

Pretty AWESOME Darin!


Too bad you didn't get any feathers on her, but you will.


Jon

 

[Steve Sanford]

Darin~

Beautiful workmanship!

Question: I could not see whether you have anything on motorboard to keep OB from twisting off. I usually just countersink a couple of shallow (1/4") holes for the specific motor. (Of course, I learned the importance the hard way - when I was in the 8th grade - and lost an old 18-horse Evinrude in the mucky bottom of the Connetquot River.)

I made this last year for a friend - treated Southern Yellow Pine sealed with 2 coats of epoxy.

Merry Christmas!

SJS

 

[Tom Hickman]

Hey Darin, great pictures. Hope we can do it again next year.look forward to seeing you and Steve at the decoy show in Tuckerton in September !!

 

[CAnderson]

Beautiful job Darrin. Thanks for sharing the build with us and keeping us informed with the photos along the way.


I will hope and pray that God will give you many successful hunts from your boat in the years to come.


Chad

 

[Bill Burkett]

A story told in pictures...and a great story at that. I am in awe of such craftsmanship...never was even able to build a decent boat blind that didn't come apart on the launch! As for the motor crawling off the transom, first time I've seen that mentioned,but it happened to me twice. Once with a three-horse Evinrude rental in the sixties when I was a kid with gunfighter reflexes--I fielded it before it could escape to a watery grave. Second was my old twenty Merc years later mounted high to accommodate one of those Alaska Riffle Runners (poor man's answer to a jet sled). Since it sat high, I had a better shot at grabbing it and did before both mounts slid off, or that ninety pounds might have taken me with it.

Counter-sunk--a simple solution. I through-bolted that 20 and pasted up the holes to keep it still. Which saved it for the thieves with the socket wrenches who invaded my pasture while we were on vacation...

 

[Steve Steffy]

Yeah, 74 degrees in late December certainly aint right. By the way, the bare arms in the picture...I was still cooling off from poling / paddling out there. I stripped the thermal top off and went down to a t-shirt so I could put my camo jacket on not too long after that. If there was ANY sign of ducks flying I would have done so much sooner. The grassing on my boat was pretty lacking too...we were waiting for the tide to rise and planned to move to greener pastures...turns out they weren't any greener.

Anyway, it was great being down there and hunting with you, Tom and Luke. I wish we could have got Luke some more work, but it just wasn't meant to be on this trip. I think we all learned some good stuff while we were there. And we definitely know what we want to do with our boats. That's what its all about. I'll get a trip report posted up here shortly. Until next year...

Steve