Duck Boat Building Thread-Updated 1-4-14-ON THE WATER!

Jon Yenulonis

Jon Yenulonis

Well-known member
I just may have a problem too. I just may be a Duck Boat-aholic.

I have a Zack Taylor 12’ Sneak Box Widgeon that I built myself and hasn’t seen water in about fifteen years. A 14’ Smoker Craft “Alaskan” that is pretty much used up. It leaks, and needs a lot of work. An 8’ Duckwater” Backwater 8” that is actually the most used of them all. A recently inherited 17’ Grumman Canoe which I practically grew up in, and a Lake Erie Layout Boat that I also built. This one hasn’t been wet for over ten years.

They’re just not enough for me. The problem is, they are all too small. I want something big enough to hunt three guys, a dog and all related gear.

I have had this idea floating around in my cerebral planning and engineering department for many years. I recently purchased what I hope will be a near perfect, all-around use boat.

I have several goals in mind.
1- Keep it relatively inexpensive. (yeah right)
2- I want a light boat, yet large enough to comfortably hunt three, a dog and all related gear. I hunt mostly shallow water. I want something that will draft little.
3- I REALLY LOVE the style of the modern day Duck Hunting boats. Bankes, TDB, Duckwater, Duckboss, etc. The thing they all have in common is their decks and blinds. My 14’ Alaskan has a deck similar to the Bankes Dominator and actually had a Dominator Cordura blind on it.
4- I want it as universal as I can make it. In a perfect world, she will have doggie doors on both sides that will double as hunter access doors. Complete with doggie ladder that I people can use too.
5- Will have a roof for those wet days, or when hunting the “wary three”.
6- I want a craft that will serve double duty as a fishing boat in the spring. We have a pretty good Crappie run in my nearby reservoir.

So I bought a Grizzly 1754 welded aluminum Jon boat and trailer from Bass Pro. I have a real nice, low hours, 25 HP Mercury two stroke that looks a little small, but fits her like a glove. With two people, dog, about two hundred extra pounds of gear, she jumps up on plane and does a flat out twenty-five miles per. I’m happy with that. I picked up a few yards of 1000 denier coated Cordura, a stack of aluminum channel, a few hardwood boards, a bucket full of hardware and a truckload of tools.

Here are the beginnings of what I came up with so far.

Here I scribed the Poplar to fit the gunwales. I have them temporarily clamped down with spring clamps. I will eventually use pickup truck cap clamps to more solidly, yet temporarily attach the decks.
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A pic of the simple jig I made up for keeping everything straight and square.
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Here is my version of an aluminum “rib”. She will have a bunch of these, in sections.
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A shot of a piece of hardware. These are “Draw Latches” that I picked up from EBay.
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Filing the burrs off of a freshly cut piece of alum stock.
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And last but not least, several photos of the progress. So far this is after about 12 hours of cutting, drilling, pop riveting, and mostly thinking about it all.
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More to follow. I hope to have this whole project done in a couple weeks. I have a big trip planned at the end of the month.

Jon
 
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I am watching this one. Jon thanks for working on this. Your old Smokercraft has had me thinking about a build like this for next year. I have a 1650 Alumacraft.

What did you decide to do as your angle up and away from the gunwhale? What will that set your final height from the floor to the top of your blind frame? Will the final skin be aluminum? What is the size of your cockpit opening?

Thanks in advance.

Chad
 
Excellent Jon! I absolutely love building boat blinds on jon boats! And I enjoy seeing others do it and picking up new ideas to improve on my existing designs. The journey to build the perfect boat blind never ends. Good Luck and I will really enjoy watching your progress!! Thanks for sharing!!
 
Jon~

Great job and great post - I look forward to your progress.

One thought: Yellow Poplar has low rot-resistance. Looks like you'll be storing the rig inside - just make sure air can get through it during the warmer months. And, I would treat it with something like Cuprinol in any event.

All the best,

SJS
 
I love watching boat/blind builds. It looks great and oddly familiar to the plan in my head.

I cant wait the watch the progress. Good luck
 

CAnderson-
"I am watching this one. Jon thanks for working on this. Your old Smokercraft has had me thinking about a build like this for next year. I have a 1650 Alumacraft.

What did you decide to do as your angle up and away from the gunwhale? What will that set your final height from the floor to the top of your blind frame? Will the final skin be aluminum? What is the size of your cockpit opening?

Thanks in advance.

Chad"

As far as angle, I started with height from floor. My old Smokercraft is about 28" high. That's a real good height for me. That set my angle(s). Each rib is different. One of my goals is to make it as symmetrical as I can. I want to be able to hunt out of the port or starboard side just as easily and comfortably.

I am planning on using plywood for the skin. Easy, cheap, workable. I am then going to coat it all with "Deck Restore". I used this stuff over the summer. Pretty awesome stuff.

Jon
 
"Great job and great post - I look forward to your progress.

One thought: Yellow Poplar has low rot-resistance. Looks like you'll be storing the rig inside - just make sure air can get through it during the warmer months. And, I would treat it with something like Cuprinol in any event.

All the best,

SJS"

Steve you are absolutely correct about the Poplar. Arguably not the best choice. It will most likely get exposed to a little moisture during the season. But, I had this on hand and this whole apparatus will be removable and only installed on the boat during Duck Season. The rest of the year, it will be stored inside where it's nice and dry.

Jon
 
I spent about ninety minutes on her this evening. I think I did ok for only an hour and a half.

I swapped out the bow pieces for a solid, 3/4" exterior ply piece. Sure used a big piece of wood to get this little one. Burned up darn near a whole sheet. The rough cut size was 62" X 44". I think the one piece construction will add to the integrity of the finished product.

Tonight's progress-

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Here is a shot of what I plan to clamp the decking to the gunwales with. I picked up 16 of these used at a truck cap store for $20.00. Pretty good deal, I thought.

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Until next time...

Jon
 
I managed to spend a few more hours on her over the last few evenings. Starting to actually look like something now. I have quite a bit of time on this project so far, but it depresses me somewhat when I realize how much more I have yet to go...


Here is a shot of the last corner framing. Fitting the skin to this is going to be tricky. But I'll manage. (I have a big hammer, and a large capacity disc sander).
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Attaching the skin, finally!
Early on in the planning stages, I committed myself to using what I have, or is very easy to procure, with a minimum amount of ordering. I chose this premium flooring underlayment. My research shows that it is quite moisture proof, strong, I did not see any visible voids anywhere, it's made in the US, (a rarity for plywood these days), and one side is pre primed with an additional moisture barrier. I found it at my local Big Box store. The one with the blue trim...
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After considerable brainstorming, I was having a hard time engineering the doors. This is what I came up with. Very simple really. A piece of the skin ply attached to a fitted piece of 3/4" exterior plywood. Glued and screwed. Then I temporarily fasten with a pair of the draw latches that I picked up. Seems pretty solid to me.
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And last so far, I just started the trim along the bottom of the decking. This is just plain 'ole pine but I will put a hard rub rail on the outside edge. I'm not sure exactly what yet, but like I've been doing all along, I'll come up with something.
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Until next time...


Jon
 
Jon, Project is looking good just one thought.. We previously had a 1754 a few years back with a 25hp on her, hunting with 3 guys, gear and depending on conditions it just didn't ride as we liked seemed to heavy. We later upgraded to a 40hp tohatsu and it felt like a new boat. Just some thought might need a little more push power with the extra add-ons.

Those are excellent boat's we just upgraded to the 2072.
Best of luck!
 
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Jon-

Heat progress! Very glad to see the project take shape. I had a plan like this in my head and it is nice seeing someone take on the project and have the same vision. It is for sure giving me perspective on what the finished project will look like.

How do of plan to hunt from the boat? Wll you use any additional flip-up style blind frames? Any planned roof structure?

Awesome work. Definitely putting thought into e project as of go.

Chad
 
Pretty much finished up the "construction" part of my project today. I fabricated and installed the gunwale trim and the fit and installed the coming. I then sanded everything down and routed all of the edges. Then after painting, all of the surfaces between the boat and the decking, will have foam sealing tape.
Here are a couple shots of the gunwale trim, (I'm sure there is an authentic boat building term for these), as well as the coming.


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And here is the first exciting moment, for me anyway. All off the boat in about ten minutes!


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Now, to find some time for painting!


Jon
 
Looks really good. Nice job on the cockpit combing.

What are your final dimensions for the cockpit? (taking the measurement from the front of the rear bench seat)

Do you plan to hunt two or three guys?

Chad
 
Thanks for your interest!


The cockpit coming interior is approximately 36" wide, The floor, between the seat and front raised deck is 8'. I extended the cockpit over the front deck by about 16". The stern end was left open. My old boat was like that, and I like the available access to the motor, gas tanks, battery, etc. The sides on this boat each have a removable "door" for the dog and hunter boarding. The canvas part of the blind will have removable sections to correspond with the decking. I want to be able to hunt either side of the boat, depending on conditions and terrain.


When it comes to the blind, I really like the style of the blinds on the Bankes, TDB, and Duckwater Boats. Even though they're all similar, they do have their differences. On my "old" boat, I actually had the Cordura part off of a Bankes 14' Dominator blind that I bought off of someone here on the DHBP. What made mine a little extra special was the pole configuration. On the original, it was either all the way up, or all the way down. On mine, the poles were adjustable in height. I am about 6'1", a buddy I hunt with is only about 5'-5". We could lower his end of the blind a little so he could comfortably see and shoot over it. I am "planning" on enclosing the bow very similar to those blinds, and even the sides for that matter, but for the stern end, I am figuring on draping the Cordura OVER the motor, with a frame of sorts, so that I can run the motor without removing the canvas. I hunted with a guide up in Canada a couple years ago. Even though their blinds were permanent, steel frames with wire and all, the all had the motor enclosed within the blind so they had complete access without removing anything. Nice for chasing cripples! I also want to fabricate an adjustable roof. I had a roof on the old boat, and got to use it to see what it was like, but I never really used it much. It was too low, and didn't fit well. I am designing the new one with raised poles for more headroom. Again though, it will be adjustable.


Here are a couple pics of one of the "old blind" posts and cross members
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I plan to hunt mostly solo, BUT often with two of us, and occasionally with three.


I hope to paint the decks over the next week or so, then on to the canvas, (Cordura).


Jon
 
Anthony,


I appreciate your thoughts. When I originally looked at this model of boat, I looked at a 2011 rig. At that time, the boat I looked at had a 40 hp Merc bolted to the transom. The boat was rated for 50 hp.


Apparently there have been some problems with these boats however, (if you remember a previous recent thread about such). My 2012 model is only rated for 30 hp. Since I have this nice running, two-cycle twenty five, I figured I would just use it and save my $$$.


When I first took her out on her maiden voyage, I had me, my wife, my Lab, and I threw in about two hundred pounds of decoy anchors and other "junk". She jumped up on plane almost instantly and I was able to coach 25 mph per the GPS. I am happy with that. I'm not a redneck Bass fisherman... HEHE!


Jon
 
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Pat,


I paid about $130 for all of the aluminum, unfortunately, I am not going to use anywhere near all of it. I probably actually only used about $80 worth. I don't recall the alloy either, but it is rather soft and easily malleable.


I used 1 1/2" X 3/4" X 1/8" wall channel for the top members, 1 1/2" X 1/2" X 1/8" for the bottoms, and 1 1/4" X 1/2" X 1/8" for all of the uprights. The 1 1/4" fits snugly inside of the 1 1/2". They were a little tight, so I learned I could just lay the smaller stock on the floor and smack the end a time or two, and the would slip right in. Then lots of 3 16" dia. X 1/4" length pop rivets. I used some self-drilling screws on some of the interior connections, just because I had them. Besides, pop rivets are expensive.


Jon
 
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Really looks great Jon. Looks like it will be comfortable to hunt out of when you
get the canvas up. I can smell the bacon and eggs already.

Take care, Tom
 
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