Michael Book
Mr. Peters,
I enjoy your site tremendously. It has been very educational for me and also inspired me to build a boat myself. I always keep some kind of project going on, but never considered building a boat. I don't duck hunt much, mostly I bow hunt for whitetail, but after seeing the boats in the readers rigs, I had to try. Being from Louisiana, I decided to build a pirogue. After much research, and web surfing, I sat down with a couple of friends of mine, one who is a carpenter, and a another who is a real "cajun". We discussed the design of the pirogue, and after looking at the prices of plans on the web, decided to draw our own plans. The pictures I have attached are of the boat I built. I failed to take pictures during construction, but do have some pictures of a few details.
The Boat was built from luan, using oak for the rib, nose pieces, and side rail. It was built using stitch and glue. I was amazed that no one I talked to ever heard of "wood flour", obviously this is not a southern thing! The stitch and glue was a very easy method, a little messy, but easy. I glassed the bottom and sides up 6 inches. I also glass the interior floor and up 6 inches on the inside. I stripped the bottom of the boat with 1 1/2" strips of luan for added strength and traction. The back was stripped parallel with the boat while the front was stripped perpendicular to the boat. I then painted the remaining in "duck boat gray" marine paint. The boat turned out great!(If I do say so myself) It weighed approximately 50lbs, was a finished length of 9'6", and 28" wide at the rib. The boat was stable enough to stand at either end (I weigh 175lbs), and paddle. I took the boat out several times to test my job, all seemed fine.
Once hunting season started I lacked for a space to store the boat, so I decided to see if it would sell. I simply set it out by the road and the next day a guy came by and purchased the boat from me for the price I was asking. All in all, it was a great experience, and I have drawn up new plans for my next boat. It's to be patterned after the Devlin Broadbill, with a couple of custom changes.
Thanks again for your web site, it's a great inspiration.
Sincerely, Michael Book.
