Copycat

[ChadW]

I'm a copycat. The moment I saw Mr. Patterson's glass dodger, I knew I had to have one. I trailer anywhere from an hour to four hours to get to the hunting waters. One thing I hated was raising, lowering and strapping the canvas dodger every time I left the house. The glass dodger solves this issue.

I went about construction a bit differently than Eric, in that I made a pattern from a sheet of FRP. The FRP is flimsy, and it took two of us to position and attach the pattern to the boat. Taping the pattern in place did stiffen it up a lot and laying the glass over it was not too difficult. Using foam and epoxy would have been better, but I was trying to do on the "cheap" not have to use epoxy resin.

Having never worked with polyester before, I had issues working fast enough and ended up with some dry spots and pockets scattered throughout. It is not terrible for a first attempt but some slower setting epoxy would have worked out better.

I laid up a quarter inch thick flange around the entire perimeter and will attach it to the hull with revnuts/nutserts. I'll use knobbed bolts for easy/quick removal.

I still have some clean up/touch up to do before paint and grass rails, but the major construction is complete.

Thanks for the inspiration sir!


.

 

[Eric Patterson]

NIIIIICCCCEEEEE!

Did the FRP remain in place or did you pop the glass off it after the resin cured? That turned out really nice. Do you plan on running standing up with a tiller extension. I prefer that to sitting down.

Thanks for showing everyone what you came up with. I think you can be proud of your resourcefulness and tenacity to make it happen after just seeing a few pictures several states away. That took some faith.

 

[ChadW]

Thanks! I applied a couple coats of paste wax to the FRP before laying the glass down. Once the layup was complete the glass popped right off of the FRP form.

I've never ran these small boats while standing. I'm looking forward to trying it now that I have a solid handhold on the sneakbox. The top of the dodger has a few extra layers of glass so a handle of some type can be mounted. I even thought about adding a handle on the side of the dodger for getting in and out of the boat. So many options opened up!

 

[MIKE-SID]

Great job for sure. I like the idea of the nutserts so you can take it off too.

 

[ChadW]

Update: finished my fiberglass dodger just in time to make the opener this coming weekend. I was too cheap to buy more stencils that match the boat, so I made my own from cardboard. The paint is close enough. I added a grab rail and 1" poly strapping as Mr. Sanford recommended in another thread. The nutserts work well for attachment.

Synthetic Bling Grass is attached to plastic garden netting and the netting is attached to the 1" straps. That allows me to easily and quickly remove the grass from the dodger/boat. I've basically got a removable "ghillie suit" for the entire boat. It only takes me about half an hour to add or remove all of it.

A few pics.

 

[Eric Patterson]

Chad

That sure does hide the dodger very well and the way the grass falls in the front should make the hunter even harder to detect. I need to improve that part of my dodger. Nice work.

 

[D. Hinton]

I like it… but how do you see to drive out of it being non collapsible. Do you have a tiller extension?

 

[ChadW]

Eric, thanks! I'm happy with how it turned out. My only complaint is the weight. I'm guessing I added about 50lbs more than the canvas dodger, but the boat handles it well.

Mr. Hinton, when sitting on the mahogany seat, I can see over and around the dodger, no problem. It's low enough that it doesn't obstruct the view. Yesterday was the shakedown run, and I ran the boat standing up, for the first time. The solid grab handle instills a lot of confidence and I actually enjoyed running it that way. A 24" extension was needed but it worked great.

After adding the new dodger, my wife said the side profile of the boat looks like a house slipper.. Without the grass installed, I have to agree.

 

[Steve Sanford]

Chad~

I like your grab handle! I was going to suggest more strapping - or even just an oblong slot cut through the top of your "hardshell dodger". How did you make it (the handle)?

BTW: When hunting long Island waters, I would generally sit or kneel when crossing big water...



...but would stand once I got onto shoals or creeks.



All the best!

SJS

 

[RM Anderson]

Another great idea added to the brain trust! JPG 6171 is a great way to brush in your boat. Would you mind sharing the type of foliage used? Looks like cattails, which is what we have to work with where I hunt. Richard

 

[roy brewington]

Another great idea added to the brain trust! JPG 6171 is a great way to brush in your boat. Would you mind sharing the type of foliage used? Looks like cattails, which is what we have to work with where I hunt. Richard

That appears to be Blind Grass. A fairly new synthetic reed product that's great in my opinion. Do the grassing once and it lasts a very long time.

 

[ChadW]

Steve, I made the grab handle from 3/4" water pipe. It was heated up and bent to shape. The standoffs were ground and contoured to fit the radius on the grab handle and where they met the dodger. Once the fit was good, I welded 3/8" nuts to the ID of the pipe and through-bolted them to the dodger. Originally, I was planning on cutting a grab hole, but later thought that would introduce additional water to my head in a rain shower. Thanks for the suggestions on the poly strapping!

RM, Roy got it right. The synthetic material is "Blind Grass." The color I'm using is "Fall Blend." I've been running it for 4 years now, and it is awesome. The only negative I've found, is that it is expensive. When I first started buying it, it was approx $100.00 for 20lbs. In the past 4 years it has doubled in price. Because I can easily remove the "ghillie suit" from my boat and store the grass indoors during the off season, I suspect it will last many, many years.

It blends into cattails very well.