14ft hawk tdb clone trying to gather info

J

Joseph Sarno

Active member
looking at a 14 hawk tdb clone the boat i was told was made in n.j. the boat seems to be well made and quite seaworthy.it is more than 10 inches wider than the tdb classic and has a full transom it seems better than the small motor board. anybody knows any info about this boat or company. thanks joe
 
Joe,

They are solid built boats, last built in Glen Gardner NJ about 100 mi from LI. I did some research on these shortly before I purchased my 14' TDB. In my opinion even after having the TDB for years now those Hawk HT14 boats are a great design as they were built around the idea of improving Bill & Dean Clark's design. I believe these boats came about in 2000 and the owner Mark from what I heard passed away a few years back owned "High Tech Marine". Mark used to be a sales dealer for TDB Duck Wrangler and Banks he decided to make his own design Unfortunately not too many were made out there, They are definitely wider, have a better transom design, they did have a kevlar hull design and more resin then the TDB's. The hull weighed more as it was infused with more glass no wood all hand laid built.The factory accessories were outsourced blind, cover etc.. I think made by Hoover's shop. Steve Hoover of Duckwater was close with Mark I believe they sold the boats together way back when up until 07-09 something like that. That hull is often called The Wrangler 15 too, but I have no idea what it was officially called. I picked the TDB over the HT14 back then as I got a deal I couldn't pass up but that HT14 is easier to get into and I liked the other options too. Solid boat don't think you'll regret the purchase. GLWS!
 
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Anthony Babich said:
Joe,

They are solid built boats, last built in Glen Gardner NJ about 100 mi from LI. I did some research on these shortly before I purchased my 14' TDB. In my opinion even after having the TDB for years now those Hawk HT14 boats are a great design as they were built around the idea of improving Bill & Dean Clark's design. I believe these boats came about in 2000 and the owner Mark from what I heard passed away a few years back owned "High Tech Marine". Mark used to be a sales dealer for TDB Duck Wrangler and Banks he decided to make his own design Unfortunately not too many were made out there, They are definitely wider, have a better transom design, they did have a kevlar hull design and more resin then the TDB's. The hull weighed more as it was infused with more glass no wood all hand laid built.The factory accessories were outsourced blind, cover etc.. I think made by Hoover's shop. Steve Hoover of Duckwater was close with Mark I believe they sold the boats together way back when up until 07-09 something like that. That hull is often called The Wrangler 15 too, but I have no idea what it was officially called. I picked the TDB over the HT14 back then as I got a deal I couldn't pass up but that HT14 is easier to get into and I liked the other options too. Solid boat don't think you'll regret the purchase. GLWS!
Click to expand...

I owned a TDB-14' for seven years prior buying and eventually completely rebuilding a TDB-17' classic to what I consider to be a better utilization of the general hull design. Anthony makes some really good points regarding the benefits of the HT-14' over the TDB-14's shortcomings, particularly the benefits of an infused hull over hand lay-up: greater strength and rigidity with less resin and air bubbles within the ply layers. See if you can find information in how many plies of kevlar, how the ply layers were oriented to each other as they were wetted-should be optimally arrayed at a 45 degree angle to the underlayment layer for maximal crush strength.

Good luck!
 
Joe,

The first "real" duck boat I gunned out of was my friend's HT 14. It was a neat boat, and, once we were ready to rig out, was very comfortable. I loved the interior shelving -- especially since slotted decoy bags slid underneath and out of the way. And, it grassed in beautifully.

It had some performance quirks -- slow to plane, porpoising, etc. I declined to purchase it when he put it up for sale.

There may have been design changes later in production. The original version had a narrow (though possibly wider?) transom similar to a TDB Classic. That contributed to the performance quirks.

Like Tom, I also own an Estuary 15' Garvey. A Garvey gives you more boat per foot.
 
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