Another new guy

Sean C.

Sean C.

Active member
Hello all,
Well I just figured out how to make postings on this forum, I didnt realize how easy it was, so I would like to introduce myself to everyone. I'm actually not that new, I have been observing the postings on here for a long time. I have seen that there is an enormous wealth of information between everyone who is on this site. I am from Olympia, WA and have been an avid duck hunter since I was old enough for my father to start taking me to the "duck shack" on the Skagit Bay and I havent stopped since.

My love and passion is boats, all types of boats. I have worked in the boat business since I turned 16 and was old enough to have a job. My hobbies include anything with boating and the outdoors involved. Tuna fishing and Halibut fishing are among my favorites, and I do enjoy elk hunting but without a doubt not as much as waterfowling.

I started the build of my Scaup a few years ago and Sam told me about this site and Erics step by step build which I found to be extremely helpful. So I of course want to thank Eric for all the information he provided on that build. I completed the boat about a year and a half ago. I spent approximately a year and a half building the boat, but the bulk of the work was done in a two week period. The project kept getting put off due to either work or college (which I was in at the time, graduated since). I was fortunate enough to have a two week period off from both at Christmas the year I was building the boat, and working 16 hour days on the boat I banged out most of the work. As most of my projects seem to go I got the boat hunt ready and still to date have a few items left unfinished. Primarily a blind system and wedges at the trailing edge of the boat. The only change I made to the boat was to make the transom at the back of the boat rather than inboard, which I have found to be the right thing to do for my style of boating/hunting. It is currently powered with a 30hp Yamaha 2 stroke 3 cylinder because I had one, which really is enough power for almost any situation. However, I do agree with everyone else on here that 40hp really is the ideal hp. I have a 50hp Yamaha 4 stroke that I recently aquired which will get installed when I have time.

Well if anyone has any questions or if there is anything I can share to the site feel free to ask, as I will now also be sharing my information and input on the postings now that I know how to. I will attempt to post a picture of my rig and hunting ground below, they are not the best pictures but the only ones I have right now.

Happy Hunting,

Sean Curtis

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Sean,

Welcome to the page. Always good to have another WA guy, even if he is from the dry side. I was raised on the Skagit, but not on the bay I was an upriver kid. That is a nice looking boat.

My best,

Don Shearer
 
Thanks Don, well if your ever over on my side let me know and we can plan a hunt on the Skagit. I was hoping to make it over to the Pullman area to pheasant hunt this year, but maybe next year.

Lee, I inherited that gun from my father, it has been in the family a long time. It is a Neumann and Sons out of Belgium built in 1934, orginally made for Silver and Co. out of San Francisco. I have no idea on the history before it came into my family.
 
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Hi Sean,

Glad to see pixs of your scaup, would like to see more!!! I'm dreaming of building my own scaup. I bought Devlin's Boat Building book and I'm just about finished with it. Tell Sam that I think it's awesome. I am curious to know what it will cost me (approximate) to construct the Scaup's hull. Did you use the scarffing attachment for a circular saw or did you scarf with belt sander / grinder? I like the low profile, low draft and decking of the Scaup and that the payload is 850lbs. I plan to (@ most) take 2 adults (total), 2 10yr old boys and 1 retriever to a hunting spot and have 2 hunt from the boat and 2 hunt while standing in the marsh. Do you think the Scaup will handle the job or should I be looking @ something else? I appreciate any input!!

Thanks,

Donivan
 
we need to talk about setting up a swap hunt, Harlequins for Tuna?

Look forward to seeing your posts on the site...too few Western Washington hunters here......

Steve
 
Welcome aboard Sean.Good post,nice boat,and good to see the SxS in use.More and more of us every day.
 
Donivan,

It sounds like your hunting style is much like my own. I actually primarily use the boat as a transport to get people and gear to my hunting spot. If it is a high tide then we are hunting in the boat, but if it is just about anything but max flood we are hunting on the banks of the delta and hide the boat. However, I have found with this boat (and a little bit of natural camo) the boat dissappears if you just pull it into a little brush or up next to the bank.
This is primarily why I have not made a blind yet, because most of the time I do not need it. I would say however the most important thing I am missing from my rig right now is a dodger, that is a priority that i will take care of as soon as the season is over and I have time to actually work on the boat. I can tell you that the boat will haul one hell of a lot more weight than 850lbs without any variance in performance/safety/stability/etc. Doing some quick math I typically hunt with approximately 1,300lbs of weight in the boat not including the motor or fuel tank (3 adults donned in gear, decoys, guns, anchors for boat and longlines, grass skirt on boat typically saturated with water) and the boat is solid as a rock in the water. I have found that 3 people and about 4 dozen decoys is very comfortable in this boat, however another adult and two dozen more decoys could easily be done with the use of a system so people are not getting in each others way. Even with three people you really do need a bit of a system as far as setting and retrieving decoys so that you are not stepping on each others feet and gear. The boat does draft more than your traditional flat bottom Jon boat, but even though I hunt 100% on tidal marshes where water is often just a few inches deep, I have not been stuck yet. We have had to do a bit of pushing and pulling sometimes but it is amazing how easily the boat "slides" across the mud/sand. Never once have I regretted building the Scaup instead of one of the higher sided cackler series boats, and I have used the hell out of this boat for the past year and a half, all summer and winter long.

Construction: As far as the cost of the boat goes I have about $1,400 into it. Materials included: BS1088 plywood that I bought from Sam, dimensional cedar for the combing and shear clamp, MAS epoxies, Bi-axle cloth for all the joints, lots of sandpaper and lots of brushes. I did cheat a little bit on my cost though because I had a lot of leftover bi-axle cloth from a previous boat build and a little bit of epoxy. I used the Gougen bros. scarfing attachment for all my scarfing and found it extremely easy to use. The hardest part of this process was actually mounting the scarfing attachment to my porter cable skillsaw. The first piece I cut was a little fuzzy but still very useable, the rest of the pieces went like I had been doing it for years. The only thing I scarfed by hand was the dimensional lumber for the shearclamp (I had two 9' pieces that I had to make into one continuous piece). The boat building process was extremely easy overall. It was a little daunting at first, but once I started to stitch the panels together all intimidation was gone. The bulkheads did not fit nearly as well as I had expected, but with a little pushing/pulling bending/tweaking it all went together. The hardest part of the whole build was convincing myself to actually do the sanding so that I did not end up with a sloppy looking boat. Hours and hours of sanding can be quite tedious. The only thinng I think I would do different in the future is paint the entire boat in the Morton bed liner. Sam told me the total added weight is about 80lbs (at the most) which on this boat you would absolutely never notice the added weight. I have hunted in his Snow Goose that was completely covered in the Morton bed liner and the added weight really doesnt change the performance, plus you have an extremely durable finish.

I really do enjoy sharing any information I can on my experience with the boat build or even the boat itself, so if you have any questions at all please feel free to ask. I will post more pictures of the boat as soon as I have a chance to take some more pics and get them on my computer.

Sean
 
Steve

What part of washington do you live in? Sounds like something we should try to do. I'll warn you though, Tuna fishing is very addictive...

Sean
 
Hi Sean,

Welcome aboard. Looking forward to more post from your part of the state and maybe you can push a few birds over the hill this way.
 
Sean,

Thanks for the info, I think you have "put to rest" any concerns I've had about this being the right boat for me. I'm hoping to get started this spring and be finished by duck season in Oct.. I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions for you!!!

Thanks again for the detailed reply.

Donivan
 
only rarely hunt the Skagit but have a few times over the years...when I hunt the Salt its usually either on Padilla or Samish if its for Divers or Puddle Ducks and somewhere in either the Straits or the Saratoga Passage if I'm hunting Sea Ducks or Goldeneyes.....

I can definately believe that Tuna can be addictive but would be happy to have another addiction.....

Do you have a Sea Duck harvest card?

Steve
 
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