Backboard Recommendations

S

Steve O

Active member
After being inspired by Rich McCormick's Hybrid duckboat concept, I built a hybrid in a sneakbox style. Now I'm trying to determine the best way to hunt it in the salt marshes where I most often take it.

It appears that many of you folks with similar style duckboats utilize some type of a backboard to hunt, so I'm starting to experiment along those lines.

For some reason, I haven't seen too many photos of them in use (probably because the users are too busy hunting to stop for a snapshot).

If any folks can share their experiences (good and bad) using backboards, and any advice on details (like best angle, width, length, padding, etc.) I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.
 
I use the padded reclining seat here in my sneakbox: Link

Looks to be very similar to what Huntindave posted.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I also use the Invisalounge - works great. I have also used 1/2" plywood with ethafoam glued on it but the Invisalounge works much better.
 
I have used one of the buck and wing seats Craig posted the link for. It is just about identical to the invisalounge in internal construction. The big difference is the type of foam.

The buck and wing uses deck chair foam that lets the water go right through. However the cordura covering keeps the water in. It turns into a big soggy mess if there is a lot of water in the boat.

The invisalounge uses the same closed cell foam used in PFDs. It will float.

Currently my plan is to obtain several Army sleeping pads that use closed cell foam and cut the layers to fit the frame and cover of the buck and wing.

In the end I would have been money ahead buying the invisalounge.

For a back board there are several ways to go about it. You have to make sure the board does not slip when you are leaning back. This is accomplished by building a cleat on the back side to hang it from the cockpit edge or building something on the bottom of the hull to keep it from sliding.

others have installed the back board on hinges onto a slatted floor, and it is folded forward when not in use.

others have built a slatted floor with two removable pieces in the middle section. the left and right sides do not lift up. One of the middle pieces can be lifted up at one end and rested against a cross bar. Depending on how the cross bar is mounted there can be several degrees of adjustment. Search for Dave Clarks Estuary builds and you can see the mounts he builds for the cross bar.
 
Ditto the others regarding a preference for the Invisalounge. Ray is right on in his review of the one sold by Cabela's. Get that one wet on opening day and it's unlikely it'll be dried out 'til the following spring.
 
Maybe they changed the foam on the Cabelas one as I've had mine for maybe five or so years and it dries out pretty quick. If I hunt one morning it is dry by the next.
 
Could be. Basically every comment on their website regarding the product I tried was that they needed to switch to closed-cell foam. Otherwise, it was a forty-pound waterbed.
 
Thanks for all the input.

The Invisalounge looks real fine (I'm guessing you lean the back against some part of the boat to avoid tipping over). I suppose I could end up purchasing one.

On the other, I have a lot of scrap lumber left after constructing the boat. It's all free now. May as well try to construct something, and, if that fails, maybe I'll be able to purchase the Invisalounge.

The homemade backboard you've shared above looks encouraging and ingenious. The idea of its doubling as a bench and/or rowing seat is an added plus.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all the input.

The Invisalounge looks real fine (I'm guessing you lean the back against some part of the boat to avoid tipping over). I suppose I could end up purchasing one.
Click to expand...
Nope, both the chairs have a ratching joint system in them like a beach lounge chair. Once you open it to your desired angle of repose you sit on it and the locked joint keeps the chair in position. You do not have to lean it against anything. Some tall guys don't like them because the ends hit them on the small of the back and the back of the legs and are not comfortable.
 
I have a short piece of 2x12, maybe 3 feet long more or less. My wife got some "batting" down at the hobby store and a piece of clear vinyl; it was cheap. I had bought a whole bunch of polyester camo material on ebay for almost nothing that I've used to make all sorts of things. Anyway I stapled the batting to one side of the 2x12 and folded the batting over in about a 10 inch section on one end (makes kind of a headrest). Then I covered that with the vinyl stapling the edges of it to the back of the 2x12, and I covered the vinyl with the cheap polyester camo material, stapling that to the back of the board. Finally, on the back of the board I stapled and glued a scrap of the marine carpet I used in spots on my Kara. I take a piece of fast grass, and I staple that to the back of the board every season, and I have a little strap on the lower part of this fast grass, so that when I lay back on the board I can fasten the strap around my chest and wrap the fast grass around me. I prop the board up on the back of the cockpit at about a 70 degree angle with horizonal, lean up against it and pert near disappear into the marsh that way. Dang hard to stay awake because you are very comfortable and down in the boat that way out of the wind you are also quit warm.

Ed.
 
Thanks Ed and Ray. It seems to me there's quite a few possibilities here. I'm hoping to be able, come the warm weather, to get out in the garage, do some cutting, sanding, and fitting and to try out a few of these ideas and see what works for me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top