Considering Building a Duck Boat

S

Steve O

Active member
Lately, I've been thinking an awful lot about building a duck boat. Maybe rolling the kayak in the dark in a salt pond this past December is a motivating factor.

Anyway, there's a whole lot of decisions aren't there? Anybody have any suggestions given the following factors:

  1. I hunt mostly salt ponds along Rhode Island's coast, and estuaries on Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay.
  2. I like staying close to shore.
  3. I'm in those same areas outside of duck hunting season as well (digging shellfish and fishing for striped bass and bluefish).
  4. I like to hunt with a partner, but each season there are days when I hunt alone as well. The same situation holds true with shellfishing and fishing. My wife likes to come shellfishing, so the more safe and stable the boat the better. Also, I don't want to take another plunge in December.
  5. My fishing rod is 9 feet long. It might be nice to be able to stand up and cast from the boat, but I've got to at least be able to transport the rod
  6. We don't want to shellfish from the boat, but we'd like to be able to transport the 6 1/2 foot rakes and take home the shellfish (sometimes 60 pounds of them).
  7. I've got no boat building experience
  8. I'd like to keep the materials cost at around $1,000
  9. If I do this, I'd like to try starting around May and be ready for the fall
  10. I think we have a 10 horsepower limit on some of our freshwater spots, so I'd like to limit the motor to a 9.9 horsepower so those areas will be available as well.
Thanks in advance for any input
 
In my opinion the boat I would look at first is the BBSB A fourteen foot. But $1000 is a little low. Others will put forth other ideas and boats.
 
Steve ,

Nice to see another RI'er here . I built the cackler a few years back for pretty much the same reasons you have stated . I usually hunt alone or with my partner who by the way built the Devlin Snow Goose , we take 2 boats due to having two dogs and the safty factor while motoring Narr. Bay in the winter . i love my cakler it handles well in Narr. bay and is all i need to take the wife and daughter out for a little striper fishing in the summer months . I would say that you may want to increase your budget to about 2000.00 depending on the materials used . I am not sure what the price of plywood is now as well as epoxy and whatnot at this point in time . Let me know if you need any help or if you would like to see the cackler i will even take you for a ride if you would like to have something to compare your choices to . Good Luck !!



Dave M
 
A Gatorboats.com Duckhunter may fit your needs. The estimated materials comes in at $160, but doesn't include epoxy and uses exterior grade ply. So if it came in a five times that estimate you would still be in your budget.
 
No boat that you can build for 1K with quality materials will do what you want. to go 1K, you would need a sneakbox with dodger and that is going to be a dog with a 9.9 and unsafe with 2 people because it is too small. You aren't going to be very happy fishing out of a sneakbox either.

Save your pennies and build something suitable for the coast, a BB2 minimum which will cost you 2-3 grand plus a 25hp, which means you still need something for the inland lakes.
 
The Black Brant 2 or 3 will work.

The BB3 has less rocker than the BB2 and will work better with the 9.9hp motor since you won't be pushing as much water with the bow. At sea you will want to have a larger motor on the boat so that you can keep the boat moving in rough weather if it occurs.

Both boats work well with 2 adults and their hunting gear so your small amount of fishing gear will be fine.

Both boats handle near shore seas well with the BB2 and its higher displacement hull doing the better job.

Neither of these boats are fun to drag across open ground to a hunting spot. Unless you and your buddy are NFL linemen and then it will be a piece of cake, but the boat will be over the max weight with two guys that big.

My BB3 is a little strange to stand up in and cast from because it has such low sides - much like a flats boat in the Keys, but it is so stable it is like I am standing on solid ground some times. If you have good sea legs you can use the bow as a casting platform. You can make rod holder cut outs in the deck knees and the bow frame piece to hold the rod or the rakes easily. And during construction you can fuge an inch here and there to make the inside of the hull the right amount for the rod. I think the distance between the transom and the bow bulkhead is just over 10 feet on the BB3.

The wood and epoxy will be right at $1,000 depending on shipping costs in your area. You will still have to buy the hardware and electronics for the nav lights, a trailer, and one or two motors. You might have to invest in one or two power tools to make the construction easier: power planer and router are very helpful. So your total budget will be well over $1,000.
 
Steve, as in duckin... is that you?

Meet Morton and me for coffee... we'll help you.

Best, Andrew
 
Wow, thanks for all the responses. I expected one or two, but not this many.

Hey Dave M and Andrew, this is duckin. I do appreciate your willingness to share your experience. If I do this project, I'm sure I'll need it.

By the way, when I figure on about $1,000 for materials, I'm excluding the motor and trailer.

Dave M and Andrew, were you able to purchase materials locally? If so, were you happy with the quality, service, and price?
 
Steve,

No, all of my materials were purchased out of state or in catalogues. I spent $3,500 ish. Dave spent less as his boat is smaller.

Your boat characteristics are cheap, safe, stable and able to carry 2 people... well, sadly, you can only pick two from the list, you can't have all 3. Your only choice is to buy used... and there are deals out there. You'll find it.

Call if you need me/us.

Best, A.
 
Steve i met you at Andrew's flipping get together and it is nice to see you are building a boat not alot of guys around these parts . As far as suppiles there are places in RI that you can get the hardware , and supplies , i used Jamestown Dist. in Bristol for alot of my supplies , i liked them because they were local and had alot answers to alot of my questions . I used the System 3 epoxy system Andrew used the Raka system both boats have been through the same conditions and have held up well . Like Andrew said let us know if you need help .




Dave M
 
Steve,

It's going to be tough to get on the water re your requirements for $1,000...

See this question on another site:

http://refugeforums.com/refuge/showthread.php?t=601643

Dave M is the cheapest man alive -- and I don't think he could build a boat re your requirements for no less than 2.5x the amount you stated.

Speaking of which, Dave M... you have 9 months to carve a nice spread of 48 brant... get cracking please. I'll be over here surfing the web and drinking coffee in bed.
 
YES SIR!!! I will have 100 blocks carved by noon time today while you go have your hair done and pedicure . I heard you will be living in the new town of " Watchthequohaug " or something like that soon ? I can see it now when asked where you live you reply i live in Watchthequohog RI. I will call you this afternoon



dave
 
Okay, so I obviously have needed a strong dose of reality. That's okay. Just a few days since my first post on this subject, and I'm already a heck of a lot wiser.

My oldest child just got accepted to college. My second child is only one school grade behind the first child. So, it looks like in 7 months I'll probably have one child in college and in 19 months I'll probably have 2 kids in college. Given this, $1,000 is a realistic (perhaps even generous budget). Believe me, I don't want it any other way. If I've got to wait to build the right boat, that's fine.

I had no idea there were such great boats available in the classified section. May take the suggestion of spending $1,000 there instead of building for now.

On the other hand, I may, instead, consider building whatever boat fits the budget, and limiting its use to wherever it is appropriate and safe to use it. This may in fact be the way I go, as a good part of the motivation is what I perceive to be the fun of the boat building process. If I build a simple boat now, what I learn may be a big help in the event I later build a dream boat. Toward that end, I've just gotten 3 boat building books out of the library.

Again, thanks for the input.
 
Buying the boat in the classy's you wont go wrong. When you get your boat built take motor, trailer and tank out of package and dump the hull. 500 bucks for a hull is a fair price. You wont find a motor and trailer for 500.00.
 
I am build a strip built two-man sculling float. It will be 16' with a 38" beam. The total budget for it is well under $1000. If you can get decent cedar boards at a reasonable price that method could be a good option. BBSB's have been strip built.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top