Ed A or Schupp....changes to the kara

JeffCassat

JeffCassat

Active member
after my terrible duck season i realized i need a boat.. BAD. I could've killed 10 times the ducks that i killed had i had a low profile "layout" type boat. anyway.. i have the bluebill plans, and kara plans.. i think the kara is the way to go for the flooded fields we have here. question is.. can you square off the stern? i mean instead of making it a double ender, just run the gunnels straight back continuing the straight lines of the side of the boat (making the transom the same length as the last rib). what will it affect? paddling? motoring with a trolling motor? I want to add dry storage to the back. I don't think the weight difference will matter.. i'll have to trailer it most likely anyway.

any thoughts?

Jeff
 
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Thats exactly what I did and it worked fine.
I could run a 6.5 mudbuddy or I even put a bung
hole in the transom and did sum shallow sculling with it.
It did weigh over 125 lbs but it still fit in the back of my pickup.
I wish I would've made the cockpit sides higher to better hide under.
 
Here are some pictures of two that I built. I just cut them off at the mid station and put a transom with motor mount at that location making them 12 footers. If I were to do it again I would replicate the full width ribs and keep it at 14 feet for stability purposes. These do fine with a trolling motor. They don't pole as well as I thought they should.




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Digitals Kara hunting 023a.jpg
Digitals Kara hunting 022x.jpg
 
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The kara plans are very easy to modify to fit your needs. If you're looking to add a motor mount then I'd build the boat as per the plans, taper the back and cut off the last foot of the boat and build a transom there. If you're dragging one around a rice field you'll appreciate the slight up turned tail to push the boat backwards. As an added benefit if you take up poling it will glide much better than a square stern. Unless you are sculling the higher sides will just make it that much harder to hide in an already flat rice field. Take some hinges and build a door system like the field blinds or just order a set of doors from Ira. It will sure make the job of camoing much easier.

From looking at Robert's pics I would say why cut off that much of the boat if that is all the wider your transom is keep tapering it back till the width of the boat matches the width you want the transom/motor mount. I would also agree with his statement on poling. Any time you cut off the end of a boat and make it a square stern you create turbulence in the water which slows down a boat.
 
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Sorry I can't show any pics, I don't have a digital camera and I'm
very computer illiterate about downloading stuff.
Several others have posted very close pics to what I have.
It is a challenge to try and scull the ducks that like to land just
outside the decoys. Put a bung hole in and build or buy a small
scull oar. Cover with grass and slow sneak up on em and shoot
em in the lips.
 
thanks for the replies guys. mark i'm pretty sure you hunt in the same terrain as i do, so i'll take your word for what is best. I'd like to put a big enough transom on it to have the option (no time soon) to put one of those briggs and strattons or small 2hp outboard on it at some point. may be too much for what i'm doing.

i'll be starting as soon as i can clean up my carving area! ...like that will ever happen!

thanks,

Jeff
 
I tried one on mine and found at 56 LBS it was to heavy. Perhaps if I had the additional 2 feet I would have had enough displacement to make it work.





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Digitals Kara hunting 027a.jpg
 
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What I did was cut off just a bit of the nose piece and make a transom, and it worked fine. It's a displacement hull and won't go over 7mph. I've thought about building another that's maybe 1' shorter, but is 44" from the middle all the way to the back, and no rocker in the back on the bottom. Basically, the transom would take the shape of one of the middle ribs (44") That should plane. If you cut off too much and don't widen it in the back, you won't have the displacement you need to float that mudmotor.

Ed.

Check out my Kara website.
 
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