Finished my duckboat

The newly painted boat is an old 14ft Hallock duckboat, similar to a BBSB. My father restored & painted it, it sold at the duckboat show. The other one is a Manasquan Duckboat, 12ft long in need of a lot of TLC to make it hunt worthy. The 3rd boat in the pic is my fathers 16ft Starcraft Jonboat, it's rigged with a poling platform on the rear which we use when chasing stripers on the flats in the bays with flyrods.

Thanks everyone for the compliments...
 
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I bought a camo outboard cover from Bass Pro... I was 50/50 about painting the motor to be honest, but one guy told me he likes a camo cover and some burlap because it breaks up the un-natural outline of the motor better.
 
Mr. G
I've followed your build with interest but had to review all your pictures of your finished build several times to really appreciate all the details you've put into it. What a great job! You certaintly can hunt out of that with pride.
wis boz
 
Thanks... pictures do not do all the work justice. Like I said, over 120 hours of work were put into this boat down to the last detail. There are small things I did on the boat which I wasn't able to detail on the boat that took an hour of work or more.

I enjoyed working on the boat, my father and I did it together at his wood shop. It was a great father/son project. For the most part I came up with the ideas & concepts and my father had the tools to do the job & experience to help out. Even at 40 years old I learned a few new things...
 
Chris... I purchased the tiller extension at West Marine. It was packaged on an orange piece of cardboard, right now I dont remember the manufacturer, but will see if I still have the package in the garage.
The handle extends to about 5ft long and fits almost any motor tiller handle by sliding over it and tightening. Works great on mine and is steady as a rock. I take it off when I trailer the boat however, just to be safe.
 
That is an awesome boat! That is very similar to what I want to do to my boat next year. I have a 15' fiberglass boat that I want to build up to look like a Banks Crusader.
I want to try to build a small surface drive outboard for it too. I am thinking about putting swivel seats in mine, like they have in a fishing boat, but instead, I want to use a couple of office chairs that you can change the height by pulling a lever.
 
Boyd, if ya look around,they make pedestals for the swivel fishing seats that have the height adjusting lever. The pedestals come in different height ranges, I had to get one for my dad to go fishing with me, he was in a wheel chair & I set him low to travel & raised him up to fish so he could get over the boat sides easier.
 
Boyd... I went with sitting on the floor to take advantage of the boat's low profile. Once the boat is in the water, the top of the hull is only about 20 inches over the waterline. When grassed, this boat totally dissapears...
Good luck with your boat...
 
Bill... I decided to at least start the season without the canvas dodger made as I ran into some design conflicts between the dodger and the grass wings. Basically the dodger would prevent the grass wings from folding over enough to form an "A" with the grass from both wings (the grass wings would be vertical at best with a dodger up).
I am working on some other ideas, maybe a dodger that angles in on both sides, but then it wont lay down flat outside of my cockpit...
The other idea is to just make a spray screen for the bow, no dodger...

We'll see what conditions dictate once the season starts...
 
Chris,

"We'll see what conditions dictate once the season starts..."

I know we live on the same Island, but I did'nt realize the weather was that much better out on the east end.
I'll give you a hint of what's to come.
Freezing temps down to single digits, salt spray and water coming over the bow, rain, horizontal snow coming at you at 35kts
Oh and did I mention... salt spray and water coming over the bow, rain, horizontal snow coming at you at 35kts.
I think you get the idea.
Just kidding but something tells me you will have something on the front of your boat soon.
 
Thanks Dennis,
I will look into that. I want the seats height adjustable, so I can make a low profile blind, but want the seats to be removable as well. I want to be able to take the seats out, so I can sleep on the floor. I work second shift and I want to be able to head out right after I get off work, motor out to my spot and sleep in my boat until shooting light.
Once again, great build! I hope mine turns out as well as yours did.
 
John... believe me, I know all about the weather, this isnt my first rodeo. This will be my 27th season duck hunting and I have been through it all as far as weather.

Even if I did put a spray dodger on the front of my boat, it would only be usable with one hunter in the boat. My cockpit is not as wide as yours, so there is no way both hunters could get under the dodger.

Since this is my first year with the boat, I want to take it out a few times, see what works, what doesnt, etc and then make a decision on what to do about a dodger. My boat is also not like most BBSB type boats as the cockpit is much longer and thus there is less bow forward of the cockpit to mount a dodger... it pretty much has to go right around the cockpit rail.

Once I get a better feel for the boat, we'll see what my best option is...
 
Thanks Charlie... I really appreciate that coming from you after seeing your boat. Hope to see you on a marsh somewhere on LI this season....
 
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