First Duck Boat Build

DaveP

DaveP

Active member
Hi, I am in the process of building a DB and thought some would like to see the progress. This is my first boat project and I don't know all the boat terminology, so please excuse me. I have wanted to build a DB for a about 7 years, but relocating and building a house got in the way. Recently I a read a post here on someone's project to build a Kara Robber. So I desided to jump in and build one from the pictures of that post. I used clear select pine for the frame, 1x2 for the gunwales and 1x8's for the cross sections and regular 1/4" laun plywood. The frame members were attached with biscuts, glue and screws. I added a transom to the boat and just drew my own curves. The widest cross member was 43 1/2" which allowed me to attach a 4x8' sheet of plywood to the frame with about a 1/16" overhang on the widest portion of each gunwale. After the plywood was attached, I shot 1 1/4" crown staples around the gunwales and over the cross sections and removed most of the drywall screws. The staples were most likely over kill.
Some talked about soaking the 1x2 gunwales to bend them. I just attached them to the front section, biscuts, glue and screws. After a day for the glue setup, I put a rachet strap on the ends of the gunwales and pulled them together and attached the transom. I cut off the excess 1x2 material making the gunwales 10' long. The boat is about 10' 9".

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Boat with first sheet of plywood.

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Hull covered and filled with bondo.

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Motor mount added to transom.

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Ready for adding fillets to the inside.

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Here is the hull with fillets in. I first did a wet out of all the inside plywood. Then laid in .5 once fiberglass cloth and two more coats of epoxy resin. The coated all the frame work with coats of epoxy. Washed sanded and washed, ready for primer.
 
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Dave, ATTA BOY. Looks great but beware!!!!! Now you have started something. I built my first one almost 20 years ago and now look for an excuse to start another one. You have found the best resource anywhere with a bunch of great guys. Welcome to this world.
 
Man that is a good looking boat!!! I just sold my Kara last spring and now you have me wanting to build another one. Bad thing is I did not even use mine last year and probably would not use one this year. That being said I think I will round up the supplies this weekend! Shawn.
 
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i love your boat!! i want to make a smaller one like yours on my second boat.heres a pic of mine ,its also my first boat ever...i finnished 2 weeks ago , at the time of the pic i had not glassed the inside and put floor boards in. i did the same exact thing you did, but i streched mine out to 14 feet, i have fiberglassing skills from making surf boards, but i lack the superior woodworking skills that you obviously have. it zips along at a good clip with the 6.5 horse beavertail on it. total cost ....$310 to make
 
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Thanks for all the positive comments. Yes I have some wood working skills, putting the frame and hull together was easy. In fact all the deck panels are cut. I plan to transport this in the back of my truck. Now comes the glassing. I've done some polyester resin work before and was going to use polyester this time. But like one of you said this is a great resourse site and after reading many post here, I decided to go with epoxy. I mailed back a gallon of polyester resin today and ordered a kit gallon of west system epoxy. I'm not sure that will be enough though, anybody have a way of figuring out how much resin you need. I've got 5 yards of 9 oz cloth for the hull and top decks.
 
Looks just like the Kara I built. Would have never got her done with out the help I obtained here on the board. Nice boat. No you will love it and get lots out of her.

Tight Lines ... Fred
 
i used 12 yards of 8 oz. cloth , double layer on bottom, single on deck, and almost 3 gallons of polyeter resin. i tinted the resin a green color in case the paint rubbed off. epoxy will be easyer to work with since it kicks off slower than polyester .there is very little waisted resin when using epoxy. in most cases epoxy will make for a stronger, lighter boat. not to sure about epoxy but the old time balsa surfboard makers would before laying the cloth ,first apply poly resin with a light "cheater" coat on a dropping temperature ,this will make sure you get a propper bond to the wood. because i used 2 inch cedar ribs cheater coats,wide cut laps, and a double thick sanding coat, top and bottom ,it came in heavy,165 pounds .to the point that it is not car toppable and barely all i can handle to get it into the back of the pickup bed. your boat looks like it could be half that wieght when finnished....good luck
 
i used 12 yards of 8 oz. cloth , double layer on bottom, single on deck, and almost 3 gallons of polyeter resin. i tinted the resin a green color in case the paint rubbed off. epoxy will be easyer to work with since it kicks off slower than polyester .there is very little waisted resin when using epoxy. in most cases epoxy will make for a stronger, lighter boat. not to sure about epoxy but the old time balsa surfboard makers would before laying the cloth ,first apply poly resin with a light "cheater" coat on a dropping temperature ,this will make sure you get a propper bond to the wood. because i used 2 inch cedar ribs cheater coats,wide cut laps, and a double thick sanding coat, top and bottom ,it came in heavy,165 pounds .to the point that it is not car toppable and barely all i can handle to get it into the back of the pickup bed. your boat looks like it could be half that wieght when finnished....good luck
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Skippy, How big was your boat? I was planning on wetting the hull and deck first and putting the glass on before it kicks. "2 inch ribs, cheater coats, wide cut laps" not sure what that all is. Did you put cloth inside the hull?

Dave
 
mine is 14 feet 2 inches. it drafts 1 inch water empty.The cheater coat, is when you wet the surfboard or in our case,the boat before you apply the cloth. i used a squeegee similar to a bondo type .this will help in getting the resin to soak tru the cloth and bond to the plywood. wait for the first coat to "kick" first, then roll on your cloth. if your resin kicks before your cloth is fully wetted out your going to have a big mess. it helped a little that the cheater coat was a "little" tacky but not wet, this helped keep the cloth in place esp. the laps . laps are what i refer to as the overhanging piece of cloth around the edge of the boat, like a table cloth. the widder your laps the stonger the rails on your boat are going to be, i used 4 inch to two inch laps, measured from the overhang, the longer your laps the harder it will be to do.im not sure if boat builders even use laps at all, its just the way i did it. wetting the laps out to stick to the underside is tricky, i poured out the resin a foot away from the edge of the lap and let it pour- stream- squeegee over the lap, catching the spilling resin whith the same bucket you just poured the resin out of, all the while your using your other hand with the squeegee to press the lap, to the underside of the boat. i coated the whole inside with a light resin coat but only put cloth around the inside ribs, im not sure if this is a good idea, i might go in and add some more cloth/resin if it looks like ill need it. i bought 3 gallons of resin and i have about 1/3 gallon left, so i think if i need it ill have enough. i would have liked to use epoxy, but all of my exsperence is with polyester resin, plus the epoxy is big$$$.To me, from looking at all the stich-and-glue boat builders methods, they all like epoxy, but they build thier boats out of much thicker grades of marine plywood, and lighter coats of epoxy and cloth, or epoxy with no cloth, i used the thin luan ply-wood so i felt i needed to beef it up a bit with alot of resin and cloth, i also put on a heavy sanding coat of resin, i used the standard boat resin mixed with a special surfacing wax they give you at the fiberglass shop, and put that on with long strokes from a paint brush. over half the resin i used went into the sanding coat.
 
Thanks for all the positive comments. Yes I have some wood working skills, putting the frame and hull together was easy. In fact all the deck panels are cut. I plan to transport this in the back of my truck. Now comes the glassing. I've done some polyester resin work before and was going to use polyester this time. But like one of you said this is a great resourse site and after reading many post here, I decided to go with epoxy. I mailed back a gallon of polyester resin today and ordered a kit gallon of west system epoxy. I'm not sure that will be enough though, anybody have a way of figuring out how much resin you need. I've got 5 yards of 9 oz cloth for the hull and top decks.
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I know several have mentioned it on here, but thought I would as well. I've used US Composites on 11 boats now and am thouroughly happy. Its half the cost of the West systems.

Anyway, just thought I would pass that along. Great job on the boat so far!

Brad
 
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Brad, Hey thanks for the info on US Composites. I'm new to this boat building stuff, but never to old to learn. I just did a quick google of USC and you are correct it is cheaper. I just used a quart of West epoxy for making fillets inside. I have another gallon of West on order, but now know I will need at least two gallons or more. I've ordered some 1.5 oz glass cloth for sealing plywood and wood inside the boat. Since I have to order another gallon, why not USC and use this for the inside. Would this be compatiable with West Epoxy in case I have any left over from the inside? I want to do this right, but would also like to do it at the least expense. I've got about $290.00 into this project, that includes wood, glue, five yards of 9 oz cloth for the out side, epoxy to date.

Dave
 
I've updated some of the pictures on my duck boat project. Here is the hull with its first coat of epoxy primer.


DuckBoatfirstPrimer.jpg

 
Okay, here is my project moving along. Hull has been sprayed with two part auto expoxy primer and painted with flat enamel. For floatation, I took scrap 2" insulation board coated it with epoxy resin and clamped it to the back and sides. Once cleaned it will be painted with the flat enamel. The front bulk head will be filled with two part expanding floatation foam and completely sealed when the top deck is glued on.


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Okay here I'm getting ready to glass the hull. I previously put one coat of resin on the outside hull. I used 9 once fiberglass and taped the excess up inside the hull.

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Here is the glassed hull. I added a Keel and two shorter what ever you call them as I plan on transported this by pickup. The keel and strips are epoxied 3/4 by 1" with 3/4 aluminum "U" channel on top.

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Next step is to turn her over add floatation foam to the front and put the decking on.
 
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Dave,

I've been watching your build with interest. There are several variations on the Kara design but we seemed to have very similar ideas. A couple of years ago I layed out a boat on my cad system that you may have seen recently in minature. Seeing yours coming together shows me what it can look like in full scale. I can't wait to see yours finished. Your boat is looking great and your obviously a skilled craftsman more so than myself but watching you sure is giving me the itch to give it a try! Keep up the good work and keep posting.

Ed L.

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