Hello from S. NJ and questions about Aluminum rigs

naytep

New member
This is my first post on the forum, glad to be accepted as a member. I have been out waterfowling for a few years but looking to get back into it. Currently I have an outboard and a shotgun. Need a boat. I am looking to build one of the Devlin designs Scaup or Snow Goose) from aluminum rather than stitch and glue plywood. Wondering if anyone has made the modifications and built one. I am also open to other designs, but so far I cant find any plans for aluminum duck boats or even jon boats that I can modify available anywhere. I would love to get some advice or direction on where to find the plans or how to modify the stitch and glue plans.
 
John, Welcome to my favorite place on the interweb. If you search aluminum Scaup you will find bunches of info. A couple guys have built aluminum Devlin boats. Not sure why you want a tin boat (joke) but this should help. Welcome again, you will find this a great place.
 
Tom, thank you for the welcome.
I will do some searching and see what I can find. As far as a tin boat over wood. Im a machinist not a termite. I dont like wood and fiberglass makes me itch
 
There was a guy over around Manahawkin making a few aluminum sneaks a couple of years back. You can try searching this forum and see if youcanfind his posts. They were nice looking boats, I think someone from Connecticut bought one from him.
 
John, Well I'm a mechanic, welder and a bit of a machinist too but I enjoy wood and fiberglass as a change of pace. It just proves the point that there is no perfect boat out there. That sure would be boring. By all means keep us posted on your progress, there has ben a shortage of new construction lately.
 
To follow up on what Greg said, John Kuhn of Absecon, NJ has numerous posts on his welded boats, sneaks (of which a couple of us CT guys ended up with) a "3 man" duck boat and a "lil garvey". Just cut paste and search on posts by john kuhn.

Good memory Greg.

Scott
 
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Thank you for the lead. Tuckerton is pretty close to Buena where I live. I sent John a message and hopefully I can meet up with him and see that 3-man duck boat. I would like to hear how it went together and how it performs in our SNJ mud.
 
Search for posts from my son "neil b". He welded a scaled up version of a Devlin Scaup that is 21' long from 5086. Sam scaled up his basic plans using a material thickness of "0" and I parsed the design file from Sam into information that allowed the major parts to be cut on a water jet in NOLA. This project was done in about the 2010 time frame. Having supported the building of a welded aluminum boat, I can assure you that its way less expensive and complicated to buy from a commercial builder and then customize to your heart's content. Neil tackled this project about 10 years after we built a Scaup from the stitch and glue method. Both boats are great but the stitch and glue method is much more amenable to a home builder. There's a ton of info in Neil's posts.
 
Search for posts from my son "neil b". He welded a scaled up version of a Devlin Scaup that is 21' long from 5086. Sam scaled up his basic plans using a material thickness of "0" and I parsed the design file from Sam into information that allowed the major parts to be cut on a water jet in NOLA. This project was done in about the 2010 time frame. Having supported the building of a welded aluminum boat, I can assure you that its way less expensive and complicated to buy from a commercial builder and then customize to your heart's content. Neil tackled this project about 10 years after we built a Scaup from the stitch and glue method. Both boats are great but the stitch and glue method is much more amenable to a home builder. There's a ton of info in Neil's posts.
I searched for neil and read some of his posts in regards to the 21' scaup. Unfortunately I couldnt see any of the pics, broken links maybe. Thank you for the advice, but im not exactly the average equiped home builder. I am a machine shop owner with access to all the equipment either in my shop or at local shops. If I get plans I can either scale the .dxf files or create them from a paper print and do the sheet nesting before I send the files to my waterjet guy to cut. I dont expect it to be easy, what fun would that be.
 
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