Hybrids Ugly?!

[Mark W]

All the guys that complain about too much government cite all sorts of government rules and regulations as being not followed when it isn't even known if that is the case or not. Man, I tell ya. If a guy wants to sink his boat, let him sink his boat.

With the registration numbers, maybe he lives in a State where you don't need them like in MN. In MN, if the boat is only used for duck hunting during duck hunting season, it does not have to be registered. Thus the reason you won't see numbers on my Hoefgen.

And man oh man, that boat is sure ugly.

Mark W

 

[Brandon Yuchasz]

Rich,
Boats at the most basic level are utilitarian and in the duck hunting world even more so. If it does its job anything else is simply for the enjoyment of the builder. Is the boat ugly? Maybe but it really doesn't matter.

Of course on a site like this your going to catch some grief for building a boat that does not have clean lines and is built out of construction grade materials but in reality your boat will float just as well as my Black Brant and I’m sure the ducks will not care what they look like under the piles of grass.

The same thing happens with decoy carving as well. You can carve decoys like Don Mintz does out of foam. But if you post pictures of those on certain decoy carving forums you would be meet with criticism based simply on the construction material used. Post the same pictures on workingdecoys and you will find an audience that appreciates the construction and art of them. I carve wood and cork which are considered traditional materials. That doesn’t mean I can not appreciate the decoys carved by others out of foam though.

Your boat(s) introduces many people to building their own boats. People that would have been overwhelmed with a project like a Devlin boat to start. I for one appreciate your encouragement of people to jump in and start building. Keeping the cost down and using lower grade materials isn't all bad it encourages people to get their feet wet and often times that start gives them the confidence to try and build a bigger "pretty" boat.

On a side note your boat designs are advancing nicely. However, at some point the level of complication, time investment, and cost of materials is probably going to justify building out of higher grade materials. For example, building a flat bottom out of construction grade material plywood is one thing but stitch and glue and heavy bends in the plywood may need void free wood. Bending plywood with voids seems to be courting disaster at some point if the pressure of the bend falls on the void. Just some food for thought. If you don’t want to go to the higher cost of marine plywood consider looking back at the birch underlayment that was used last year on this site to build a boat with. Its void free and meet the same glue requirements as marine ply. I think it was less then 20$ a sheet. It is birch so its needs to be encapsulated in epoxy or it will rot!

Your original design is light, easy to build and cheep. Please don’t let the newer (although in my opinion more sea worthy) design over shadow that older design. The original is a great starter boat for so many out there that need a place to start other then a 3000.00 devlin.