Dave Archer
New member
It is hard to build a duck boat and get any feedback or interest in my family. Perhaps it is because at age 67 I just began my 15th duck boat over a period of 40 years. Retirement has accelerated the process. In the past six years I have built an aluminum Oregon style sled for a Mud Buddy, a 13' aluminum pram, a fiberglass layout boat and a fiberglass scull boat. I just sold the sled and Mud Buddy. It was just too much boat and weight for a guy with two bad shoulders. I mention all the boats only because I love the designing and fabrication process. It is a creative process that is so intense. I will add an update or progress report later knowing that there are duck boat nuts out there just like me. I moved back to Montana so I wanted a different type of boat, and I no longer saw the need for a Mud Buddy motor in the area that I hunt. My new boat will be 15' long. It will have a 10% dead-rise on the shallow vee hull. The cockpit will be low. No more big blinds for stand up shots. I will be on the floor with a knock-down grass windshield. Because I am having problems with joints, I will enter and exit on a lowered deck at the transom, similar to what Gator-Trax uses on some of their boats. I will also have a receiver hidden in the bow to attach a small winch should I get stuck. (I got stuck a couple of times by myself on Klamath Lake with my heavy aluminum boat. I thought I was going to blow out one of my stents or my shoulders.) I decided to not use marine plywood because of the cost. I will build a fiberglass boat over a male plug. I was just going to use my 13' pram in the years ahead. but the rocker bottom pushes up the front of the boat and slows it down, not to mention cut into my view. So, this boat will have a shallow vee, similar to Zack Taylor's sneak boat and some of Devlin's sneak boats. During the last couple of seasons, it has been my layout boat that has most impressed me. I owe the Mighty Layout Boys for the inspiration of lowering the inside box four inches. Years ago my best boat was a fiberglass sneak boat with a whale-back top piece and a flat bottom. My sons and I had great shooting sitting on the floor hunkering down just below the combing. Some how as I got older my boats got bigger, along with the attached blinds. I discovered that more and more I was pass shooting. My layout boat has got me back to the basics--a low profile!
Dave Archer
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View attachment Layout3.jpg
Dave Archer
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