New Devlin Boat Build

[Ben Gavin]

Looking to build a duck boat. I really like the devlin snow goose and honker. I already have a 40hp johnson so I'm leaning toward the snowgoose but I often hunt with 3 guys and a 90 pound lab. For those of you that have the snowgoose how many people can you comfortably hunt out of it? I'm currently running a lowe 1852 but i've been wanting to build a duckboat since i was a kid. Whichever boat I pick I'd like to increase the freeboard as I over hunt the Ohio River I'd say 20" is the minimum I'd feel comfortable with.

 

[Phil Nowack]

I can't speak to the Snowgoose, but I made a Honker.. and modified it. My Honker had a 92" beam, 27" gunnels, 19'3". I had a 60 hp on it. I also have 17' Scaup with a 65" beam. I run a 50hp on that. I would never run less on either of those.

 

[tod osier]

As a 20 year Snowgoose owner, I absolutely would not build one with the idea of hunting 3 guys and a dog. 3 guys and a dog a couple times a year, sure, but not to effectively hunt a transport all the time.

On the freeboard, consider that with the decked designs you can have less freeboard than an open boat - that is the beauty of a real duckboat. A 50 gallon splash of water over the bow or gunwale is shed by the deck, whereas in an open boat it ends up in the bilge. For the 1852 a comparison of seaworthiness would be the 12-14' Devlins (obviously not with a 3 man and dog load), a snowgoose would be much more seaworthy than the 1852 (again, limited by the weight in the boat and room).

You need to max the HP on the devlin designs.

 

[Ben Gavin]

Phil do you have any pictures of the 17ft scaup? How big is the cockpit on that one? I?m thinking that or the honker might better fit my bill.

 

[Phil Nowack]

My Scaup has a 9 foot cockpit. There are my pics of both my Scaup and Honker build on here. The Honker was April-August of 2006 probably... and the Scaup was January or February of 2015 to April of 2015...