Newbe - Black Brant III Build

D

Daryl Baker

Member
Hello Guys, I am the new guy that JimG mentioned. Thanks for the recommendations on outboards and the pictures. Let me introduce myself. Engineer with 30 years working on jet engines at Pratt & Whitney Hartford, Ct. My hobbies are flying (Private Pilot), deer hunting, old WW2 guns, replica flintlock rifles, old tractors. I have a well equipped shop with lots of metal and wood working tools. I like tools! Past projects have been airplanes, tractors, flintlock rifles, RC gliders and others. I recently got introduced to duck hunting. What a blast! I am hooked. Right now I do not have a project so will build a duckboat. Looks like fun. This site has a wealth of information. Will be helpful when building the Black Brant III. Thank You in advance for the help. I will take lots of pictures and share my build experience. The Okoume plywood from Noah’s Marine will be here Monday. Boat building starts next weekend. It would be great if I could hunt with the boat next Fall. We will see. I am planning on building light pretty much to the plans. May put two layers of glass on just the bottom. My thoughts, epoxy medium cure from U.S. Composites, fiberglass and other material from Raka, hardware from Jamestown Distributors. Used outboard with electric start. Battery and fuel in the front.
One starting question: The deck pieces. Join at A-A. Do you leave the two ends long and scarf join them or just butt them over the knee.

Daryl Baker
 
Welcome Daryl,

I am pretty sure I butt jointed the deck pieces. In fact I am positive I did because I put a weak sister up against the rib that the joint fell on just to give the joint more strength. I used all RAKA products and really liked the fact that I had both fast and hard hardner. I mixed them together quite a bit to get the cure rate that I wanted depending on the ambient temperature.

You will have a fine boat when you are done.
 
All deck joints are butt joints over a frame or knee.

For the tops of all the knees I recommend installing in a doubler to increase the surface area for installing screws and epoxy adhesion. There will be a lot of scrap 3/4 plywood to use for these short pieces. I cut mine 1 inch tall and then clamped them to the knees with epoxy. Once cured I then final fitted the knees to their spots on the hull.

For my center floor support (what is that piece called? the name escapes me all of a sudden) I laminated several strips of 3/8 plywood that was cut off the hull sheets. It saves you the cost of buying a thick piece of mahogany of which a good deal will end up as scrap or saw dust.

I recommend making a built in fuel tank under the very forward part of the front deck. If you are only making short runs then a small 3-gallon tank up there would be fine. However, if you are making any long runs and needing to store more gear out of the way having a built in tank with all the proper vents and fill ports would come in handy.

My problem with having a standard tank under the front deck is that I have to pull all the gear out and then swap tanks and then put the gear back.

Right now my 6-gallon tanks sit on the open floor with me and are a real PITA.
 
I would recomend that you buy 2 3/4" sheets of okoume. I dont know about everybody else but I could have never made it with just one. Sounds like you have done your homework. Looking forward to your build. Sounds like you will be the first in the class of 2010,good luck.
 
Daryl,

Welcome and congratulations on a great boat choice. There are some terrific duck guys surrounding you... I live in RI, but the business is in Chester, CT, and we build turbine engine parts... but for the smaller variety (helos, tanks, corporate).

My private license expired a jillion years ago, but I am still a nut about private planes.

If you ever need help with the boat just holler.

Andrew
 
Thanks for the support guys. My 1st season had a lot of disappointing misses and few hits. I got a boost today with one actually folding up and hitting the water after pulling the trigger. Very rewarding! Getting set up under the star light, watching the sun rise and the ducks flaring into the decoys is magical. One more hunting day and we will be done for the season. Next year with the Black Brant 3 duckboat and a lot of broken clays under my belt I hope to be more successful.
 
We had a few fun shoots with Daryl. Me in my boat and Daryl and JoeJ in Joe's boat. Birds come in, Joe and I empty our autos and Daryl has two rounds left in his......hahaha, newbies... But on our second to last hunt together a couple of weeks ago, he did stone a merg at around 40yds. I'm looking forward to seeing his build up close. I'm going to also poison his progress by showing him how to make his own decoys too.
 
Welcome Daryl, You are going to love that boat,building it, as well as hunting from it. I just finished my first season with my BBIII and can honestly say it was my most successful and rewarding season ever. Good luck with the build and post up plenty of pictures. We are all "picture junkies" here....:):)
 
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