Poke Boat deal found....flotation, seating, transport enhancements 6/21

Dave Diefenderfer

Dave Diefenderfer

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Many years ago, when John Bourbon was introducing me to duck hunting, we started out simple. Our blinds were pallets and chicken wire with phragmite tied to it. We used a variety of ugly plastic decoys, and killed a lot of ducks! Of course back then the limits were 3 ducks a day, so we did shoot a lot of limits! To access the fixed blind sites we built, John bought a Poke boat, and I bought a Wilderness Systems Chesapeake, which was a little better finished Poke boat. We filled them up with our decoys, guns and bags and drug them through a yard and the marsh to the blinds. Eventually we added boats and nicer blinds, but John still has his Poke boat, and mine is missed often. When I started a family, I thought a canoe would be a better choice and traded away my Chesapeake. The canoe is gone now too! Replaced with a variety of other Fowling craft.

Whenever I travel, I always start a couple weeks before, searching the local marketplace and craigslist. I have found some sweet deals outside my local area this way.... My Sam Hunt BBSB, the Dodge and Krowl Ice Scooter, the 40hp on my Scaup, daffodil bulbs!

A few weeks back, I was in Florida for vacation. Weeks before I happened upon an ad for a pair of Poke Boats with double paddles for $400. I confirmed that was the price for the pair? As each would not have been unexpected. So I picked them up on my way to our resort. They had sat in a pole barn a long time. The grey house paint was badly peeling, the mud daubers had added a couple pounds to each of them.

My original intention was to clean them up, paint them, keep one for myself, sell the other for $600 or so. As Maria and I loaded them up, and tied them down, she asked what the plan was for these? Turns out she thought it was something she might like to try. John Bourbon and his wife Nancy both have them and Maria has seen their exploring pictures and thought it looked like fun.

So I cleaned them first with a power washer, then repaired some poorly done patches, and added new foot braces. Last night I make my first attempt at a Brian Garman Camo job. Brian has done all the previous projects for me... the pond box, the Scaup, and motors..... I used his stencils last night, and am satisfied with my first efforts.



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They came out great Dave, AND what a find for that money. When you refinished, did you fill the seam where the top and bottom meet?
 
Troy, I did fill some of the voids with thickened epoxy and faired it. I tried to keep in mind duck boat finish! Camo paint hides lots of sins..... generally they were in very good shape. One was near new condition, the other had been patched poorly. Was not so obvious with the peeling paint, but once cleaned I could see poor adhesion. I elected to remove it all and start fresh. Filled the voids with thickened epoxy, then a layer of 6oz glass, and over painted with thickened epoxy again. Not Bristol, but duck boat.
 
Dave, those are great looking boats, and I hope that you and your wife enjoy them. And feel free to put some pictures up of your Sam Hunt sneakbox. That is one really great find. He was kind of a Piney original, and was also well known for his square dancing, at least in his later years.
 
Greg, my Avatar is a watercolor that Steve Sanford did from a photo my wife took of me sailing the Sam Hunt on Barnegat Bay back in 2010 I think. I have a long thread of the refurb of that boat on here back in 2009. Used a lot of ideas from Dave Clark's Estuary in mine.... same hardware when it was available for my stool rack boards. I know there is another sailing Hunt box available, one that has not been glassed as far as I know. I had to create my own sail rig, based it on the sail that came with my hull. Having an original Hunt sail hull with original rigging would be nice, but I only hunt this boat a couple times a season now.
 
Dave,

I keep an eye on Craigslist and never see sailing sneak boxes come up for sale. I have seen a sail rig for one on the Jersey Shore CL at one point.

Rick
 
Two additions to consider, Dave} 1)A pair of knee braces installed under where your hands will push-off the gunnel coaming when attempting to get out.2) Reinforce the after deck where the cockpit coaming rounds as it runs behind the paddler's back to support your weight as you scoot forward to sit.

Nice foresight to think to attach the pull cord through a piece of garden hose scrap...should be an integral item on these hulls.
 
Nice I think we have matching Poke's. Bought mine a few years back and haven't regretting it I too had to do a bunch of repair and refinish. Painting the camo pattern was a learning experience..View attachment IMG_3563.JPG
 
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Dave

They turned out great. I have a maxi poke and it was one of the best duck hunting purchases I ever made. I will caution you when you get out of the boat don't press down on the decks to lift your butt off the floor. That can crack the cockpit coaming. I lean forward to get my legs under me.

Eric
 
Eric Patterson said:
Dave

They turned out great. I have a maxi poke and it was one of the best duck hunting purchases I ever made. I will caution you when you get out of the boat don't press down on the decks to lift your butt off the floor. That can crack the cockpit coaming. I lean forward to get my legs under me.

Eric
Click to expand...
. So true. I have a rope attached at the front that reaches back to where I sit. When it is time to get out, I use the rope to help me get up. Us old folks need all the help we can get.
 
I've always loved the lines of those. I really like the look of the matched pair. Nice work on getting them back into service too!
 
We got to splash them yesterday, in the heat of the day! Lower 90s, but the water was pleasant, and a slight breeze helped along with the passing clouds. No great photos, only spent a couple hours not wanting to get too sore on the first time out. I wanted Maria to have a pleasant experience. They are a challenge getting in and out of as they are rather wide to straddle well.



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Now I need to think about storage..... where and how to keep them out of the weather, easily accessible, and not in the way of other projects. I need to get back to the more than 4 dozen decoys I have started down in the shop! But really want to dig out the Cackler hull I have that Dave Clark build years ago, and see about cutting it down to a shallow water sneak boat.
 
One thing about the Poke Boat, and apparently the vintage Wilderness Systems Chesapeake is that they have no flotation. A life jacket will save me, but I was worried about losing the boat and contents. I know air bladders are common in kayaks, but they take up a lot of space and are too easy to puncture with hunting stuff I feared.

So I needed to place an order to US Composites, and bought the small kit of 2lb foam for $24 plus shipping.



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I stood the boats up against the house as vertical as I dared.



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John Bourbon had just done this to his boats a week ago, so I had an idea about how much to mix for each end. John was doing 2 at a time, I opted for just one. I mixed up a 100ml of each with my drill driven paddle and poured it in.



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I also added some rigid foam blocks under the seats to relieve the strain on the coaming/gunnels, and fitted some canoe seats to try on our next outing.



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And while I was messing with foam and contact cement, I made some roof rack cushions that are not cut to final length yet but are close:



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Does the foam after pouring have enough adhesive properties to keep it in place in your bow/stern sections or will you have to construct a bulkhead to retain it after curing?
 
I believe it will adhere well enough. If not I will try construction adhesive. Likely enough topography that it expanded around. Time will tell.
 
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