Shell Lake, Mallard King Duck Skiff

Hello Shawn,

I have both the Mallard Queen and the The Drake Mallard they are both cedar planked
and canvas covered with the Shell Lake brass tags attached to the front combing. Factory
price for the Mallard Queen $130.00 and the Drake Mallard $160.00.
Bob Speltz wrote a book on the History of the Shell Factory with the break down
on each boat that they built. They are a great piece of duck boat history.

Tom
 
Tom.
Thanks for the information. There is a brass tag attached to the front combing "Manufactured by Shell Lake", I thought there might be another one idicating the model #. I was specifically interested in the year it was made. I will look for the book you referenced.

I see your from MI. i grew up in the Grayling area.

Thanks for the input

And anyone else keep it coming.

Thanks
Shawn
 
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Hi Shawn. The boat has neat lines. Since the boat's stern knee doesn't come up very high, I would be tempted to limit the HP to no more than 3hp.....just one man's opinion...

John Bourbon
 
Thanks Chuck. Ever since I went to Windows 7 64bit I've had the same issue as Lou. I tried your spacebar thing and it worked for me.
 
Hello Shawn,

I have both the Mallard Queen and the The Drake Mallard they are both cedar planked
and canvas covered with the Shell Lake brass tags attached to the front combing. Factory
price for the Mallard Queen $130.00 and the Drake Mallard $160.00.
Bob Speltz wrote a book on the History of the Shell Factory with the break down
on each boat that they built. They are a great piece of duck boat history.

Tom
Click to expand...

Tom,
When you get a chance, you need to stop over to Davenport's place. He picked up his Mallard Queen today. It's different than the last time you saw it. ;) I'll be posting pics of the renovation soon and I'll give you a call soon also.
Later partner,
Lou
 
Hello Lou,

I will Give Mark a call and set up a time to go over and see your handy work. I am glad
that you restored the boat for Mark. It is a great piece of duck boat history preserved.
When you get a chance give me a call about the duck boat we talked about.

Tom
 
Tom you wouldn't believe it's the same boat I got from you.
You need to come over and see it for yourself. What he and Jerry accomplished is amazing.
I don't want to hijack this thread, but I'll show the other forum members the boat as I got it.
BTW, Tom, if you come across the boat tag that was on the boat let me know.
This is what the Shell Lake Mallard Queen looked like. It was probably usable but maybe not. When I got the boat I already had the Bud Miles BBSB re-glassing project started and as I was waiting for Epoxy to tack up I started picking at the Shell Lake.. and so it begins again. My only intentions for the Queen if I could ever find the time to get to it was make it leak free and usable for however long it lasted. It was also a really cool looking boat and the overall lines and construction was pretty cool as well, so I thought what the hell.
Lou can post the finished results.
Lou, you should start a new thread for the Mallard Queen project.
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Sure am glad it's winter now so I don't have to go out and kill those weeds popping thru the drive.
Click to expand...


Mark,

My reaction when I saw those weeds,,,,,,,,,, There is a guy who has his priorities in order. :>) :>)
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Mark,
Those are great pictures. I'm honored to have so much interest in these old skiffs.

Lou if you like please post some of the pictures of the finished product.

Interesting, I see that there is quite a bit if wood damage, was that visible on the inside prior to peeling off the old canvas?

Also I'm not seeing that anyone has a good means to date the craft.

Shawn
 
Shawn,
I didn't see any damage from the inside because I didn't really look all that hard since I already knew I was going to strip it.
Shawn that's a cool boat you have and I hope you redo it. Lou would be an excellent resource of info or even if you wanted someone else to do it. He cut no corners and I know he made a jig for the cockpit combing and they did some other really clever things when it came to the other repairs.
 
Mark,
Those are great pictures. I'm honored to have so much interest in these old skiffs.

Lou if you like please post some of the pictures of the finished product.

Interesting, I see that there is quite a bit if wood damage, was that visible on the inside prior to peeling off the old canvas?

Also I'm not seeing that anyone has a good means to date the craft.

Shawn
Click to expand...

Shawn,
I'll start a whole thread on the renovation of the Mallard Queen soon. I took over 300 photos of the work and just separated out a bunch of them to resize and start posting yesterday and then..........my computer puked out on me. It locked up and won't boot up..........doh...so much for a new HP computer and Eset NOD32 virus protection. Bought in May and puked in December.
So.......the computer is at Micro Center right now and we'll see what happens. I've got a 3 year warranty and paid up 4-year virus protection. It should be fixed at no charge but we'll see how that goes also. It will determine just how much more computer stuff I buy from this place. ;)

As soon as I get the computer back (using my wife's 'puter right now) I'll get onto posting pics of the Mallard Queen and step by steps.
Merry Christmas,
Lou
 
Well like I said when I first started this thread. I was originally looking for an old duck skiff to use as a mantel on my fire place. Since the first one seems to be a diamond in the rough and is to good to cut up. Here is the plan "B". I picked this skiff up. It is a small 11'7' single man skiff. As you can see it was a old hand made skiff and has seen better days. To restore this one the best thing would be to do is use it as a template and build a new one.
For me that is perfect. I stripped the top and cut in a transum in the rear to hold an old Neptune Mighty Mite. As far as the holes they are perfect. I will be painting the skiff back to a patina look (the elmers glue trick).
Then Ill cut out the complete sitting area - that will be imbedded into the fireplace - with the bow, stern coming out of each side and side of the skiff will be the mantel.


If anyone else has any old skiff please post some pictures. Love to see them.

Shawn



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Shawn,
Art is correct. I bought this boat and two others from Art. I cannot say enough good things about Art and his wife. I baited my wife and three of our six kids into driving up to Art's from Kansas City with the promise of a fun afternoon at the Mall of America, or whatever that large mall around Minneapolis is called. After 30 minutes, I simply could not stand any mall any longer, and we arrived at Art's doorstep with at least two of the kids (the sub-teens) excited about the boats; my wife was hopping mad. Art helped us load-up three boats -- the Shell Lake Mallard King, a whale-tailed Barnegat Bay (very unique boat -- have not seen another like it), and a 12 foot double ender. Art grilled us steaks, and treated us to a lovely meal and evening at his home. You know good people when you meet them, and these are very good people -- there seems to be a disproportionate number of them on this forum.

I bought all three boats intending to restore them, starting with the Shell Lake Mallard King. I hunted the Mallard King with my son the first year, his first with a gun, and it was a season to remember. Art had told me that this boat was the best boat he had ever poled, and he was right. I acquired an 8 foot poling paddle off of EBay from the Lake Pokagon area. My son and I would load the boat to the gills with decoys and other paraphernalia and then pole the boat out to our hunting spot; he would sit in the front and I would stand upright in the back. This proved the most effective way to propel us and provided me a higher line of site to survey where we would would want to set out our dekes. Eventually my son got the hang of poling the boat as well. The water in our hunting area varies from 4 feet in depth to about 6 inches, and the pools we hunt range from 200 to 500 acres in size. Usually we poled the boat to a good-looking spot, then set out our chairs and build a blind around them out of natural materials. We hunt from public land, and this system works well for us even when conditions are crowded. Easy, fast in and out, plus we can get to places others can't by wading and hauling their dekes on their back or floating them across the pool.

Here is a picture of the Shell Lake and the 12 footer as Art had them stored in his garage. He had them rigged up and out of the way -- which was needed because he had half of a marina in his garage. That is a sure sign of a man with a secure marriage.

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After hunting the boat hard for a year, it started to leak a bit, so I began the work on the restore. First, I bought Rollin Thurlow's book, "The Wood and Canvas Canoe," and read it cover to cover (as I read Devlin's book when I found out about it from this forum when I first joined). I had looked hard for a Mallard King for 3 years -- they are rare and hard to come by -- and I was intent on restoring it to make it good for another 30 years. The more I read about applying canvas, the more uncertain I was that I had adequate space to do the job.

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After removing a layer of fiberglass and expoxy that had been applied over the canvas and the top decking, I concluded that I was over my head and contacted Rollin. Rollin was willing to take the boat "broken down" and restore ready. I found a shipper to send the boat to Rollin in Maine on EShip. Rollin enlisted one of his contacts to haul it back to the Midwest after the restoration. Rollin did a masterful job; I would not mind apprenticing with him for a season if I can ever get all my kids married-off and out of the house. Even though I was not there in person, I learned a great deal from watching Rollin and his team work and pinging him with questions over email. He was very willing to share his knowledge; his work speaks for itself.

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The boat as I started to examine its structural soundness.

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There were no broken ribs, that I could see, but I could see where some of the top planking had deteriorated. What I could not see concerned me the most -- especially the breasthook area. You can see in this picture how the ribs attached to the inside stringer, which was a single piece that ran the length of the boat.

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The picture shows both the original's owner plate, but also how some of the structural elements had aged over time.
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The boat as prepared for shipping. Note the support in front of the cockpit. During the restore Rollin removed this piece and actually elongated the cockpit by about 5" on each end. This created extra storage space under the decks, a handy benefit. Most of the topside planking was weak or deteriorating, so I stripped those portions sending Rollin only the "core" of the boat. I then cut thin aluminum strips to secure the boat at key structural points. Removing the old canvas did not require skilled labor, but was not a task I particularly relished. Removing the "skin" looked just like Mark Davenport's post above -- the canvas had separated from the underlying cedar planking, and the epoxy had bonded to the canvas. The "skin" was literarlly "floating" above the cedar planking, with the bonding to the wood confined to the edges. As I worked a putty knife underneath it, the skin was brittle and broke without much effort, freckling the garage floor with a paint chips. As I continued to use the boat, moisture obviously was obviously making its way under the skin, which was the cause for the deterioration of the topside planking.

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Boat upon arrival at Rollin's shop, or as Rollin remarked, "What was left of it." The soul of the boat was intact, but it would take a meticulous master craftsman to breathe life back into this old ducker.

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Rollin began by removing the cockpit and replacing the outside stringer. Here she is readied for "open heart" surgery. Note the 1X4's notched into the sidewalls to provide a secure platform for the oar locks.
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As suspected, age and past repairs had taken a toll on some hidden areas, especially the "breasthook. You can see where fiberglass cloth and epoxy had been used to keep her going through the years.

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The structural "heart" of the boat -- the bent (originally steamed to shape) oak ribs. They were in remarkable shape given their age and years of service. None were completely broken -- Rollin did choose to replace four ribs. You can see those in the next post where he used the existing structure as a mold to replace the four questionable ribs. Rollins has an aluminum box he uses to steam the ribs for bending (wish I kept a picture of that -- you can see it in his book). Removing about 4 layers of paint from the interior of the boat did test the patience of several of Rollin and his team, I am told. . . Rollin sent pictures at the end of each week, and while the boat was in his shop he kept his shop cam on filming each stage of the work, so I was able to ping him with questions about the restoration as it was in process. As you can see from his workshop, he runs a top-drawer operation, with essential tools close at hand and the layout of his shop designed to accommodate numerous boats at different stages of restoration.

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Then there was the matter of removing deteriorated planking.
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Reframing the cockpit and structural elements. Rollin redid this area to strengthen the top of the boat. This allowed him to eliminate the supports on either end of the boat, freeing up extra storage space underneath to haul dekes or whatever.
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Here is how the boat looked with the topside replanked and the interior repainted. The lighter wood is what was replaced; the darker wood is the original planking or skin of the boat. Rollin then sealed the exterior, I am assuming with some combination of linseed oil and turpentine before the cloth was applied.
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