The duck boat project begins!

Dave Church

Dave Church

Well-known member
Started my Kara Hummer, well it's modified so it's more along the lines of the Atomic Nutria. It's my first and I am really enjoying it. I can't believe how much I have learned on one simple project and I have only framed it out. Let the heckling begin...................dc

View attachment Boat 046.JPG
 
Dave,
that's really starting to take shape. You've done a good job with it. I remember starting the first Kara. My did didn't even think it would float! hehehe. Enjoy the ride and be prepared to need a bigger garage!

Scott
 
Dave, what do you plan on using for the wood skin on the boat. I have toyed with building one of these "on the cheap" but get hung up on using luan like products on the skin. By the way, the frame looks great.
 
John, I am trying to find out right now what people have used and what they experienced. AC Fir is about $30 a sheet where as Luan is $12 a sheet. I have heard that you are wasting your money on pressure treated and I am hoping that once the boat is glassed you will have all the strength that you need. It is amazing how fast this goes together. I was a little worried about getting the boards to bend for the nose but it's been so humid here that I just strapped them together and put some tension on them while leaving the frame laying in the grass for a few days. Every morning the dew was so heavy that the boards were soaked and I would tighten the straps a little more. This worked really well and I didn't have to wrap wet towels or soak the boards in a pond. One board did crack on the outside of the frame, not bad, and I hear this is pretty common. It is just a crack and not broken. I glued it and clamped it for a few days, looks like it will be fine. As soon as I have some more info, I will post what I decided to use. dc
 
Dave, I finished a Zach Taylor Widgeon boat last year. 1/4 fir on the bottom and I did use Luan for the deck. Also did 2 layers of glass for the bottom and one on top. Very happy so far.
 
Looking gooooood! :)

I didn't have days to wet my gunnels in the grass :) good idea though. I wrapped them with wet rags and balanced them on milk crates like a seesaw and put weights on each end to bend them. Left them like that for the afternoon, overnight (added some water to the rags before goign to bed), and the next morning, then they were good to go shortly after lunch.
 
Thanks Anthony. As you can see, I squared off the back end and I will round the stern board at some point to make it look better. I am just playing with it right now to see how I want the back to look. dc
 
A note of caution on the Luan. I have used it for several projects one being a cover for my boat. It delaminated badly after about a year. It was not epoxied and fiberglassed just painted with 3 coats of paint. All of the plys had seperated within 2 years. I had 3 pieces to the cover and this only happened on 2 of them. The sheets came out of the same stack at home depot. I also used the stuff for a cover on a utility trailer. I only had painted one side of it becasue I was lazy but it lasted 5 years before it curled up on the corners. It probably would still be fine if I had painted the underside of it. Of course I replaced it with Luan. My point is that I think it is a crap shoot on what you are getting with that stuff. If you get some exterior AC fir you will know what glue is in it and have confidence that it won't fall apart if some water does get in it.
 
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