Thinking about building a 12ft cackler

A

Andrew C

New member
hello all, I?m thinking about building a 12 ft cackler this off season. I will be doing fiberglass over wood construction. Has anyone made one? How do they hide?( I hunt allot of coastal marsh just the dog and I)
 
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I know that a few cacklers have been built but I think they were 14' or 16'. Cool boats.
 
I've never seen a 12' Cackler but can't think of a reason you couldn't reduce the size to 12'. It has higher sides than a sneakbox so there is that consideration, but it also has more internal room and even more seaworthy than a sneakbox.

Eric
 
Andrew,
Just curious, why 12' vs the standard 14'? 14' would still be easy enough to handle, and there would not be that much draft difference. Are you thinking of shortening, or scaling it down?

As mentioned, most Cacklers built here have been 14' or stretched towards 16' . My son and I are wrapping up a 15'11" build (state Marine Police are supposed to inspect and issue the HID tomorrow), so I'll be adding an update on that project soon. We built it on 12.75" stations and increased offsets by 12.75/12, so it was increased to scale. Looking forward to getting it in the water and seeing what it does.

On a random note, 14-16' Cackler build uses about the same amount of ply; just a lot less is left on the shop floor. Might be hard to save ply on a 12" build.

Let us know what you decide.

v/r
Bill
 
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I am thinking about building a 12 footer because I hunt solo with a lab mostly. I do most of my hunting in coastal marsh so I want something that can get me across open water safely if the wind were to turn on. My worry is with the ability to hide well enough, my plan was to add flapper boards some what like a Roy boat.
 
Andrew, think the 14' would be a advantage. If you hunt with a dog, decoys, etc. Always looking for more room to put oars, tool boxes, battery, gas tank.
I hunt the marshes on Long Island and mostly hunt with 6-8 decoys. When I hunt with others we usually set larger rigs [brandt], geese, mean more decoys.
Have been caught in 2 blows and really appreciate the larger boat. They camo easy.
 
I have owned a 14ft cackler and I run a 12ft roy boat now. There's a CONSIDERABLE weight difference between the two. The cackler is a better choice if you're going to run big water, but if you are going to be dealing with the mud and pushing the boat around at all then I could see why you would want to save weight. I would never hunt the cackler in the places I do now with a far lighter boat.

I don't think there would be a big difference in height between a 12ft and a 14 in terms of hiding in a low salt marsh. My 14 hid just fine grassed up. I just don't know how much weight you would save over a 14 shortening it to 12 ft, if that's a major concern.
 
Thanks for the insight guys. I?m still tossing around the ideas. I didn?t even think about the thought of possibly of pulling it off that wonderful Jersey mud. Do ether of you have any pics of them grassed up?
 
No good shots grassed up, but my 14 with and without canvas. This design was modified when built to eliminate the motor well.

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