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Crappie Wall Hanger II
DIY boat
Hi everyone, I'm new.
I bought a couple of Aquastar lights a couple years back, but never really got a chance to use them. About that same time I built a pirogue, but I never trusted that thing out on the lake at night by myself: too little freeboard and way too narrow.
So, I want to build a new jon boat from purely for nightstalking. So far I'm thinking a 48 inch wide bottom, maybe 12 or 13 feet in length with 20 inch high sides. It'll be more of a one person barge than anything.
No gas power, just a trolling motor and oars.
If you guys could build a boat from scratch what would you want in it, particularly for nightstalking?
Crappie.com 1K Star General
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built a boat out of one sheet of 3/4" plywood, sides were 1" x 10" boards, when it was done and launched it was so dangerous i took it home and made a planter out of it to remind me that life is too shout for that kind of shortcuts. My recomendation is get a 10' jonboat.--shu
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Crappie Wall Hanger II
Did you use any epoxy, resin, fiberglass or make any ribs or a frame?
There are plenty of people who have made very serviceable, reliable and safe boats: http://unclejohns.com/jonboat/default.htm
I'm not trying to cut corners. I know that I can build a boat of higher quality than I can buy. For instance you can't find a 10 jon boat any wider than 36 inches or with any more than 14 or 15 inch sides.
Not to knock manufactured jon boats. They are designed with a lot of safety features: emergency floatation, flared sides with continuous curves for secondary stability, and etc. The shorter jon boats are often too narrow and not high enough on the sides.
If Columbus could cross the pond with wooden boats, I should be able to build something to cross a puddle.
Crappie.com 1K Star General
* Crappie.com Supporter
nice looking boat should be a fun build. no epoxy, no resin, no fiberglass frame or ribs.-shu
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MO/MS Moderator and Fishing Legend
* Member Sponsor
I never built a boat however, I did bulid a camper from plans I bought from a boat building website. Boat plans, boat building kits for amateur boat builders. It was fun to build and now I'm considering trying a houseboat design. You don't know until you try.
Crazy Angler Pro Staff
Crappie Logic Pro Staff
Crappie Wall Hanger II
Wow, the his houseboat designs are nice! You could go night stalking at any time of the year with that!
Slabmaster II
boats
Rebuilt transom, floor etc on a 23 ft center console. Wasnt cheap and took 14 months but it was fun and turned out great. Now have a layout duck hunting boat about 3/4 done. Look into vinyl ester instead of epoxy or polyester resin. I used epoxy and it is realy expensive, and not as easy to work with. If you go to classic seacraft.com those guys are great and really know what they are doin. For what it is worth, I get why you are building one. I prob could have bought a layout boat on sale for same as it cost me to build but the satisfaction would not be the same. Good luck.
Keeper
Slabmaster II
Funny you posted this just now. I was gassing up at a truck stop in Memphis yesterday, and there was a truck parked in the lot with a home made wooden boat tied to the top. It looked to be about 12" long. The bottome had a rib down each side and one down the center beam. It was made out of plywood and all edges were trimmed in solid wood pieces. All screw holes were filled with filler and the whole thing looked to be covered with some type of epoxy or a satin finish of some sort. I just drove around it all quickly and gawked. From the looks of it the guy had to have used some sort of plan, but it was definitely home made. Made me actually think about building one. You could tell he put quite a bit of work into it!
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