So It’s Starting to Look Like a Skiff!

Well damn!  I must admit I had a few nervous moments as the pieces were being prepped and cut but if my eyes don’t deceive me this looks a bit like a boat.   OK, maybe I was only a little worried but it was super exciting seeing it start to take shape.  Yeah, I know the photography sucks on this but the only thing I had with me was my iPhone as my brother had borrowed my SLR for a conference he was attending so hopefully you get the idea.

Big time thanks to my buddies Bob and Rich because this part is most definitely not a one person operation.  After running out of wire and having to strip out some scrap romex, we managed to get it basically stitched together.  Now that things are in one piece and my tiny garage space isn’t as much as an issue I am excited to see things start to accelerate quickly.

It is pretty amazing how much the properties of the wood start to change once you have a few layers of glass and epoxy soaked in.  You can already feel it begin to take on the rigidity and durability that comes along with it.  The next step is to put spreaders into the hull and give her some shape.  Once that is set we can fillet the seams and go to town.  Keep your fingers crossed folks as this will be coming down to the wire for our trip out to Presque Isle this month.

Tight Lines and Loose Pants,

MBL

Fly in the Ointment…. Bee in the Epoxy

So the truth of the matter is that the early stages of boat building are not all that exciting to watch.  Pieces are cut, fiberglass is wet, sanding is…. well sanding.  Until the day comes when you start stitching things together and they actually look like a boat it is truly hard to show a ton of progress.

As would be par for the course this year, mother nature has made things a bit more difficult than I would like.  Skiff Central…. I mean my garage…. is not heated or air conditioned and in order for epoxy to cure correctly, temperatures need to be within a certain window.  Needless to say with our most recent snow in April fiasco they were not in said window.  This really slowed things down for a week so I am not trying to play catch up.

Last night I began glassing my last side panel and sandwiching together my transom.  I came out to look and there was the proverbial fly in the ointment… or in this case a bee in the epoxy.  Sadly for him he will meet an even worse face as he will soon be sanded into oblivion.  Goodbye cruel world.

 

If all goes well, I should have things ready to stitch together this weekend!

Tight Lines and Loose Pants,

MBL

Wheels!

So when I started this project I purchased an old Evinrude and a trailer from my neighbor that had been rotting away in their back yard.  The trailer is for a small boat or PWC and has wheels just about the size of the ones on my kids Matchbox car.  I stopped in at a local boat yard and they had a set of used 12″ wheels in decent condition for $40…… SOLD!  One can of white spray paint later and we have new wheels!

As this build moves along it is amazing the lessons that you learn… some cheap, some expensive.  For example, last night I learned that you can’t let epoxy cure when the temperature in your garage drops down to freezing over night….  Looks like I have some sanding work to do.

Tonight we will be finishing the hull pieces and hopefully be starting to stitch by the weekend!

MBL

So You Want to Build a Skiff?

I have been told that I am just a hair on the crazy side on more than one occasion.  The tendency to take the path less traveled somehow seems to find me even when I am not actively searching for it.  So began this journey.   If you knew me as a kid, you would know that I grew up chucking plugs from an 18′ Lund V Hull that my fathers employees aptly named “The Master Baiter”.  (mom was so proud)  My father ended up selling the boat as I got older and have been a walk and wade fly fisher for over 20 years.  Deep down I have always missed having the boat and would often lament to my wife about the day that the kids grow up and I can buy my dream boat.

Long long long story short, I decided that that time was now.  No… the kids are not grown up.  No I don’t have the budget for the boat I had my eye on…. and I truly had no clue what I was going to do.  As luck would have it, my friend Dale Fogg is a pretty handy guy and makes beautiful hand crafted fly tying stations.  He turned me on to J and J Dream Boats (https://www.facebook.com/JJDreamBoatsImagineThat on FB) up in Union City, PA.  Jim and Joan are truly amazing folks and not only do they sell beautiful hand crafted drift boats, but they offer classes for the novice (like me) who would like to build their own.

Now, if you have read any of my previous posts you’d know that I had purchased a small hull with the notion of rehabbing it.  After some sense was talked into my head by Mark Sikora up at International Angler, I realized that the boat did not have enough displacement to carry the weight of what I wanted to do….  So at that fateful moment, a skiff was born!  I found a perfect set of plans for what I wanted to build on Bateau for a fair price but if you look hard enough, there are plenty of free plans available in books or on the web.

My journey started with a FaceBook message and then a phone conversation with Jim and Joan.  They were not only helpful and insightful, but they agreed to schedule a class to accommodate my crazy schedule.   In a full day, Jim walked me though each and every step with hands on experience and patient explanation.

Not only did I walk away with knowledge, confidence, and excitement, but Jim fed me a lunch of some of the best deep fried blue gill fillets I have ever had!  According to Jim, Joan caught most of them and is deadly with light tackle.

J and J have sold boats to all different kinds of folks, including some of the most well known guides in Pennsylvania.

So building a 16′ boat is at times not a one man operation so I recruited my good buddy CW and my neighbor Rich to give me some much needed help.  (I pay in beer, but always really really good beer!)  So this week it began with the goal to have the boat in the water for our late May pilgrimage to Presque Isle Bay.

 

 

Yes… I know, I know… It doesn’t look like a boat yet.  The early stages are a ton of prep and joining of boards.  Stay tuned for more to come as things take shape.  We are still searching for a fishy name so if any of you have some cool ideas, let us know!

Tight Lines and Loose Pants,

MBL