Hunting boat

[caribou]

These are all the parts I need to build another Umiaq. For three weeks now, mostly inside because -61 is too frikkin' cold to work out in, I came up with all the dryed Spruce trees and poles Id saved from summer and reduced them with hand tools, some electric, some not, into 22 floor boards, 44 ribs, 6 seats, a bow and stern (made of glued and screwd plywood lamination) a keel, 2 chines, 4 stringers a set of gunwhales and an inwhale.........The gunwhales still need to be reduced, but since they are last to go on, before the skinning, and that'll happen when its warm enough to really strech things and shrink them together, as the skin itself will put alot of push/pull pressure on the members, and they will need something over Zero to get right the first time.Its fairly flat bottomed with 2-1/2 inches of dead rise on a 4-1/2 foot wide bottom, 3-1/2 feet of sheer, and 7-1/2 fet wide, 36 feet long, and about 350 lbs skinned. This is ideal for the shallows of our rivers, and the lakes/inlets to Kotzebue sound and its great all summer long hunting.
Wind, tugging and maybe a motor slung overboard, or just warping along the shore with a loooooooong rope, some dogs, a 4 wheeler, kids...~~LOL!!~~ will do just fine, as well as a spray skirt that can add 1-1/2 feet of freeboard in rough seas. Can be hauled up on ice in the pack or shore to serve as a wind and rain proof roof, and the biggest benifits besides being able to take everything I want to along is the fact that Ill be able to take all the kids, mutts, friends and junk.

well, it took three weeks of a few hours a day, and now the sun is up long enough for hunting of fresh meats and valuable Fur to start, so this project will sit untill its warm and dripping. Ill let ya know then, and hopefully post boating pictures all summer.

 

[Art Eatman]

Life will turn into work, if you let it.

 

[MCgunner]

Jeez, I'm tired just reading about it. I want a new boat, one I can carry atop my van on trips. Been looking here. http://directboats.com/ That building stuff sounds sorta like work.

I guess you guys don't have to have numbers and registration on boats? Texas is a totalitarian dictatorship in some ways. I just renewed the registration on my little 16 foot outboard. State's always lookin' to bilk me out of money.

 

[buck460XVR]

Pretty cool. Hope you can post some pics of the build as it goes.

 

[juk]

Wow. And here I was thinking I was gonna make me a nifty boat out of plywood and fiberglass. It looks like your boat may be a bit niftier than mine. lol Keep us updated.

 

[BBQLS1]

Caribou, I always enjoy reading your posts about living up there. It's alot more interesting than, "Sitting in my cubicle, looking at the computer screen. Reading reports of what broke on the last shift."

 

[caribou]

Ill have it all on photos soon enough. I had a Japanes friend, Ikunori Suzawa here for those three weeks and he documented the felled trees to the final reduction of the build. He and I have floated the major rivers and Kozebue Sound with Kayaks, and he was likeingthe one I built this summer, and since I am not entirly satisfyed with it, I decided to build another one, so I invited him ad he arrived and in a more appropriate time, inna Subsitance calander wize way. killed time indoors when it was brutally cold and did a much stronger job than my first one. Were gonna try and get him back here to see the fit and finish in the spring, when we have long cool days and can work outside in the sunshine and get it all tight and right. Thats when old folks finnished theirs Ive heard, and its a pretty good idea I think too.

For now I have other work, and Fur to think about inna couple weeks. April will be a grand time to work on it, maybe May, but break up comes in later May, and we plan to float away, so maybe Ill try and get Iku here for a ride in it

 

[Cob]

That's a cool project Caribou... but geez -61? Winter is hard down here in FL, with 84 degree weather last week.- I'd like it to get colder, but not that cold!! I do not think i could stand it.

i built a wooden canoe a couple years ago, using plywood, fiberglass tape, polyurethane glue, and zip-ties. It floats, and works rather well. The project was fun, but i bet it's not seen the adventures that your hunting boat has. It's about 1/3 the length of your boat, at about 13', not 36'. It cost me less than $40 in materials, and i had a $25 gift card, so really only about out about $15 bucks. Attached are few pics of progress of one of my hunting boats. The waves in the Gulf of Mexico get to big for me for this thing, but I like the brackish back-water flats, and local lakes.

I had a book with complete plans for several wooden stitch and glue boats, but this boat actually has a website with free design available:http://intheboatshed.net/2007/03/21/a-cinderella-canoe-adapted-for-rowing/

Dynamite Payson's "Instant Boats" is a good read if you want to build a simple plywood boat, in a hurry.

Keep us updated on the build, and I'd like to see another video with you, the .22, and boat paddle working on a caribou in the finished product when you get it together.