Anyone built a MT River Boad or Greg Tatman Wooden Boat Kit?
chris izzo
either building a MT River Boat from the plans or a Greg Tatman Wooden
Boat Kit.
I have never built a boat before and would like to build a river dory
(drift boat). There are plenty of plans out there, some have to be
better than others. As far as building complexity, overall look,
manuverability, drag, rowing, etc.
Any inputs are welcome.
Thanks
Chris Izzo
Glenn Ashmore
chris izzo wrote:
> I'm looking for someone who can give me some first hand experiences on
> either building a MT River Boat from the plans or a Greg Tatman Wooden
> Boat Kit.
>
> I have never built a boat before and would like to build a river dory
> (drift boat). There are plenty of plans out there, some have to be
> better than others. As far as building complexity, overall look,
> manuverability, drag, rowing, etc.
Several years ago I built a Tatman 17' from plans. If I did it again I
would buy the frame kit. Greg's complete kit prices are very reasonable
but the packing and freight are a bit high.
Project took 3 months of dedicated weekends and about $850 in material.
Mine was Okoume ply with ash gunwales and rock gards. The bottom was
graphite filled epoxy. It looked great and rowed very easy. . The
rocker was just right for catching a ripple and holding.
I built it just for the heck of it figuring it would be a good way to get
some boatbuilding skills. It was not really much use down here in South
Georgia. Trailered it all the way to Flaming Gorge about a year after it
was finished where it drew a lot of complements. A guy offered me $3,200
for it with the trailer and oars so I came home alone with enough cash to
start a 22' sailboat. .
--
Glenn Ashmore
I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.mindspring.com/~gashmore
Brian Dixon
boats are virtually identical (hmmm ....). Greg left somewhere along the
line for who-knows-what reasons and started his own company.
ANYWAY, to make a long story short, I built a 16 foot Standard from Don
Hill's plans and have used it extensively in bays and drifting rivers (S.
Santiam, Alsea, Siletz etc.) since then. The boat is now going on 4 years
old. I chose Don's design because it was proven (as is Greg Tatman's
obviously) and because Don was the only guy who'd sell me just plans, e.g.
didn't require me to buy a frame kit or a whole kit in order to build his
design. I made my own frames, and I personally don't think that a frame kit
would provide a huge savings in time/money if you bought one. Most of the
work was in building up long wood for gunnels and chine, routering, fitting,
assembling, and ... coating. I used Ray Heater's building instructions for
epoxy encapsulating the boat. Ray worked together with Gougeon Brothers to
develop the methods. Sounds like Greg has borrowed the graphite/epoxy/glass
bottom finish that Ray worked out with the G. Brothers. Just for your
information, I built mine out of old-growth fir frames, Sapele (African
Mahogany) ply, and eastern White Ash for the chines, gunnels, and stem. I
did the whole job entirely by myself in a 2-car garage ... except for the
day I put the bottom on. That job requires 2 people because even with 300
lbs of sand bags to help, it still requires a second person to hold the
bottom solidly down and in place while you drill and fasten ... then there's
the clean-up of the 3M 5200 ... that was about a 14 hour day and the back
ache only lasted about 3 days <g>. Here's some summary points:
- Very proven design (Tatman, Hill, or Ray Heater)
- Very strong design (I pound through white water with rollers running well
above the bow w/no problems)
- Rows well (tracks well, 'stands' well when back-rowing, maneuvers easily)
- Motors reasonably (anything above about 6 hp just lifts the bow further
out of the water ... this is not a power boat)
- Lightweight (250 lbs or so) and carries up to around 900 lbs ... I've had
up to 800 lbs in mine and it still handled fine)
Here's some hints that I learned while building mine:
- Use some form of mahogany plywood if you can. It machines, scarfs, and
finishes so much better than fir ply it's not even funny ... worth every
penny.
- Build your own frames, but expect to toss a few mess-ups. I'd buy Ray
Heater's frames, but can't say for sure about Don's or Greg's. I just know
that Ray does fine work and the frames are exact. He's in Portland and his
company's called Ray's River Dories ... call directory assistance.
- Use Ray Heater's epoxy construction method. It's easy and drops your boat
maintenance down to nothing. Epoxy just gets rolled on and brushed out
(foam roller and brush). 1 coat of System Three or WEST epoxy is equivalent
to about 3 coats of varnish ... you do the math. The epoxy saves money,
time, and labor, and is waterproof (varnish isn't). Plus, Ray's bottom
coating, which is made from 3 layers of 10 oz. glass, epoxy, and
graphite-impregnated epoxy, is easy to do and is bullet proof ... I abuse
the hell out of the bottom of my boat and it takes a lickin' and keeps on
tickin'. The only weak points these boats ever had was a transom that could
get yanked off during unfortunate anchor problems in our Pacific Northwest
whitewater rivers ... building your transom with epoxy and fastening it to
the boat with epoxy and screws makes the strongest transom in the world.
You will NOT ever have transom problems with this construction technique.
If I remember right, Ray will sell his construction methods for about $35
... well worth it. Plus Ray (and Seth, and Don, and Greg) all are willing
to give tons of advice over the phone. I quite often called all of them and
then made my own decision.
- Finally, do what I did and design the floors so they can come out. Don't
screw them to the frames (like Don suggests). Ray Heater can help on this
one too. Or you can contact me and maybe by then I'll even have scanned
pictures of the construction to show you ... and ask me about my scarfing
techniques also. With removable floors, you can take the deck out, the
floors out, and the seats out ... nothing left but frames and hull. That's
very good for hosing the boat out, and even better when you need to add a
coat of varnish or two. And since the frames see a lot of water, not having
screws going through the floors into them will prevent rot. Oh yeah ...
don't run screws clear through the chines into the frames either. This
creates hard points that can crack your inside chine logs when doing white
water ... I won't say who, but one of the builders listed above sometimes
does this. Keep your chines full-floating and only screw into the chine
itself when fastening the boat sides (or outside chine battens.)
Whew! I rambled on ... sometime I'll scan all my pix and put them in a web
site along with text to describe things.
Good luck,
Brian
brian...@hotmail.com
mu...@proaxis.com
chris izzo <top...@albany.net> wrote in message
news:37A6CF8D...@albany.net...
> I'm looking for someone who can give me some first hand experiences on
> either building a MT River Boat from the plans or a Greg Tatman Wooden
> Boat Kit.
>
> I have never built a boat before and would like to build a river dory
> (drift boat). There are plenty of plans out there, some have to be
> better than others. As far as building complexity, overall look,
> manuverability, drag, rowing, etc.
>
John Kohnen
http://www.cyber-dyne.com/~jkohnen/nautical.html#bevel
Guess he doesn't remember, it's been so long since I put the articles
there. <g>
On Sun, 8 Aug 1999 23:27:38 -0700 "Brian Dixon" <mu...@proaxis.com> wrote:
> ...
> ANYWAY, to make a long story short, I built a 16 foot Standard from Don
> Hill's plans...
> and ask me about my scarfing techniques...
--
John <jko...@cyber-dyne.com>
http://www.cyber-dyne.com/~jkohnen/nautical.html
All the troubles of man come from his not knowing how to sit still.
<Blaise Pascal>