| The Gretchen Pirogue |
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| The Gretchen Pirogue |
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I started this boat in late august. Right about the time I was about 90% done with it I got a call from my sister telling me my niece just had her first baby. The boat had to be named after Gretchen both being born at the same time and all. So there it is. I will have to get it broke in for a few years till she gets old enough to enjoy it. Then I will have to build a replacement. I don't think it will be too hard to convince me to build another one. All I need is a little excuse, once this boat building gets in your blood it is hard to stop.
 Since I was building this one on the fly and making up the plans as I went I just built the sides the way I wanted and stitched the bow and stern together and stretched the middle to the dimensions I wanted. I measured the angles I wanted for the stems and rib. |
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No but joints for me. I don't think it is so very difficult to make a scarph joint. Some boat builders don't think it is worth the effort. The smooth joint gives you a little less problems joining the bottom to the sides I guess but I just like the way it looks also. Let them wonder where you got that long a piece of plywood. |
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The finished boat will have the rear point cut off so I cheated an inch or two and cut the rear angle so it did not meet the upper corner. This gained me a couple inches of overall length. |
| The stems went in and then the side rails. I buy a 16 foot 2x4 as clear as I can find and have it ripped in 3/4 inch strips. Next time I may just go with trim boards you can buy in 16 ft lengths. |
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I wanted my transom to be at least 2 inches thick and as strong and lightweight as possible. I sandwiched foam and built vertical and horizontal structure into it. I faced it with the same 5mm Luan ply I used on the rest of the boat. |
| A bit of shaping with a belt sander and fit it in, epoxied it in place and trimmed off the overhang. I toped it with another piece of plywood and gave it the glass two layers thick. |
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The upper deck is supported by 3/4 by 1 1/2 strips of pine, with a thin fillet and glass to the top seem. This holds the spud pipe in place. |
| The seats are a simple sandwich of foam board with ply on top and glassed all over. The front spud is made pretty much the same way as the rear. |
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The blind utilizes the spud polls and some bent pipes I scavenged from a decorator item the wife didn't want anymore. Eyebolts in the tops of the pipes with a rope running through allows me to clothes pin my blind around the boat when in position. The blind material is black plastic garden fencing with raffia grass and burlap zip tied to it. |
| It has a pretty low profile in the marsh and provides a stable shooting platform for two midsized adults when it is spudded to the mud. She only weighs about 65 pounds so she can be transported to the marsh on public ground that doesn't allow vehicle traffic directly to the hunting water. |
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I think I have designed and built the
ultimate duck boat for Missouri public land hunting. I am getting
ready to build another. If you would be interesting in having me build
one for you give me a call and we will talk. 660-341-0527 |
