Drift boat build

Installing inner rub rail.

 

Shot me pumping the water out after I left it full of water overnight.

 

Back inside. Installing the trim chine. This covers up the weld and gives it a more professional look. This was not a lot of fun.
I used 2" x 2" angle. That stuff does not want to bend. I ended up cutting relief cuts so I could make it go where I wanted it to go. Next time I will use something thinner and more flexible.

 

Attached another layer of sheeting in the back to make the plug area 1/2" thick.

 

Making the winch hook for the bow. Again, I only had 1/8" material, so I laminated 2, together to make 1/2".

 

Fabbing up the transom. The vertical piece of tube and the stern had a 1/2" gab because the sheeting had bowed. I had to drive a self tapping screw in to pull the pieces together.

 

Fabbing up the bow trim.

 

Starting to fab up the rowers seat. This has changed and will be evident in later pictures.

This size material is a dream to weld on.

 

Should have included this pic with the last bunch. I wanted a "walk thru" style seat. Often we have to move front to back very rapidly when we get a big steelhead or salmon on the line. As non of us are getting any younger and all seem to be getting a bit "top heavy", anything to help us keep our balance is a good investment.

 

Fabbing up the foot shelf. It's wasted space, so I decided to put a shelf there.

 

Needed to clean the shop. Moved the Tundra outside to get washed, since you couldn't see thru the window from all the aluminum dust on it.

Put the boat on the hoist so I could do a deep clean everywhere else.

Took a much needed break, while promptly losing the cap to my bottle. Bummer

 

This it for now, will carry on later.

Note to self: resume from page 16 of my media file.

 

Awesome build Kirk!

 

Build thread of the year. Period

 

Now i see how you got from three posts to three pages overnight.

Nice job.

I am glad someone has a flat enough garage floor to build a boat right on the floor.

 

Yeah- Drift boats hulls have very shallow draft, can spin on a dime to avoid obstacles, and the oarsman can easily pull away with the low resistance bottom to avoid them. High bow and stern to take on waves in white water. They are really lots more fun to row than rafts!

 

When I built the shop, I specified that that side was completely flat. But yes, it does help to start with a known flat surface.

 

Took a little detour.

Fabbing up some drink holders. Started off by ripping some sheeting into 2" strips. Plasma cutter works great for this.

Had some old axle tube laying around. I used that to wrap the aluminum around to form the drink holder.

I figured these 25 ouncers would be the largest anyone would have for drinks.

 

Pre made they cost $85. I think I have $2 into it.

 

Next I needed to fab up the floor for the front passenger. Because the floor curves up (as most boats do), it would be very uncomfortable for a person to stand there fly casting all day. I needed to make a flat area in the front.

This took some thinking: I knew how the boat was going to sit in the water, but I didn't know how to mark the inside for the position of the floor. Then I hit on the idea of using a laser level. It worked great.

After shimming the front and back of the boat to the position it will sit in the water, I was able to tape a marker on to the bottom of the laser receiver pole. When it beeped I was level and knew I could make a mark on the inside for the floor. I did this around the entire inside of the boat. Instant level floor mark.