# Duck Boat.



## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

I know some folks on the Forums have made there own duck boats. (I think Paddler is the one?) 


I had plans of building one from aluminum, and welding it up to my likings. The price of aluminum is outrageous and I feel its not worth it economically.


Now I'm leaning towards a wood Hull with fiberglass overlay and epoxy. Maybe Carbon Fiber for the bottom of the boat. If I go this rout, the boat will be 14' max and more of a sleek layout type of boat with a 8-15 HP mud motor. 


Any thoughts, suggestions, or pics of one you've made would be awesome.


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## LukeS (May 27, 2017)

I believe his name was pumpgunner who made the wooden boats but I could be wrong. Good luck I have thought about welding a boat up to but never have the time.


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## paddler (Jul 17, 2009)

LukeS said:


> I believe his name was pumpgunner who made the wooden boats but I could be wrong. Good luck I have thought about welding a boat up to but never have the time.


Yep, that would be Cody, Great Basin Duck Boats. He builds wooden boats. I think about building a nice wooden boat daily, but it remains a dream so far.


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

If you're talking a 14 footer, you should just buy a brand new 1436 Alumacraft for under $1000....Or look for a good used one. They show up for sale all the time because guys want bigger.


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## johnrr65 (Nov 7, 2019)

Fowlmouth said:


> If you're talking a 14 footer, you should just buy a brand new 1436 Alumacraft for under $1000....Or look for a good used one. They show up for sale all the time because guys want bigger.


+1


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## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

A 1436 is to narrow for my liking, to easy to roll IMO. If I build one, it will be at least 5' wide. 


I only need it for smaller water and maybe 2 hunters, gear and dog. I have so many "Honey-Doos" for spring I'll be lucky to find time to build one. 


I have to build a kennel for my 14 month old Lab. He has tore the HE!! out of the yard, and I found out today he chewed the wires on the AC condenser. I dang near placed him on KSL. He's really pissing me off!!


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## goosefreak (Aug 20, 2009)

60 inches is too wide for that type of boat and motor. If you do, you better size up your motor. Long and narrow boats preform the best all around. 

My first boat was a 1436 and it ran great with me and my buddy with quite a bit of gear in perspective to the size of the boat.

I had a 13hp longtail on it. With me and my buddy, with a couple dozen decoys, we would run about 13-15 mph ish 

You know as well as I do that all boats will have limitations.

My advice would echo what FowlMouth said and pick up a used or new 1444 or 1448 and put a 23 longtail on it. That would be a justifiable cheap rig that would be versatile as all get out.


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## paddler (Jul 17, 2009)

It used to be that an Alumacraft flat Jon boat cost about $100/ft. I just called Marine Products, a new 2019 is "on sale" for $2000. MSRP is $2300. Maybe building a marine plywood/fiberglass/epoxy boat would be competitive on cost. It would certainly be cooler, but more prone to nicks and weathering.


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

paddler said:


> It used to be that an Alumacraft flat Jon boat cost about $100/ft. I just called Marine Products, a new 2019 is "on sale" for $2000. MSRP is $2300. Maybe building a marine plywood/fiberglass/epoxy boat would be competitive on cost. It would certainly be cooler, but more prone to nicks and weathering.


. Crazy how expensive Jon boats have gotten. In 2008 I paid $1600 for a new 1648 from Marine Products. At that same time you could get a new 1436 for $700. Marine Products had a line of Starcraft Jon boats in 2006 that were really nice well made boats. I wish I would have bought one.


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## Pumpgunner (Jan 12, 2010)

I have built quite a few, all of mine are stitch and glue wood construction, epoxy, glass and kevlar over aircraft ply. PM me if you have any questions!


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## Pumpgunner (Jan 12, 2010)

Here's a few of the boats I've built, maybe I can give you some ideas to work with-
This one is a modified Sam Devlin Black Brant 3, I removed the hull rocker and reshaped the transom to make it run better with a mud motor, 16'









My own design sneak boat, I run a 15hp longtail on it, perfect one man boat that can hide just about anywhere. You can fit 2 guys in but space becomes a premium, 12'x48" at the transom, 56" widepoint.









My main mud boat, my own design, 16', can't remember the exact width but she is WIDE. Will float several guys, an armada of decoys, and the kitchen sink. Double battery electrical system powering interior lights, nav lights, and an LED light bar on the bow. Powered by a Backwater 35hp longtail









Devlin Poleboat for hunting the motorless areas on a few WMAs


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## paddler (Jul 17, 2009)

Very cool boats, Cody. It's funny that you run a two battery setup on your main boat. I have a 20' Hewescraft Searunner with a 115HP Mercury EFI that I fish offshore. I've been 58 miles out of port, last year we ran 145 miles one day. I run downriggers, radar, etc, all on a single battery setup.

I like Devlin's designs, but if I built something it would need to be light enough to car top. My canoe is 16' long, weighs 65#, and will carry 900# or so. 12'-14' sneakboat built with 3mm okume weighing 40# would be sweet.

Weird, I'm already excited for next year.


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## Pumpgunner (Jan 12, 2010)

paddler said:


> Very cool boats, Cody. It's funny that you run a two battery setup on your main boat. I have a 20' Hewescraft Searunner with a 115HP Mercury EFI that I fish offshore. I've been 58 miles out of port, last year we ran 145 miles one day. I run downriggers, radar, etc, all on a single battery setup.
> 
> I like Devlin's designs, but if I built something it would need to be light enough to car top. My canoe is 16' long, weighs 65#, and will carry 900# or so. 12'-14' sneakboat built with 3mm okume weighing 40# would be sweet.
> 
> Weird, I'm already excited for next year.


Thanks Jon! I have the 2 battery setup for security more than anything. The 35hp is electric start only, the thought of being way out in the middle of nowhere with a dead battery made the idea of having an onboard backup pretty appealing. All my lights, etc only draw about 1.5 amps total (full LED setup) so I could easily run everything off of 1 battery but with 2 I can have a backup ready to go if I ever have any battery problems. I also carry a portable jump starter with me for backup #3, can't have too much redundancy I guess!

If you want to get really esoteric with a lightweight build, a full composite layup with divynycell or corecell foam core/glass/epoxy sandwich is the way to go-I've messed around with it a bit to make some 8'x36"x10" layout sleds, my wooden prototype was around 60lbs and the foam core version was less than 25 pounds finished-it's really neat stuff but definitely expensive! I guess that's becoming the standard these days, they are using the foam composite to build everything from skiffs to 100' offshore yachts. I think a guy could build a crazy lightweight sneakboat with that stuff!

I've experimented a bit with using superlight ply, anything less than 6mm, even fully glassed, flexes a bit too much for my taste even after it's glassed. I suppose you could mitigate that a bit by introducing some curves and angles for more tensile strength across the surface but I wouldn't recommend it, especially for messing around near ice and in the late season.


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## gander311 (Dec 23, 2008)

Man those are some sexy boats Pumpgunner. 

Seriously beautiful. Works of art. I’d love to see one in person someday.


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## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

Pumpgunner, now that's what I had in mind to build. Great looking boats!! I'll have to make a reality check and see if its possible with my "must do first" projects. 


Thanks for sharing! I really appreciate your offer on advice and sharing the photos!!


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## JerryH (Jun 17, 2014)

Pumpgunner
I admire your talents!


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## Pumpgunner (Jan 12, 2010)

Thanks guys! It's a fun thing to get involved with if you're so inclined. My family has a pretty long history of building and using boats, I grew up working summers on my Grandpa's shrimp boat in coastal North Carolina, messing around with boats is a lifelong thing for me and I'm glad that waterfowling and boatbuilding go together so well!


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