looking for a 2 person plywood riverboat design for fishing slow moving rivers.The boat should be under 100lbs.,have very little rocker,be able to be paddled or motored,and stable enough to use in cold water.
Tracy O'Brian's "voyageur" has too much rocker and not enough beam for me in cold water.Most jonboats are too wide for an old man to paddle without a lot of neck and shoulder fatigue.The boat should be able to handle a wheel-aweigh set of wheels on its transom.
take a look at this website: http://www.apci.net/~michalak/
Gil, I am currently building a 14 plywood and epoxy jonboat that was designed by Ron Sadler out in Oregon. Check out the Sept/Oct 1997 copy of BOATBUILDER mag for the article or email me and I will send you Ron's address and telephone number if you wish.
Senior Member
There is a book "The Great American Johnboat" that describes the development of that wooden boat in the Ozarks.
Found it: "The Authentic American Johnboat; How to Build it, How to Use it" by Larry Dablemont.
The boat is 14' long, 32" wide on the bottom with 15° flare to the sides. It is built of 1" lumber, but from my experience in converting S. S. Rabl's "Uncle Gabe's Flattie Skiff" (Boatbuilding in your Own Backyard) from 1" boards to ¼" plywood it would be simple to do with the johnboat. That would get its weight down to ~100#. This is strictly a boat for paddling.
Also, Thomas Firth Jones' "Low-Resistance Boats" (now "Boats to Go") has several garvey designs. Tom designs, builds, and uses his boats; it's a great read! His "New Plywood Boats and a Few Others" will be published next May.
[This message has been edited by Dave Carnell (edited 12-11-2000).]
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