Portage Pram

[stromborg]

From the good folks who brought you the Scamp comes this 6'-10" beauty, the Portage Pram.

Why this boat? Not particularly happy with the weight and performance of my Iain Oughtred designed Feather Pram I was intrigued by the claims of weighing 35 pounds finished and an idea that perhaps the flat bottom of this boat would be a bit more stable than the very round one on the Feather. We'll see in a couple of weeks how that all plays out. Also, I've been advocating for kits on this forum and this is as kit as you can get. Out of the box all the parts are not only cut but have slots and tabs to locate the various pieces, 1/4" holes for locating dowels in some parts that need laminating and even smaller ones for cable ties to pass through before gluing the whole assembly together. It reminds me a bit of the entry-level snap together dinosaur models I built as a little kid.



I went to Port Townsend and brought mine home (fits easily in the back of a 2018 Honda Pilot) but if you had it shipped a box like this would show up. Not very well shown are two rope handles on the top edge for carrying, pretty sure the local UPS driver could handle it.



Lots of parts...no manual? Turns out they were supposed to send me a line to the online manual. Good thing it is online, there are almost 200 pages of pictures and information that frankly needs editing down but what you need is in there...someplace.



Day one, there are a bunch of parts to epoxy together. The pieces that puzzle joint together will eventually have a second layer of unbroken plywood laminated over the joint, for now they just get straight epoxy. The transoms get a double layer of plywood across their top edges as do knees for the 4 corners.



Close up of the locating dowels in on of the transoms.

Waiting on some 4oz fiberglass cloth to show up today, I thought I had enough leftovers kicking around but not quite. Duckworks offers a cloth and epoxy add-on package. There is also a sailing kit available, I opted to keep this one as a straight up rower, reserving the option to change my mind down the road.

No, it isn't a camp-cruiser, I doubt many of us could sleep in it even curled up in a fetal position. But as a fun little project that will end up as a tender for my "big" (19'-9" LOD) boat Marianita? This has possibilities.

[NeilMB]

Re: Portage Pram

Duckworks also says that the techniques used on the ultra-lightweight Portage Pram were also used on the ultra-lightweight Scout, which IS a solo camp cruiser. https://duckworks.com/scout-cnc-kit/

Looking forward too seeing your photos of the Portage build!

[johngsandusky]

Re: Portage Pram

Cool!

[Liberty53]

Re: Portage Pram

I love my Portage pram!

Believe it or not, I have slept aboard. I bridged the gap with a cooler and had enough gear to fill all the other space. (didn't sleep much, but the stars were great)

My favorite feature is that the balance point when inverted is right at the end of the rowing seat, this works as a shoulder carrying yoke. Once to the water I just toss the boat in.

I've also capsized on purpose (hard to do). I wanted to see how much buoyancy the for and aft chambers offer, the answer is PLENTY. She floats like a cork, I climbed back in and was happy with the amount of freeboard left (If I remember right, 4 inches?) my first thought was, "I could bail this," but I swam it to shore and dumped all the water out.

Build note, I had to add another lamination inboard in order to have enough wood for the oar lock sockets to fit.

-Derek

Scamp #169

[Liberty53]

Re: Portage Pram

IMG_4948.jpgIMG_4984.jpg3481630B-3088-485C-9F7F-265499CED513.jpg

I opted to install my hatches vertically on the bulkheads, out of the rain!

[Liberty53]

Re: Portage Pram

Screen Shot 2022-04-15 at 6.00.30 AM.jpg

[stromborg]

Re: Portage Pram

I love my Portage pram!

Believe it or not, I have slept aboard. I bridged the gap with a cooler and had enough gear to fill all the other space. (didn't sleep much, but the stars were great)

My favorite feature is that the balance point when inverted is right at the end of the rowing seat, this works as a shoulder carrying yoke. Once to the water I just toss the boat in.

I've also capsized on purpose (hard to do). I wanted to see how much buoyancy the for and aft chambers offer, the answer is PLENTY. She floats like a cork, I climbed back in and was happy with the amount of freeboard left (If I remember right, 4 inches?) my first thought was, "I could bail this," but I swam it to shore and dumped all the water out.

Build note, I had to add another lamination inboard in order to have enough wood for the oar lock sockets to fit.

-Derek

Scamp #169

Sounds like you've been having a lot of fun with your Pram. That's encouraging!

[jpatrick]

Re: Portage Pram

It is such a relief to know that a local serial boat builder has another project to keep him occupied. Otherwise, who knows what sort of mischief you'd get into.

Jeff

[stromborg]

Re: Portage Pram

Surprisingly enough starting another boat project was greeted with a certain amount of eye rolling by my partner. You think she'd know me better by now...

She also hasn't seen this:


But that is a subject for another thread

[Rob Hazard]

Re: Portage Pram

A 35 pound boat that can carry a family of 3? Impressive! Looks like a perfect solo fishing boat too, if only for sheltered waters. How close did your boats come to that 35lb mark? Is it stable enough to stand up while casting?

[Bruce Bateau]

Re: Portage Pram

I dinked around in one of these prams recently and was surprised at how well it handled. It turned on a dime, tracked fine in flat water, and was reasonably stable, probably not good for fly casting though!

[stromborg]

Re: Portage Pram

The bottom plank comes as two long pieces with registration marks on one side. You lay them out flat on the floor, tape the seam, flip the assembly over and proceed to cover the whole thing by epoxying on a single layer of 4oz fiberglass. Trim the edges, cut or drill out the various holes and give it a light sanding while flat on your work surface. This glassed surface will become the inside of the boat so make sure the weave is filled, I like to do additional coats while the prior coat is still fairly "green". The System 3 epoxy I use gives you a 3 day window for this but you can go faster depending on the warmth of your shop. I did not manage to take any pictures of this moderately tedious process.





In the above picture I have glued the keel assemblies to the assembled bottom panels. The kit comes with two sets of holes to anchor the keels while the epoxy sets up. I added a set at the forward ends of the keels to positively keep them lined up and firmly against the plywood. The keels set the curvature of the aft part of the hull, I found the cable ties I was using were not up to making the ply conform to the designed curve, a few clamps took care of that.

Eventually the bottom will get another layer of 4oz fiberglass that will wrap the corners formed by the transoms and the lowest planks. Tomorrow I'll flip the hull and start fitting the interior and planks. A run to the hardware store for different cable ties might be in order too. I noticed they have an "exterior grade" that might have a bit more strength, worst case scenario I use some of the stove pipe wire left over from building some Pygmy Kayaks (RIP).

[stromborg]

Re: Portage Pram

Started the morning off by trimming the keel locating tabs where they protrude through the bottom.


That was followed by a bit more sanding, with emphasis on the edge and where the various bulkheads are going to get glued on.



Digital photo time stamps are a fun thing. At 1100 I had this flat bit of plywood



By 1300 there was boat-shaped object in the room. In the 25 or so years since building the kayaks I had forgotten how fast stitch and glue boat building goes from floppy and flat to stiff and round.



Interior shot of the forward watertight bulkhead and the open locker/thwart support.

At this point most of the ties are still a bit loose. I'll spend the remainder of the afternoon gradually working the gaps (especially around the two transoms) until everything is tight then make sure the hull is level and "square" before any epoxy goes on.

[Mike1902]

Re: Portage Pram

Instaboat...just add cable ties, brilliant.
I've just spent the last two hours sanding small blocks of wood and in that time you've made yourself a boat. Well done.
Looks to be a very functional little dinghy.

Cheers,
Mike.

[Clinton B Chase]

Re: Portage Pram

Steve,
Wish I had my new pram kit ready earlier for you!