Layout boats

[bucksducks]

Gotta be someone out there that can follow a plan for a layout boat so we don't have to import them from back east?

[upstreamV]

Cool boats! This is not a particularly difficult boat to build. The issue with one off boats as compared to mass produced popped off a mold boats is the labor hours for a one off is going to be something like 50 hours of labor beyond a rota mold boat. Ever lay up glass or work with epoxy? It’s not particularly difficult though build quality does tend to improve with each boat built.

[catchfish]

I looked hard a couple of years ago at building them and I just don’t have the time. I was hoping to do it over the winter spoke to a builder and he said my garage was not conducive due to fumes getting into my house. He figured it’s a better summer project and I don’t have the time then for sure. I looked casually to get one up here and didn’t find much. Let us know if you do decide to ship something up possible of sharing shipping possibly?

[upstreamV]

That advise about building in the summer is good. Epoxy needs warm. The stuff is a little toxic and will diffuse throughout a building. For a one off boat my guess is a foam block carved to shape and covered with fiberglass and epoxy in appropriate amounts, with door skins or other light wood under your fiberglass, will weigh about 1/3 that of a roto mold plastic boat. With foam you could even hollow out a space for that old Model 12 Warerfowl Special to rest in!

Have you guys had a chance to hunt out of a layout boat? Besides stability what other factors do you see as important?
Any insight you have would be appreciated as I may decide to throw one together for my own use when things warm up.

This autumn shipping Tacoma to Anchorage on Lynden ran
$ 1.00 per LB.

[kwackkillncrew]

just picked up a blow up kayak that is supposed to be pretty stable (bote zeppelin). Will be nice to use that instead of my paddle board to retrieve ducks. If its stable enough i am probably going to test it out for some layout hunting. gotta figure out how i want to anchor it as well as the line of decoys but it should work out. I dont know if it will be any better for the types of areas we hunt or not though. think it would probably only be beneficial for hunting scoters just have to find any area thats not super deep that they want to be around.

[shotgunner2012]

Another option is to build a pirogue...easy, lightweight..I've built them from 12 to 16 feet.

For retrieving ducks, this is the ultimate solution: