riverboat

It's a rugged, beefy craft designed to take the wildest rapids instride, but tame enough to slip quietly into any shallow fishing

inlet under oars. Best of all, you can build it for about $100

• IT'S A REAL THOROUGHBRED, this high-ridingriver sled. Evolved over a lifetime of white-waterexperience by famed riverman Glen Wooldridge,it features a fast-rising bow which lifts easilyover the largest riffles. This, combined withsteeply flaring sides and a long flat after section,gives the boat tremendous lift, excellent maneu-verability and unbelievably shallow draft.

Glen's typical power rig is a mid-range out-board equipped with one of those husky jet-drivelower units from Outboard Jets. Such a setup

Riverboatbuilt

for white waterBy CLINTON R. HULL

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riverboat

white-water riverboat, continued

gives the boat maximum shallow-water capa-bility. I've been aboard when he's skimmed over4-in.-deep riffles without touching bottom.

Best of all, it's very easily built and performswell with any outboard motor from 18 to 60 ormore horses, depending upon the boat's size andthe load carried. (The plans show an overalllength of 16 ft. 10 in., but a 15-ft. 8-in. or 19-ft.2-in. hull can be made by removing or addingone frame just ahead of the transom.) To assure

perfect alignment, the use of a building jig isadvisable, but this can be made of any secondarylumber, if straight.

The template for laying out the frames can bemade from 3/8-in. plywood or other relativelycheap material. The template layout dimensionsgive the placement of the five nail "pegs" to formthe frames. Use small blocks to keep rib tipslevel.

Incidentally, except for the jig, all dimensionsof the lumber used in the boat are net. Thus, the3/4 x 3-in. frames and ribs are exactly that size.All nails should be galvanized, and bolts and

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screws either galvanized, cadmium-plated orbronze. For salt-water use, bronze is recom-mended. In addition to these fastenings, water-resistant glue should be used on all joints.

Wood recommended for this boat is first-grade, straight-grained, clear spruce, Douglas firor white cedar. All plywood should be exterioror marine grade and fiberglassing is definitelyadvisable. The construction follows standardprocedure—frames are assembled first and thenmounted on the building jig, after which thelongitudinal members are installed and, finally,the planking.

You may have to soak the chine strips in orderto get the proper bend. Just wrap them in an oldblanket, towels or ourlap, and pour on boilingwater. Pour on more hot water after about 15min. and then let them set until nearly cool.Bending them will then be much easier.

If you plan to use a jet drive on the motor,leave the transom full height in the center. For along-shaft, propeller-type lower unit, notch it to20 in. and for a standard lower unit on the motornotch to 15 in. as shown. If you use both jet andpropeller drives, notch it to suit the propellermotor, and either make a detachable transompiece to bolt in place or obtain one of Glen'stransom brackets for this purpose.

cut and shape the keelsCut and shape the keels as shown in the draw-

ing. Then drill and countersink holes in the ironstraps—one near each end and two between eachpair of frames—to accept the heads of 3/16 x1-1/2in. flathead machine screws. Bevel the frontends of the keels so the straps will fit over themsmoothly, and bevel the tips of the straps to pre-vent snagging grass.

If you decide not to fiberglass the bottom, useglue and the 3/16-in. machine screws, nuts andwashers to attach the keels. If fiberglass is used,the keels may be covered with it. Put the seamson the keel bottoms so the straps cover them,and apply a coat of the resin to the keel-to-boat-bottom joints.

Make two transom supports by flattening 2 in.of the ends of two 7/8 x 30-in. pieces of electricalconduit and then attaching them to the transom16 in. from (and level with) the gunwales, andalso to the gunwales. Put small spacer blocksbetween the inner and outer gunwales at thepoints of contact and use 5/16 x 4-in. carriagebolts to fasten the supports. Use 5/16 x 2-1/4in.bolts through the transom and transom posts.

Give the inside of the boat two coats of a dull,nonglare marine paint. (Light, bright paint istough on the eyes.)

If, as Glen does, you like to stand erect whenrunning white water, use the 3/8 x 36-in.-wide ply-wood rear floor piece shown. Otherwise, thefloor strips can run the full length of the boat.

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riverboat

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The hull framing is assembled right side up on thebuilding jig, which can be made from any straightlumber. The jig assures perfect alignment

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