By McKenzieDriftBoat.com

Drift Pram?

Thinking of staring a new boat. This time a lo-side Drift Pram. My requirements are- 1 rower, 1 angler, simple interior, no more than 48" wide bottom, flat on both ends for surface area and interior space. I'm thinking of using the "light board and batten boat" form Rogers book as a starting point. or a rapid robert as a staring point, but whacking down the side height and pointed end.

Will be used on still water and slow moving small rivers.

I got the idea for this after rowing a (gulp) Hyde Rock mountain skiff. As far as glass boats go, this boat was a very nice, roomy, easy to row and easy in the wind boat. But, I want one in wood!

anyone build anything like this? Similar tot he freestone skiff that Jason makes, but not S&G.

Dave

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Permalink Reply by Troy Nicolls on September 29, 2010 at 9:23pm

I'm interested in this same concept as well, but can't seem to find inexpensive plans for such a project. I have Fletchers book and have built a Trapper. Never used it, but gave it to my son and D-in law. So I don't really know how it handles. But as I stare at it in my driveway in disbelief (that I actually gave it away) while they are on their honeymoon, I'm wondering about a few things...
What if you kept the bottom contour of the trapper, squared off the pointed end at frame #1 to make the bottom less than 8 feet, reduced the side height at the big end from 27 to 22 inches, leave the side height at small end at 18", and eleminate frames 2,4 and 6? This would only leave 3 frames in the middle of the boat and one at each end. If this were to work out, it would reduce the total number of frames by 4, shorten the boat overall length by about 1 foot, eleminate the need for a floor by allowing the oarsman to stand between the 29" space between frames 3 and 5, eleminate the scarf joint on the bottom entirely, reduce time required for the build and probably reduce the overall weight by 10% or more.

Guys, please tell me all the reasons this is a poor idea. If I start another boat before I start an entertainment center for my wife, I will be in BIG trouble.