Building a Custom Made "Kingfisher" Drift Boat

I've decided to build a wooden composite drift boat called a "Kingfisher" designed by Jason Cajune of Livingston, Montana. The plans were $175 and I'll have to say they are very complete. It's a construction manual.  

The boat will look something like the one in the foreground. Pretty cool! The bottom is coated with fiberglass, Kevlar and then Linex truck bed liner. The grey you see on the inside is also Linex bed liner material.

The interior of the boat will look something like this

This will be a fall winter project with hopes to have it on the water in the Spring of 2015. Time will tell.

Getting Ready

When I made the decision to build a "Kingfisher" Driftboat, a whole lot of other issues came up. Such as the fact that my shop is filled with construction equipment from my construction business that I am no longer doing. I've retired from that, right! Well that doesn't mean I'm no longer attached to the stuff. It's just plain hard to let go of stuff.

My shop is 24 x 36 but with everything I've got in it, it's realistically has a working area of 10 x 10. Stuff has to be moved out, given away or sold.

In this shop space I have lots of woodworking tools stored,mostly stuff we'd set up in the custom homes we were building. Believe it or not here's the list of what I had stored in my shop space.;

• 5 hp Powermatic Cabinet Saw
• Two 3 hp Delta Unisaws, one with an Excaliber Cross Cut System
• 14 inch Delta Band Saw
• Laguna Tools Resaw
• Delta 3/4" Spindle Shaoer
• Wood Tek 3/4" Spindle Shaper 
• Inca 3/4" Shaper
• Powermatic Time Saver
• Powermatic Edge Sander
• Delta 10" Radial Arm Saw
• Hitachi 14" Chop Saw
• Panel Router
• Pocket Screw Machine

Get the picture. No room to do anything. So I rolled up my shirt sleeves and got to work.

I started with my Unisaw. I cleaned it all up and detailed it and sold it on Craigslist.

I then sold my Inca Shaper.

I've still got a bunch of stuff for sale, things have been moved outside or in the basement under the shop. I've now finally got room to move.

So in the meantime, I've ordered my Okoume mahogany plywood from Forest Plywood in Southern California, I've ordered my epoxy and glassing supplies from Raka in Florida and my 3/4" Plascore for the bottom is on it's way. Materials are in the pipeline.

Now I've just got to get organized, build a glassing table, study up and I'll jump right in.