by V. Lee Oertle
LOA8', BEAM 3', DRAFT MINIMAL
No thing of beauty is this little bucket--she's all practicality. But you will never beat her price tag, and she's tops as a one-man duck or pond fishing boat.
Like to have a small duckboat that will fit in your station wagon or pickup truck, will float in bare inches of water, weigh less than 50 pounds—and can be built cheap enough to throw away at the end of the season? It is so simple to construct that the only tools needed are a hammer, saw, wood rasp, two wood clamps and a screw driver. The entire project can be completed in less than four hours’ working time. By no stretch of the imagination could this little hunter’s friend be used on rough waters, on the high seas, or with a twin-lung kicker on the back. But with a beefed-up transom and knee brace, it’s my opinion that a 1% hp or 2 hp outboard, handled by an intelligent operator, would be safe. I’ve paddled literally miles in this tough little go-getter, bumped over logs, rocks, dragged it across sand bars and up on gravelly beaches, with no worse damage to the hull than ugly scratches. (My boat has a fiber-glass bottom, explained later.)At the end of the season, do as I do: Haul it out to your favorite offshore hunting spot and make a permanent blind out of it by nailing slats and camouflage to it. A couple loads of buckshot in the bottom will make sure that no one is tempted to drag it away. Next year, build another—after all, it’s only $12.48. Pro-rate this out for an average season of four trips, and you spend about $3 per week end used..
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