As if one boat project weren’t enough, I found an old Radoncraft drift boat that I just HAD to have to sitting in a field along HWY 101. After lightening my wallet for the grand sum of $400.00, I hitched it up and drug it home. Unlike Dinky, I plan on keeping this job a bit more limited since drift boats take an unavoidable beating. We’ll see if I can actually keep my AR tendencies in check.
While our Koffler pram is my favorite boat ever, my girls are rapidly outgrowing it. This boat is will serve us well for the next few years. The hull is a glass knock-off of the tried and true Don Hill 14, which is a great small boat. This boat however, needed to be bought just for the copy-right. What a name! I wonder if the PO named it after his wife?
While I told myself I wasn’t going to work on this thing until Dinky was complete, I had to break that promise. Wasps were starting to make nests in the forward compartment and I wanted to ruin their fun before they ruined mine. Wasps? Yes! The lid-less and undersized front hatch was ideal habitat…
I had already scored a sweet replacement hatch on ebay for $40.00 so it was time to expedite this part of the project. This large TH Sure Seal will not only keep out wasps, it will make the front compartment lockable and way more usable…
The box came with this handy-dandy template printed on the inside…
I traced it on the bulkhead and got out the Bosch jigsaw…
I was happy to see all of the wood in the bulkhead was rot-free…
The new hatch is way bigger so getting gear in and out will be much easier…
The finished product should ruin the wasp party and is a huge improvement…
Now back to working on Dinky!
