JEM Watercraft

I like the seat you made .... for some reason it looks very familure , almost like I have seen and used a couple in the past.

Chuck.

OK... Here we go...


Obviously the pirogue is not 100% yet but I'm taking her out on a test run before I start painting and adding on decking and such.

Test run video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNWaT4STInc

Nice! You can tell you've paddled boats before. You let the boat rock a little an didn't try to force it to be perfectly stable. You can tell you were relaxed.

Nice work!

jem wrote:Nice! You can tell you've paddled boats before. You let the boat rock a little an didn't try to force it to be perfectly stable. You can tell you were relaxed.

Nice work!

Actually... I've never paddled before.. I just didn't expect the boat to be steady as if i were on dry land so I just relaxed. Thanks though!

You looked like a natural!

Getting in and out are the hardest bits and your technique was smooth and confident

First time I got in a canoe........a Toto I rolled it completely a result of not being smooth and confident

Seems to track well and also you got some speed up too.......

Great video

I built my seat too tall for my first pirogue and it was very tippy also.





So I installed the seat from my Ocean Kayak Big Game and solved the problem.




That is a very good looking job you did on that boat and you also did a good job paddling. BTW, when you plant your bow on the bank the boat will be very tippy. I'm a large guy so I turn broadside to the bank to get out.

Applied 2 coats of primer, 3 coats of exterior latex and added on a few key parts. May have to revisit the drawing board on some of them. Modified a cheap $10 rod holder to screw into my gunwales. I think it's time to update and replace my fishing gear though. I think alot of it is over 20 years old.





My low budget anchor system.

After a couple of trips and a couple of oversights in the design on the boat and my mass... I had to make some changes.

On a recent outing to Big Alabama Bayou in Sherburne, LA my clamshell style hunting seat broke at one of the plastic buckles. I slid back until my back was up against the rear batten and rested my weight on that. Well that wasn't such a bright idea. I had built the battens out of white pine and of course secured them to the plywood with screws and never went back to use resin glue... so..... yeah... after about an hour of resting the white pine caved in and snapped in the middle. After this critical failure I called it a day and headed to shore. Getting tired of sitting straight up I leaned back and forgot I had broken the rear batten so at this point I pulled the screws all the way through the plywood and fell all the way back in the pirogue. (insert explicative swear here).

So... when I got back home I remedied this from ever happening again. I took a sheet of 3/8" pine and cut out out and made a full wall. Glued it to the boat using fillet and resin. Taped it on all three sides front and back and added extra support behind it with another batten also fastened with resin, screws. All of these coated with a liberal coat of resin. I dare this (insert explicative swear here) to fail now.

Oh and i also added a rear anchor pulley system for a 1.5 pound claw anchor.







If I had used the UJ chair from the beginning I wouldn't have had this problem. I'm going to force myself to start using it. I also shaved a full inch off it to help lower the center of gravity.