Unless you’re into skiing or ice fishing, this is the season for projects. Boat building occupied my idle time for most of a winter and spring a few years back.
With just one river dory under my belt I’m by no means an expert, but that probably makes my experience useful for other newbies. I built my boat despite a limited woodworking background, though I did have the use of a fully equipped wood shop. But the project was doable even without the cool power tools. They just made it easier.
I’m assuming wood will be the building material. Sprayed fiberglass boats make mass production profitable, but they are heavy and soulless. Aluminum is durable, but in my book has only one suitable river application: beer cans. Besides, building a boat in either of these materials is beyond the means of the average weekend warrior.
Once settled on wood a builder then has to decide if the boat will come with ribs. Classic river dories were built around internal frames, or ribs, which provide strength and structure to the boat. In the last few decades builders have been experimenting with fiberglass and advanced marine epoxies and discovered wood-glass hybrid designs don’t need internal frames. This method is often referred to as stitch-and-glue, as it involves assembling the boat by “stitching” sides, floor and transom together with wire. Once the desired shape is achieved you replace the stitching with epoxy and fiberglass.
Hybrid boats are stronger, lighter and more durable than the classic framed dories. The lack of internal ribs also cleans up the floor, making it easier to get about. Still, framed boats have classic beauty and many fans.
There’s much innovation on the materials front, driven in part by the declining quality of marine-grade fir plywood from the Northwest. Some builders are crafting boats out of panels of honeycomb-cored Plascore, or synthetic foams from the aircraft and yacht building industries. Again, a skin of fiberglass and epoxy gives these materials strength. They are lighter than wood, and in some applications may be stronger, but they lack the beauty of varnished mahogany ply.
There are two main designs for Montana river boats: traditional dories and skiffs.
You know what a traditional dory looks like. The eastern Idaho glass boat builders have flooded Montana rivers with their high-bowed designs. These dories generally come with lean bars front and rear so standing anglers can fly fish at the same time while the centrally seated rower keeps the boat on course.
The original Mackenzie boats were designed for a pair of anglers seated in front of the rower, which worked well when you were using the salmon-steelhead technique of pulling plugs. When these boats were modified to put one of those anglers behind the rower — a necessity for fly fishing — the craft had to be widened for stability.
Skiffs are sometimes referred to as dories with the ends chopped short. These boats are the guides’ preferred craft on the Missouri River. Skiffs are wider, lower and have less rocker than a traditional dory. This gives them exceptional stability on flat waters.
Traditional dories are a better choice if you run heavier Class II-III waters such as the North Fork. That extra rocker, which holds the front and rear ends of the boat out of the water, allows the rower to spin and maneuver the dory more quickly. And the higher sides keep more of the river on the appropriate side of the gunwales when you’re in whitewater.
Just make sure your boat is big enough for your needs. I built a 15-footer, with a 48-inch wide bottom. It’s a great two-man boat, but when I add a third person the tail end gets a little tippy. I should have built a longer, wider boat.
That’s OK. If I didn’t have another boat project looming on the horizon I might be driven to take up ice fishing.