A drift boat has been a project that I have been wanting to start for quite some time now. A couple months back I saw an ad on the Washington Fly Fishing website from a guy selling his drift boat that he had stored over at Red’s Fly shop in Ellensburg. The deal he was offering was too good to pass up.
The boat is a definite project boat. It is a 1977 Barker 15’ fiberglass boat. When doing research on Barker drift boats prior to purchasing this, I was unable to find much of anything other than a few random posts on some internet forums. So I thought it would be worth while to post some information and pictures about the boat as I complete different stages of the restoration.
Mind you, I am by no means a boat restoration expert, nor do I have the financials to pay a boat restoration expert that will charge me more for a can of paint than I paid for the whole boat and trailer. This is a complete experiment on my part, and a way for me to share my troubleshooting experience. This is also my first drift boat, so it will also be an experience learning to row and maintain the drifter, but those are future posts.
So this is me sharing my learning curve, my adventure, and the do’s and don’ts of the things I find as I go. Any comments, advice, direction, or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
So Far...
The first step was to gut the boat and rebuild the benches. Most of the wood in the boat was rotting away, being that is was older than I am. So my first weekend with the boat was spent measuring and cutting treated 2x4’s to make new benches. The most important part was to keep the previous benches and use them as patterns for new ones. I am a cheap person, so if there is something laying around that can be repurposed for free I am all about it. Luckily we had some old closet doors in our house that we have been wanting to tear down for some time. These made perfect tops to my new benches. So after some sanding, applying some ½ price deck stain from Lowes, and some Johnson water seal, I was good to go.My only tools come from a tool box that was found left on the side of the street, a $7.99 circular saw from good will, my imagination, and a Dewalt power drill. So, "measure twice and cut once" becomes important when you lack tools, wood working skill, or any idea what you are doing whatsoever.
With the boat gutted and empty, now seemed like a good time start painting the interior. Since this is my first boat, I was not too concerned about a fancy paint job, especially on the exterior. Since I am an inexperienced rower I likely will be doing some smashing and scraping, so an expensive gel coat seems like a bad idea. I struggled for a long time with what I wanted to use that would be durable yet inexpensive on the interior. I settled on using a spray on truck bed liner from Fred Meyer that runs about $9.00 a can. My thought was this will provide a durable surface with grip, and maybe even add to the structural integrity of an old boat floor. This will be used on the floor and the supports on the boat walls only. After prepping and cleaning the interior, four cans of this and I was good to go. Wear a mask and ventilate, this stuff is potent. The life of this floor on is still TBD, but it went on nicely and seemed to work well, and should be easy to touch up in the future. I am going to try a regular outdoor spray paint on the interior walls.
That is everything I have completed so far. This has been a fun and interesting experiment to this point. I figure as long as I don't drill any holes in the boat I should be ok. Stay tuned for more on the boat and future posts on what its like to learn the art of rowing. That is another hurdle that is quickly approaching.
