Hey GruffyD! Yeah, thats a wooden type of half kayak thing I built a few years ago, out of 1/4" lumberyard luan and epoxy...it only weighs 32lbs, its fast and light, big open top so its easy to crawl in and out of...Me and a hunting buddy squeezed both our fat selves and gear in it one day and paddled across to an island and detected last Fall...Full disclosure: I'm fatter and older than he is, so I sat up front and held on to the gear while he paddled!
That was nice!
A guy never knows when he needs a boat, so a simple cartopper comes in handy...easy to build a boat out of wood and a few simple hand tools and some epoxy...sort of like building a bookshelf, only watertight and with a point on one end! Maybe $600 in materials to build a reasonable midsized boat...if that...I'll toss up a few pics just for inspiration and conversation since you seem interested in this subject........
Its a good alternative therapy too..only takes a few hours every night for about a week and viola!. Heres a boat!..
..I did a post with pics on the 'Hobbies' part of this Forum about this obsession, so you can go there and see some boats I built if you want...Historically speaking, a guy can go anywhere in the World if he has a boat, and if that same fellow has a detector along, all the more reason to do it, so theres that too...
Just get some wood and go for it, you dont need any 'plans' so to speak, they just slow you down with all the measuring and whatnot...All you need is a general idea of what you want to build, and the rest takes care of itself once a guy starts in...easy peasy...
You can see I like the 'whale tail' motif and building twisted shaft paddles too..everything has to be light, balanced, proportionate and comfortable.
I got a few boats left in me, in fact, your interest may very well spur me on to starting one that has been floating around in my head for a while...so thanks!
Mud
ps: I like my big wooden River boat in the bottom center pic...I still have it, its 20' and really runs nice with a 15hp 4 stroke, its got a set of long oars I built out of ash, and an ash push pole too...all others boats I have sold, just the open kayak and my River boat I still have..I'd like to do a 24' version of it with a center console and twin 15's off the back! That would sure bring some stares at the boatramp, and theres no way Fongu would ever tip that one over!!