11' SolDuk Drifter Plans

SolDuk Drifter

This design is another addition to my growing fleet of fishing boats for those that want a light and agile hull for using on class I&II rivers, and local lakes. I wanted to add another small hull for those that wanted a smaller personal sized drift boat to go after the willy trout and steelhead that inhabit their local streams and lakes.

The hull can be may light with 6mm/1/4"€ plywood for lakes and slow moving rivers, or double planked with 6mm on the bottom for more rough usage, or the whole hull can be made with 9mm/3/8" ply for more challenging rivers where rock kissing is a fact of life. Air chambers are added to the ends to give the hull more built in flotation for safety, and to add a bit of storage area for lightweight items. Also to give the hull ends a "€œflat spot" to mount anchor brackets on, and not have to make special fittings to keep the anchor brackets level in the hull. Air tanks and storage areas can be added fore and aft to the interior sides to add more built in floatation and stiffen up the hull. An extra layer of plywood can be added along the lower outside edges of the side panels to act like "torpedo armor"€ on Battleships.

A moveable seat brace can be added in the hull between the side air tanks to give the boater a “best place” to row, and moveable so the seat can be out of the way while fishing at anchor. I would not recommend more than 400 lbs of people in the hull for river use. Two up use is possible, but would best be used as a "guide/client" setup if more than one person is in the hull. Again this hull was designed with the solo fisher person in mind, and should be a fun and easy hull to move through the water. I want to make a prototype of this hull so I can go play in the rivers again, as I'm getting a bit stiff in the shoulders to use my whitewater kayaks anymore.

Like the bartender who asked the horse. "why the long face"€, there are those wondering why the hull has a flat nose. One thing is that the hull is a foot shorter than it would be if it had a traditional pointy nose, so you use less plywood to make it, and it's lighter. You can mount a grab handle to the bow panel if you need something to hang onto carrying the hull to the water, or pick up a swimmer. The wider bow also adds extra interior people width to the forward part of the hull that would be a lot narrower if the hull had a normal pointy bow for that overall length. It also gives you a bit more boat to crawl over if you've beached bow in and are trying to get back in again. It would also help getting in and out of rivers and lakes with high banks, as the top of the forward air tank would make a good wide step. I also like the "pram look" that the hull has, and it fits in with my HSP and FlyCaster designs, with it's rugged good looks.

The hull will be stable with it's wide 42" bottom; and the up sweep of the aft part of the hull will make it stable on it's anchor line, and not want to "horse around" in the current, as the water freely passes under the transom. The V at the bottom of the bow will also help in keeping the hull calm off a bow anchor too.

I hope you enjoy making the model, and hang it up with your growing collection of PDF models of my designs. You can think up your own interior ideas, and build them into the model you want to fish out of. You can trace the outlines off the PDF file onto thin balsa or basswood for a wooden model you can paint in your colors.

Thanks Again

Warren Messer

Red Barn Boats

click the image above for a free PDF

file to print and build a model from

Free Study Plans - click HERE