Gluing the strips

Gluing the Mahogany strips. Not as easy as Cedar but still not very difficult to do.

The first strip

The Transom is finished and ready to install onto the forms. It does not seem very heavy at all but I know that it weighs more than Okoume plywood.

The first strip is clamped to each form and then glued to the transom and the Bow.

The mahogany mills very nice but the strips are brittle and do not bend very easy like the cedar does.

Sawing and gluing wood

The transom is one of the parts that I am using mahogany boards to make instead of okoume plywood. Here I am gluing three boards together to make the transom.

Then I lofted the transom template from Nick's book and used it to cut out the shape of the transom.

Here I have started to rip mahogany strips out of one of the planks. I will need about 80 strips to build the hull.

Wood for the Coot

Nick Schade's design calls for western red cedar strips with Okoume plywood. I need to build on a very tight budget. So I am going to make a few changes to save some money. I am going to build with African mahogany instead of cedar. It is about 20% heaver than cedar but a lot cheaper to buy. In fact I got a great deal on some African mahogany at Johnsons Woorkbench. It had some rough spots so they gave it to me for half price.

The okoume plywood is very expensive. I would need about $250 worth of okoume so once again I am going to use African mahogany boards instead of okoume plywood. This will add a few pounds to the boat but I will save some money and I think that the boat will look much more elegant when finished. Plus I will need to use boat building skills that are new to me. A great learning experience.

Once again I am not building from plans. I lofted my forms from Nick Schade's book like I have done in the past for the kayaks.

This is where I have saved a lot of money. All the plywood for the forms was left over from the shed that I built this summer in my back yard. So I did not have to buy any plywood.

Building a Coot

I was out fishing in my Wood Duck kayak on a cool October morning. I hooked a good sized northern pike. That is when I realized that I am not cut out to fish from a kayak. I am just to old and fat and my ruptured disks in my back just can't bend and twist. Even the Wood Duck does not have enough room in the cockpit for me, my gear, and a thrashing pike full of teeth and hooks.

I love my Wood Duck kayak but I need a boat for fishing. So I have started to build a Guillemot Coot. Another one of Nick Schade's designs. It is small enough to pick up and carry to the water. Yet big enough to stand up and move around in. The seat is a foot high off the floor so that I can sit for long periods of time without my bad back acting up.

It is a very simple boat. Small, light, cheap, and easy to build. I can fish with two lines and have lots of room for food , drink, and worms.


I can't wait to get started.