Builders' Forum Archives

Re: wood duck 12 transom

Posted by Laszlo on Oct 30, 2007

Chris,

DON'T leave out the transom. For such a short hull you need it there to give you the necessary aft end buoyancy. Without it, the aft would drag, there'd be turbulence and the boat would be slow.

Here's the stitch pattern I used on mine (sorry about the image quality, but it's the only one I have that shows the stitches back there). As you can see, I drilled out the bottom hole to a larger size so that it could accommodate 2 wires and added another enlarged hole near the center.

I was able to push the sides in, one at a time, and twist the wires tight. I did this as an iterative process, rather than all at once.

Also, be sure to bevel the transom & side panel edges,or everything will just pop out.

Finally, you may need a spring clamp to hold everything together when tacking the pieces. I don't have it in the picture, but a clamp is necesary to get the shape right where the side panels sit on the bottom ones. With the clamp there, the bottom of the wineglass sits flush with the stern.

If worse comes to worst, you can make a new transom piece without the wineglass shape. The prototype has a simple triangle which sits only between the side panels and it paddles just fine.

Hang in there, you're almost past the worst. The deck is actually easy.

In the immortal words of Red Green, "Remember, I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together."

Laszlo