Introduction

For a long time the drift boat has been the famous wooden McKenzie style built in the 1930s and 1940s by Woodie Hindman or Tom Kaarhus from Norway in McKenzie river country. With the appearance of new materials such as Aluminum and fiberglass we have seen an evolution in design and shape, sometimes for the good sometimes for the worse. A number of drift boat companies got started by a passionate fly fisherman who wanted to make a living building drift boats, but knew little about composite materials in particular and boat design in general. The movie "A River Runs Through It" gave a boost to fly fishing in 1998 and helped those companies to survive for a while.

The way to do it was by making a copy of a copy with little or no modification and no consideration for the esthetic. The result is today a lot of frustrated drift boats owners. For example fifteen years ago, boats were wrongly built with core material into the bottom, today they are falling apart. Potential buyers are very skeptical, because they ave heard the horror stories.

There is no reason however not to expect more than just a floating platform that will get you down the river. In sailing design there is an old saying:

A shiny, waxed and clean drift boat can be the pride of its owner. If a cheap wooden or fiberglass boat will get you to the same fishing spots as well as a more fancy one, in the long run it may worth it to opt for the quality. But quality is time and time is money, some times the size of the budget available leaves no choice.

Design

The main difference between a drift boat and any other boat is that the drift boat goes the wrong way. We don't really need a hull designed for speed as the boat travels at the speed of the water. The only time we need speed is when we want to escape a danger or go back up current. In an urgent situation, a light boat is more important than a sophisticated hull design, but a light boat with a wrong rear end design pushing the water can also be a disadvantage.

Size:

As the principle of Archimedes says, the displacement of the boat will define the draft of the boat--so the measurements and the weight are crucial.

Length:

There are at least two different ways to measure a drift boat: some measure the centerline from bow to transom, which makes sense and is called LOA for length overall. Others measure it along the gunnels which make no sense at all, I would call that an "EGO" complex.
The overall length of a boat doesn't mean much anyway; we should be talking more about length of the water line, LWL. In boat design, the longer the LWL, the faster the boat, we don't really need that for a drift boat as the maneuverability is the most prized quality wanted. In most cases, we could probably cut off a foot or two not needed at both ends of most drift boats, keeping the same floor space but saving weight and limiting windage. Try to picture yourself carrying two five gallons buckets of water attached at the end of a 2x4 on your shoulders as the Chinese people carry loads. If you have an eight-foot long 2x4, you will spin around faster than if you have a sixteen-foot long 2x4.
It does not help the maneuverability to have the front fisherman seventeen feet from the rear fisherman seated way back on the transom. The rear seat placed on a dry storage at the transom is the worse scenario. Most of the time the seat is placed on a swivel but the movement is so limited to a few degrees on each side that the swivel is just here for extra weight.
If the weight is well placed, the boat will spin on a dime. It is also a good thing for the front fisherman to see what's going on under water in the front of the boat instead watching the bow of the Titanic.

Width:

The drift boat goes the wrong way, unlike any other boat. We need a small rear end that acts as front end and that is definitely out of the water in any circumstances. That means at least with three people in the boat and the anchor hanging out, a seat placed at the rear end will put the transom down; pushing the water while rowing back, not good!
We also need a bottom wide enough not to have to counterbalance every time someone leans on the side to grab or release a fish for fear that it is your last trip because you are going to sink and you are not wearing your life jacket. The max width called Beam can be Bmax for maximum width at the hull or BWL for beam at waterline. The BWL needs to be placed at the right place also; The right placement is a combination between the design itself and the options available on the boat. As the boat is relatively small, one person or two in the front can make a big difference. If you have a front bench seat that can fit two people; it is smart to place the BWL where it will balance the weight .

Height:

The distance between the water line and the sheer line is called the freeboard. The professional guides who spend most of their time on the river have a strong opinion on low freeboard versus regular freeboard .
A low side will help a little against the wind but don't think that this is the magical solution when it's windy. If the wind blows, and makes it difficult to get down river, you have then to help by rowing. The boat is now facing down river . At this point, a low side will reduce the area of the boat offered to the wind by only 10% to 15%. On the other hand the effect of the wind on the gunnels may make it more difficult
It is easier to jump in and out of the boat with low sides especially for an older person when the boat is in knee deep water, but it is also easier to fall over the side in a sudden jerk of the boat. I feel very comfortable spending a night off shore sailing in the ocean, but the river makes me far more cautious. There are many rivers in Montana where I would be very cautious taking a low side. For a family that makes a trip once in a while on the river, a regular height side boat will be safer for children and more comfortable with very little extra weight.

Weight:

A boat becomes heavy not by choice but because of the way it is built. There is no logical reason to build a heavy boat. A light boat will be easy and fun to row, very responsive, and easy to load on trailer . Heavier boat will take longer to respond, will have a bigger impact when hitting a rock. It will be deeper into the water and it will drift down river faster, but it will help a little on a windy day. Watch for differences in the weight indicated on the description list and the real weight of the boat and watch your back.

Accessories

The more moving parts on a boat, the more problems. Consider the seats placed on top of the storage lid. Look around, how many of them still have the latch in one piece? Check how loose the piano hinge is if it is still there; that is normal, but it is not a good mechanical solution. A 15lbs. seat/lid combo can't resist being broken very long by being slammed shut not by you but by your guest. Ten pop rivets holding through 1/8 of fiberglass at ¼ inch of the edge can't resist thousands of openings and closings. The latch will break if left in the vertical position when the lid comes down. The seat on top of the storage will become loose and not comfortable very quickly.
Another important thing to check is the oarlock area. How unpleasant is it to row a boat with a half inch play in the oarlock because there is no socket. The oarlock makes a big hole in the block of wood that is itself loose from the boat. On some boats there is a block of Teflon, a good solution, the only problem is the weight.
Same for adjustable bench seats. I have never seen a good system yet. The movement and play of the pieces make them wear through the fiberglass and the system does not work for very long.

Safety

Powerboats needs flotation,drift boats don't. The Coast Guard regulations stipulate that a drift boat is exempted from flotation because it is better in case of capsizing that the boat sink than drift down river and injure other people. The drift boat is specifically designed for use in shallow waters but there is a loophole in the legislation. Some manufacturers allow installing a 10cv motor on the transom, why would you need a 10Hp on shallow waters?. That mean you can legally find yourself in the middle of a pond or a canyon with 500 feet of water underneath with a boat that does not have any flotation and people wearing no life jackets for most of the time…

Warranty

The warranty is a big question for a potential buyer but it shouldn't be. Most of the companies offer a lifetime warranty to the first owner, but let's take a look at that.
There is little chance that something wrong will happen but it happens. What can go wrong and what is covered by the warranty should be examined very carefully. The fiberglass can delaminate, the gelcoat can peel off , storage can crack and leak, etc…but it has to be proved that it is not the result of an accident. Let's say you hit the side of your garage once in a while going out with your car. You are not going to your car dealer to have your car fixed for free, are you?
If it is proven that the workmanship is responsible, a smart company will fix the problem for free or replace the boat in the extreme case just because it isn't worth it to have the negative publicity compared to the cost of the repair itself. And if the company is building a good product it shouldn't happen anyway. Also, who is going to travel across the country to have the boat fixed? So the warranty is a misleading point of sale.

The three main materials used
Wood, Aluminum, fiberglass

Wood:

The top of the line in a hand crafted boat makes beautiful pieces of art that look like a Stradivarius Violin which you are reluctant to use because you are afraid to scratch it. The main problem with the wood is that it is only protected by a combination of thin layers of varnish or epoxy product. When the boat hits a rock, the wood becomes exposed to the water. The remedy is as soon as you get the boat home, dry out the wood and revarnish it. As mentioned by several wooden boats owner it could become a full time job unless you don't care about your boat.
The bottom end in a wooden boat is the one built by an amateur using building construction plywood, the width will not exceed 48 inches which is not enough. Stay away from it or build you own…

Pros.

Beautiful boats
Warm feeling of the noble material, wood.

Cons.

Maintenance
Price

Aluminum:

I have never had the opportunity to row an aluminum drift boat but I have been sailing onboard many aluminum sailboats. I just hated them. They are cold during the winter, burning during hot summer, they are noisy and they are always offering a sharp corner on which you don't fail to injure yourself. The feeling of touching the corroded aluminum after a while gives me goose bumps. There are usually very limited options such dry storage offered on an aluminum drift boat. Basically indestructible, you can float very shallow water, hitting rocks for six miles and being banged all over the boat. Is that fun? After a while the bottom is so dented that it affects the way the boat handles the water. Better get a raft.

Pros.

Durability
Resale value

Cons.

Cold when cold outside
Hot when hot outside
Noisy
Costly if it needs repairs
Higher cost at the purchase considering the number of options offered.

Fiberglass:

The best suitable material to build a boat if done properly. The use of fiberglass offers the most flexible options to build a nice looking boat.
We can divide these boats in three families by the different resin used in fiberglass boat construction.

• Epoxy: The best one, the most expensive also--about ten times the price of polyester. The epoxy is used generally with material like Kevlar or Carbon fiber for racing sailboat, airplanes, racing cars etc. It can be used in the traditional wetted way or with the resin already inside the carbon fiber, generally, and called prepreg that needs to be cured in an oven .Wood/epoxy make a very good composite material.
  

• Vinylester: Relatively new resin with very good mechanical qualities, cheaper than the epoxy, largely used in racing sailboat construction, very suitable for injection process.
  

• Polyester: Cheap resin with poor mechanical qualities, used in all-purpose fiberglass construction, bathtubs, truck hoods, and ..... drift boats. There are also different qualities of polyester resin.

The composite materials can be the strongest but it is wrong to say it is lighter-- a pound is a pound. A pound of carbon fiber weighs the same as a pound of steel. But it is right to say that an object made out of carbon fiber will be lighter than the same object made out of steel requiring the same mechanical properties.
The composite material can have tremendous qualities in flexion and compression but is not so good for impact, and impact is still the main concern for a drift boat. The most vulnerable areas are the chines. A loaded boat with three people on board weighting about 1000 lbs., drifting four miles per hour, hitting a rock on an area as big as a quarter will hit the fiberglass corner with several thousand pounds of pressure: no fiberglass can handle such a hit without damage. The bottom of the drift boat is less exposed than the chines, the flexibility of the bottom will prevent most of the damage by going smoothly over the rocks, but still the sound of the fiberglass cracking is not good. The bottom of a drift boat should be solid fiberglass; stay away from a boat with a bottom sandwich, it is just another source of problems. The use of Kevlar makes little sense unless using epoxy resin or at least vinylester, which would make the boat very pricey. As long as the rock is stronger than the fiberglass we still have to go around the rocks.
To build a drift boat, we use a mold generally made out of fiberglass; we wax it or spray a release agent first to make sure the boat will get free. Then we spray the gelcoat .The gelcoat has mainly three purposes, the color for the look, it is a filler or sealant for the micro pores of the fiberglass and it is an UV protector for the resin.
There is different combination of fibers used into the process: the mat is a chopped strand fiberglass that comes in roll or in string in the case of using a chop gun. The mat has no strength or structural qualities; we use it as thickness maker. A mat of 1.5 ounces mean it weighs 1.5 ounces per Sq./Ft, which means also that it needs at least its own weight of resin.
The woven roving is the structural material most commonly used in drift boat, a 24 ounce roving means 24 ounces per Sq./yard which also means that it needs a least its own weight of resin.
There are other materials using different orientation of the fiber such as unidirectional, BI- axial with very good properties to "spray" the stress around but again it make little sense to use these materials considering the relatively poor mechanical qualities of polyester resin. A drift boat like a sailboat or a powerboat has different areas that are subject to different stresses. For example the bottom is subject to more stress than the sides, so we build the boat with different thickness depending of the stress on that area.
There is only one way to layout the roving: by hand. There are two ways to layout the mat: hand lay and the use of a chop gun.
The chop gun sprays the resin mixed with catalyst and at the same time projects a string of fiberglass chopped by the gun.
The only one way to keep track of the thickness is by hand laying the roll of mat versus using a chop gun. It is hard and almost impossible to control the thickness of the mat with precision to obtain 1.5 OZ per Sq./Ft with a chop gun. On the other end it is a faster layout of the fiber. Adding too much resin ratios also makes the mixture more brittle when cured. The hand lay mat creates a better work than the chop gun but also takes longer, that's why mass production boat builders are using the chop gun. The chop gun should be left for the mold fabrication or the construction of larger units where the weight is not a main concern.

The reasons of the design of the Nord West Drifter
Wood, Aluminum, fiberglass

After a little survey it appeared that 15 footer LOA was the right choice but again the LOW was the determinant factor.
The lack of storage was the main concern among people surveyed, so Philippe managed to include 26 cubic feet of dry storage.
The width of the existing boats was too narrow, most of them were at 48 inches, the size of a sheet of plywood. He opted for 58 inches.
Philippe didn't want to build a low side, considered too dangerous for some rivers-- the Yellowstone, for example.
He didn't want to use any wood subject to rot, and, considering that the lamination of plywood with polyester resin is not great, he wanted also to eliminate any big leveling platform to save weight.
He considered an average weight of three fishermen and placed them as close as possible together and to the center of the boat.
The rear seat on a round pedestal was chosen for its ability to spin around 360 degrees without any obstacle for the feet.
He opted for the fixed rowing bench to take huge advantage of the stiffness offered by this solution. The stiffer the boat, the better-- imagine racing a drift boat with a raft. As you pull hard on the oars on a drift boat, the maximum amount of the power will go into the paddles. Portion of the same power will be absorbed by the raft as it flexes down under the pressure. In a smaller scale a stiff drift boat is better than a flexible drift boat. Make a test: Put your boat on its trailer, grab the boat by the anchor bracket and lift it up: observe what the sides of the boat are doing…
The rocker of the hull was decided to be continuous for esthetic reasons but also for scientific reasons. The flat section is theorically OK when the boat is evenly loaded or on the blue print, but again on a boat of that size the balance can change very quickly depending on the number of passengers or the size of them. The flat section is advantageous mainly because it limits the draft when the boat is evenly loaded. The connection line between the continuous rocker and the flat area makes a step that is not very hydrodynamic when the boat is under way. The disturbance created can affect the way the boat handles. The line of a sailboat is smooth and continuous for a reason, the break of angles are found on fast power boats.

Philippe really enjoys building beautiful and high quality boats.