Season generates a case of duck boat fever
LATELY, AND PERHAPS BECAUSE of my annual week of duck hunting that just passed, I’ve had the urge to build myself a specialized duck boat. Specifically, I’m looking at plans to build a Barnegat Bay Sneak Box, which is the ‘57 Chevy of all duck boats, if you discount the fact that heads to do not turn as you drive one by. The Barnegat Bay Sneak Box is a classic little boat that was first built in the latter half of the 1800s and one that is still being used by a small group of traditional duck hunters today. You can paddle one through very shallow water and it can manage rough water exceptionally for a craft of its small size. Oh, and it is low to the water so you can camouflage it quite easily to blend in with the marsh or your front lawn, if you haven’t broke the news to your better
half.
The disadvantage is that there are few people who make them, so unless you want to pay big money for a small, specialized boat, you will probably have to find a set of plans and build it yourself.
And therein lies the problem. Ever since Noah’s big project, people have viewed homemade-boat builders in a very suspicious way.
Tell someone you are building a boat and they immediately wonder if that has anything to do with why you are growing a white beard and wearing a housecoat. For me, it’s even worse, since I already have two dogs and two cats.
Even more problematic is once people find out you are going to build a specialized boat designed for duck hunting, they start asking the kind of questions that shouldn’t be asked in front of your spouse.
The big one is “Why do you need a duck boat when your canoe or tin boat has done the trick for all this time?”
When someone points out two people haven’t spoken to each other for years, this is very likely the reason.
The answer, aside from “Mind your own business!” is you don’t need a duck boat. No one needs a duck boat. You want a duck boat.
Plus, building a boat is a lot of fun – which, getting back to Noah, is probably why it was so easy for God to coax him into the whole project.
Yet, if building a new boat is fun, launching it is nerve-wracking – especially if people who know you built it are watching.
I have built two boats that served me well but that’s still not enough to remove all doubt. That happens only after a few voyages and no Gilligan’s Island. From that point on, you can and will hold court among your friends and throw around terms like “clean-swept chines” and “tiller.” Build enough boats and you’ll soon be able to speculate the design changes that should have been incorporated into the Titanic.
In any case, I believe I will start building my duck boat in spring and hopefully complete it by summer. I’ll do this because a) I’d like to work out all the bugs regarding motor, oars, performance and use of interior space by next hunting season and b) the water is much warmer in the summer, should I have missed sealing a spot below the waterline.
Mostly, however, this is because I haven’t built enough boats yet and there are no ice bergs in July.