Soooo–we built a Doryak a few years ago and it has been a huge hit. A scaled down and somewhat tweaked version of the classic Briggs Grand Canyon Dory, it performs better than our wildest dreams. There are over two dozen of them on the water now and more in the works.

Then last fall we did the same thing to the San Juan Punt, and came up with the Puntiac. It is also a dreamy little thing to row.

Well, at the upcoming River Runner’s Hall of Fame we’re having a little Yak Attack parade with a lot of yakkish boats associated with the various inductees. Sportyaks for Buzz and Loie Belknap. Kayaks for Gary Nichols. Doryaks for me. But Glen and Bessie Hyde are also getting inducted, so how to commemorate them?

We had no choice. In an eight-hour burst of silliness we created the Scowyak.

We started with a stack of ponderosa pine from our friend Silas Page’s sawmill. It’s beeen curing in the shop loft for a few months.

Although we are strong believers in good plans, lofted to aesthetic perfection, that’s kind of antithetical to a scow. We did a minimal amount of arithmetic based on the original and started sawing and banging.

Instead of our usual silicon bronze screws we went with a framing nail gun.

Voila!

And off to Lake Mary for a test float. Preposterpous beyond our wildest dreams! Or posterous as we often say. Perhaps even Postposterous.

But like so many of our wacky boat builds that started out as more or less a joke, it seems to be a pretty viable craft. We’re already planning a San Juan trip in it. What could possibly go wrong?

Don’t answer that.