We are delighted to announce two boatbuilding courses in July, to be taught at the Pruitt shop by the McKenzie River in Oregon—the river where the drift boat was born. For the third year we are working with the McKenzie River Discovery Center to teach our boats and spread the contagion of wooden boatbulding. Each class will take you from a sheet of apparently random numbers, through drawing a boat full size (lofting), through designing and building the parts, assembling them, finishing out the boat, and floating it on the McKenzie River. Cricket and Glade Zarn, along with Brad Dimock will be teaching the courses, allowing for an excellent teacher to student ratio. Click on the blue links for more information and signing up.

Building the McKenziac July 12 – 17, $950

The McKenziac is our latest invention, based on the huge success of our Doryak. The Doryak is a one-person decked dory based on Jerry Briggs’s classic Grand Canyon Dory. The McKenziac is similarly scaled down off the final Woodie Hindman McKenzie River Drift Boat–known fondly as Woodie’s Last Boat. The McKenziac is designed for one-person operation in anything from flat water to Class 3 rapids. It is designed with a removable seat-box that can be carried to camp—which also allows one to nest multiple McKenziacs for easy transport.

Here are a few shots of McKenziacs in action a week or two ago. In this first shot you can see the chuck-box/seat from the closest boat removed and up in the kitchen.

If you have three McKenziacs but no playmates, you’re still good to go.

Building the Open Chub River Dory, July 19 – 24, $950

The Chub was originally designed as a big-water decked dory, but we felt it could function excellently as an open boat as well. It has the breadth of a standard Briggs dory, but is a full three feet shorter. Unlike its McKenzie cousins, the Chub is more of a Rogue hull, with a bit of flat in the center and fuller bow and stern for more bouyancy and load carrying. Initial reviews confirm our hunch.

Fill ‘er up!

See you in Oregon!