Row boat

This fall I built a small row boat. I built it for Henry and Rita, some friends of ours here in Brevig Mission. It will mostly get used for setting and checking salmon nets in the summer. When netting salmon here you typically stretch your net from shore out a couple hundred feet into the ocean. This lets you catch the fish as they migrate along the shoreline. The boat may also be used in the winter for seal hunting. On occasion Henry will snowmobile out across the ice to the open water for seal hunting. The boat would be pulled along on a sled. It could then be used to retrieve seals that are shot.
This first photo shows me starting out on the maiden voyage. The boat is about 9 feet long. it is made from 3/8' ac plywood with 2x4's ripped down to make the chine logs and gunwales. It is all held together with construction adhesive (liquid nails) and drywall screws. The oars are also made of the same material. The construction is the same style as the "instant" sailboats the we race in the summer in MN. The boat has a seat that runs lengthwise down the middle so that you can adjust you sitting position forward and backward to suit different loads. The whole thing was built out of scrap material that I found around the village, even the paint was left over.
The second photo shows me and a couple of kids screwing the oarlocks down after testing out different locations during the maiden voyage. On the beach in front of us is a seal.
There is another village near us called Teller. It is only about 8 miles away as the crow flies, but you can't get there by land. There is a narrow channel of water that you have to cross. The last photo shows the view across the channel from the Teller side looking back towards Brevig. The channel is about 1/4 mile wide. This fall I had some work to do in Teller, so I used our ATV to haul the boat down to the channel. I tossed my toolbox in the boat and rowed across. Just another day at the office.
C.O.