Accessories
Everything you'll need to float Leaping Trout is included in the package: floorboards, guide seat backrest, chains/ropes, a pole, even a painter (tow rope) for the eye in the bow.
Floorboards (the two largest boards are dead flat)
Another thing you will find in most riverboats are floorboards. Look very carefully at any other boats’ shorter boards in the bow and stern. How many of them are dead flat – where the boat bottom isn’t? How many have been later forced to fit the curve of the longboat bottom – sometimes secured by sash locks from the hardware store? It took longer to construct, but we took the time to “kerf” these shorter boards crosswise and flex them to match the curvature of the floor rise at bow and stern.
Definition: Kerfing is a woodworking technique that involves cutting slots into wood to make it bend. The slots, or kerfs, are precise cuts that increase flexibility while maintaining strength. Kerfing is often used to create curved shapes for furniture, cabinets and boats.
Floorboards (bow and stern boards are curved)
Once the bow and stern floorboards have been kerfed, the boards are clamped to the curvature of the floor, and the kerfs are filled with epoxy that has been thickened with colloidal silica. Once the mixture sets up overnight, the floorboards retain their curvature and fit perfectly inside the boat.
Flat and curved floorboards get a final coat of epoxy.
Close-up of curved floorboard showing epoxy mix in kerfs.
The Quant (push pole)
A removable backrest for the Guide Seat (Helm)
Hidden Screw for carbide tip
Au Sable Riverboats are propelled downstream by river current. The literature classifies such a craft as a "Punt". The pole that steers a punt, and keeps it on-course, is called a Quant.
In all the years that I've been fishing Blue Ribbon trout streams in Michigan, I've never heard it called that. I believe the colloquial term is "push pole."
Our pole is just under six feet long, and has a specially reinforced business end - two layers of fiberglass fabric are embedded in epoxy, to resist abrasion from the gravel bottoms of trout streams.
Our pole comes with an ultra-high-tech option - a replaceable tungsten carbide tip. There is a locator screw embedded in the tip at the moment. The new owner will have the option to back it out and replace it with a nylon screw that retains the space-age tip.
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The slot which secures the backrest is a wear part. It is robust but can wear out over time. We made it replaceable.
