Wait a minute!
Why is there a boat in the living room?
Meet "Leaping Trout."
This is not just any Au Sable Riverboat. It's a lot like family. And, as such, deserved to get all the tender loving care that it needs as it takes shape.
Winter before last, I had the great idea to keep working on it inside the house, where it's warm enough to apply epoxy and varnish and stuff. "Why not," I said to my patient spouse: "It's a lot like family, right?" She walked away, shaking her head. I took that as a "yes."
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Some background: You've heard that "it takes a village to raise a child." Well, it takes more than one person to build a boat. (It's a lot like family - remember?) That's why three fly-fishermen-turned- boatbuilders set out to build three riverboats.
A dentist, an architect and a hand surgeon walk into a bar - and three Au Sable Riverboats began to take shape.
The boat I offer for sale is boat number three. Its beta-name is “Leaping Trout” because of the knot pattern on the cedar plank I selected to fabricate the aft wall of the live box (at the top of the picture below). If it becomes yours, you can name the boat anything you wish.
This piece of “one-by” cedar features two naturally occurring knot configurations suggesting a pair of leaping trout - the first trout (at center) breaking the surface to feed on an airborne fly, and the second trout (at upper left) moving on to another feeding opportunity. See a close-up image of this special feature in the "Under Construction/Special Features" section of this site.
