Jonsboat
by Bill Bloomer

After having good success with the One Man Jonboat that we built a couple of years ago, my brother and I decided to build one that would carry the two of us.

I bought Jim Michalak’s book “Boatbuilding for Beginners (and Beyond)”. This is a great book and was a big help. The plans for Jonsboat are included in the book as are the instructions needed to get underway. I can’t say enough about this boat. We are both big guys and this is an incredibly stable boat with plenty of room to fish without getting in each other’s way.

The first two pictures are of the boat under construction.

We followed the plans for the most part. Jim recommends ½” ply for the bottom and ¼” for the sides. We used ½” for everything. The seat tops are 1” pine.

We also built the boat with the chine logs on the inside. I didn’t like the idea of wrapping the fiberglass around the outside chines. We did not cover the entire bottom with glass, only the seams. By the way, the angles that Jim gives with the plans are right on. All the joints were nice and tight. We also modified the gunnels so that we had lots of places to tie stuff.

The next pictures are of my brother and I on launch day. We went out with just the trolling motor, since we hadn’t registered the boat yet.

I think the boat draws about an inch of water with nobody in it and only a few inches with the two of us aboard. The trolling motor is 34 lbs thrust and moves the boat nicely.

We have since tried a 5HP outboard and a 15HP. With the 15, the boat really moves. The 5 is fine and we will stick with that. I think a 9.9 would be the best choice if we had one. It would be plenty of motor and also let us get on the lakes that are limited to 10.

The boat moves along much better with two people than with one. The extra weight up front trims the boat.

The last pictures are of my brother and his wife out in the boat.

The flat floor of the boat allows his wife to use a folding chair which makes for a comfortable ride.

This is an easy boat to build and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a very stable boat for calm water.

It’s not a rough water boat. We had the boat out on a windy day last week on a lake with some white caps. We had the 15 HP motor on that day and we had to go pretty slow to keep the boat from pounding.

THANKS JIM!