HOW TO BUILD A MACKINAC BOAT. 
FRED A. HUNT. 
In any place where ponds, lakes and 
sluggish streams occur most anglers like 
to use a boat adapted for fishing and yet 
not exorbitant in price. A mackinac costs 
little and any ingenious boy can build 
one. These boats are durable and safe. 
In rice swamps or the Detroit flats a canoe 
or punt is more desirable, as the draft of 
either is small. A mackinac draws more 
than a canoe, but the oarsman can sit com- 
fortably in a mackinac and does not necd 
to be an acrobat to remain in the boat, as 
he does in a canoe. 
To commence the construction of a 
mackinac:' Draw a straight line or the 
sand, the ground or a barn floor, remem- 
bering that the mackinac is a flat bottomed 
boat. This line should be a little longer 
than you desire the boat to be. Six feet 
is a handy length for one person. On this 
line (B A) construct a skeleton diagram 
as follows: 

lines from B to A, will determine the size 
. of the floor stanchions, of course, by tak- 
ing the distance on each side of the cen- 
tral line, and 12 or 14 inches being the 
height of the side stanchions. 
Commence the framework by making 
the floor beams and stanchions, taking B1 
as a specimen. This is made of 2 inch x 
4 inch clear scantling, the 4 inch part be- 
ing placed toward the floor and bulwarks 
and firmly nailed, and the upper crosspiece 
being 2 inches below the upper ends. B2 
is made the same way. B3 is without any 
upper crosspiece, B4 with one, B5 without 
and B6 with. The. planks for the floor 
should be of good, wide, clear pine. Use 
one plank for the center, the center line 
B A taking the middle of the plank. Put 
the other planks on the sides of the center 
and-turn the ends and edges to conform to 
the diagram, the edges being cut perfectly 
SCALE 1: INCH TO THE FOOT 
In this skeleton the transverse lines Br 
to Bo are the floor braces and stanch- 
ions. A, the stem, is made of a 3x3 inch 
timber of sound pine, 2 inches higher than 
the gunwale, and shaped something like 
a blunt nosed V, to accommodate the ends 
of the planks and the arcs om the sides of 
the projected boat. For a 6 foot boat the 
line from B to A will be 6 feet long 
and the line at Br should be 20 inches, Io 
inches on either side of the center line. 
From the extremities of this line the 
curved lines to the stem are drawn, and the 
distances between the stern line and the 
stem, as shown by the transverse lines of 
the diagram, are as follows: Br to B2, 12 
inches; B2 to B3, B3 to B4, B4 to Bs, 14 
inches each; Bs to B6, to inches; and B6 
to the stem takes the remaining dimension, 
The swell of the bulwarks, the curved 
40 Surfs CC 
285 
square and the edges of the planks being 
made 
2 
ess 
2 
square and true, as the | space 
ee ve 
4." Surface 

4° Surface 
ys 2 
