DougWright Flats Boat

[noli]

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Something wonderful is being designed at the DougWright Marine facilities. When I visited the factory on Thursday, I saw a raw block of foam. Being the inquisitive person that I am, especially when you’re at the DW factory and you have DW’s attention…I asked Doug Sr what the foam block was for? He smiled and said, “that block is our next project”. Ok, so I immediately thought that it would be for an aircraft part or a part for their new 35 foot cat. But something told me not to make any assumptions and so I just plainly asked Sr “is that for an aircraft or…” before I could even finish asking the question Sr blurted out “it’s our new DW flats boat”. I thought to myself, ok now we’re getting somewhere here. I can’t wait to tell the guys that DW is building…WHAT THE HAY! A fishing boat? So I replied rather strongly, “…wait Doug are you saying ‘flats boat’ as in shallow-water vessel to get to the Bone fish?..that kind’a flats boat? “

Sr replied “it’s really for Doug Jr, you see Jr likes to fish when he’s not in the shop”. And just at that moment, Jr comes strolling by us and asks “what brings you here Noli?” without answering Jr, I said “I want one, one of those flats boats that you’re developing”. Jr put such a big grin on his face and said, “oh that! you can buy one with your credit card…it will be very affordable”. Jr also added that you can put the whole boat in the back of one’s pickup truck and only weighs 150 lbs. The affordability and size is what motivated the build of this new DW flats boat.

And so it happened…another DW boat is born. The new boat will be available in a low powered outboard. The boat will be finished in gelcoat in a wide array of colors. The total height of the boat shall be 14” high and no more than 56” wide. The deck will have multiple variations for fish coolers, hatches for storage and live bait wells, to name a few. Jr also said "Joe P. will probably put a 90HP motor on it knowing him, but you won’t need that much power when you’re traversing the flats”


After saying my goodbyes to Sr and Jr, and after thanking them for their time I lazily walked back to my Camry and headed straight for my favorite high-end restaurant; PUBLIX! Oh you laugh, you see we don’t have PUBLIX in NJ! On my way to Publix I had more questions to ask and oh my goodness, I didn’t bother to take 1 picture…not one! As my mind was racing with more questions about this new flats boat. I quickly picked out my favorite sandwich and a salad and headed straight for the DW factory…again. This thread is definitely worthless without any pics so please enjoy the pics and as Jr sends me additional pics I will share here and if you plan to visit the DW factory, please ask to take pics of this flats boat project and share with us








The blue area is the deck, complete with storage bins




The hull-bottom

[noli]

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[Z06man]

It is starting to take shape that chunk of foam now has shape saw it yesterday . I may have to add to my boat collection .Trying to get to Joe's number but cant count that high I only have 10 fingers.

[noli]

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Pics from DW Jr today. After the green kote is applied, the putty is applied. These 2 coats are applied to prepare the female mold for milling, to cut using 5-axis CNC, into a smoother surface. The male plug build is bypassed to save time and to lower the cost of the build.

[gotboostedvr6]

Will it be foam cored?

[mr fun]

little boxy looking, and that finish is a tad bit rough, just kidding! people are spending crazy money on flats boats these days. wish them all the best. want to launch a 16' footer myself. spotted the most amazing 16' I've ever seen. don't want to wheeze on this thread, so i'll start another one. fun out

[noli]

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The 5-axis CNC machine has been busy. shown here is the milling of the DW Flats Boat

The bow area has still the rough putty, where as the areas astern has been milled. This process continues with finer CNC (drill) bits till the Wright Engineers are satisfied.

[XstreamVking]

The only tricky thing I see is the inverted bottom. Which works well, and I have used on several boats in the past. A Sea Sled innovation. The rest is standard typical skiff shape. Boat will work well. Skiff's don't need crazy bottoms. Just stable, shallow floating platforms that move thru waves easy with a v'ed bow.

[home made tunnel]

I'd love to see a time lapse of the whole process!
I think I kind of understand how this works now...

Less dense foam is machined out rough... then denser putty applied, and that putty is then machined again for a much smoother surface?
What are the next steps?
Does this process actually make the mold, or just the plug?

Someone get that Chinese guy Tunnels in here... I'm sure he'd have a thing or two to say about this process HAHAHAHAHA. ::Face Palm::

[mjw930]

This process makes the mold, no plug needed. Once the putty is machined to a smooth surface I assume a coating is applied that creates the molds surface. What happens after that to create the finished mold ready to make hull hasn't been documented here that I can find but it would be great to see the finished product (mold) once it's ready to pop hulls.

[XstreamVking]

What they pull from the foam you see here is the "master" plug. This is tested, refined and then a production mold is made from it in the conventional manner with glass and core and some sort of frame to stabilize it.

[mjw930]

What they pull from the foam you see here is the "master" plug. This is tested, refined and then a production mold is made from it in the conventional manner with glass and core and some sort of frame to stabilize it.

No, that's not what they are doing, they aren't making a plug, they bypass that step.

After the green kote is applied, the putty is applied. These 2 coats are applied to prepare the female mold for milling, to cut using 5-axis CNC, into a smoother surface. The male plug build is bypassed to save time and to lower the cost of the build.

[XstreamVking]

Built a lot of molds? This skips a tedious step. That is all. You produce an actual prototype (hull) out of this foam mold. The foam mold is not meant to pull numerous boats out of.

[warren]

I was there watching myself my skate is there getiing alot of work done . Doug is something else .great guy and his brain works over time.hes also doing a 12 ft skiff.it was being cut when i was there .4 a guy that had a stroke he dont miss much.red rocket out

[noli]

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After the milling of the putty, a guide coat is applied (purple dye) to create a sanding limit