Two buddies and I recently left early one Saturday morning and made a trip to Gatesville, Texas to spend the day learning boat building techniques from master boat builder Gerald Kennedy, owner of Brazos Boat Works. Gerald had designed and drawn the plans for a 16 foot five panel boat called the Challenger. He guided us through laying out the drawing of the plans on marine plywood, then cutting out the pieces and stitching them together with small gauge wire.
You may follow along on the build at the following link.
http://texaspaddler.com/wordpress/bbw-forum/brazos-boat-works-forum-group3/bbw-projects-forum2/bbw-project-boat-challenger-thread17/
Gerald has all sorts of custom boats and plans for sale and even some free boat plans. You can join his forum and talk with others that paddle some of Gerald’ custom boats or have built some of his designs. Feel free to drop in and look around at the Brazos Boat Works Website. It is pretty amazing, Wild Ed
http://texaspaddler.com/wordpress/brazos-boat-works/
THE FEED MILL GATESVILLE, TEXAS
PS: I always try to let my readers know when I run across a good place to eat as I travel across this great State. Saturday we went to one of Gerald’s favorite places in Gatesville. We paid for our meal just like you will have to do so I can say with all honesty that the food was first class. Hamburgers start at just $3.75, Chicken Fried Steak at $8.95 and the Rib-eye Steak on the lunch was $9.95 The Feed Mill is one of those hole in the wall out of the way places you will want to stop at every time you go through town. They also had Catfish and BBQ on the menu, but I will have to try it another time. The fresh battered onion rings were fantastic. The Feed Mill is located at 108 N. 6th Street in downtown Gatesville. Tell them Wild Ed sent you, like they will know who that is!