It all begins with the crisp October air, biting at my nose in the early morning. I was on a small body of water somewhere in cold, northern MN. Just far enough off the beaten path for my cell to have no signal. As I sit there patiently waiting for shooting light, watching ducks hit the water in my decoy spread just in front of me., I’m clenching my 12 gauge, over/under in anticipation for the all-out bang fest that is just minutes away, thinking ‘Man, if I just had my hot cup of coffee to sip right now life would be perfect. That was it. I had to have my cup of coffee. I begin fumbling around, in the dark trying to grab my thermos cap filled with hot joe (not wanting to risk a light which, would no doubt, send the ducks flying into the next county) I’m now straddling the bench seat looking out of the makeshift, 2x4, wood and screw blind, thinking to myself this clearly was not designed with a duck hunter in mind. No sooner did that thought cross my mind I knocked my hot cup of coffee off the bench, which of course, came in for a crash landing on the bare, ribbed, aluminum floor, sending the woodies flying off into the next county. In a hurried attempt the get scalding hot coffee off of my leg, my brand new over/under falls down scratching the outboard that was so nicely painted white by manufactures (not intending their engine to be on a duck boat.) Needless to say, I left the pond that day duck-less, coffee-less, and determined to build a boat just right for a 6' tall, coffee-lovin’, duck hunter who gets way too excited about ducks showing up early.
I’m not some joe blow cruising across a glass-smooth lake on a sunny day, smiling from ear to ear in his cheap, mass-produced aluminum jon boat. While that boat has its place in the market, undoubtedly. It has no place in a hard-core duck hunters honey hole. A truly custom boat is a boat where you were able to sit down in the bare, brand new aluminum hull and decide where your cup holders would be, and what side of the boat your gas cap needs to be on in order to match the truck you proudly intend to haul it to your honey hole with. A boat built by someone with a passion for duck hunting, that rivals your own. So when I say “custom”, I mean custom.
Because I love the idea of a truly custom duck boat, I'm excited to be working with Arc Kings, which is a custom boat building and welding shop right in Shakopee. My friend David runs that shop, and their boats are unreal.
