Flier, building a fast 27 lb foam and fabric fishing boat with a used hacksaw blade!

Flier is a fast super light 27 pound 12 ’ experimental foam and fabric fishing and rowing boat that I built in January 2020 to replace my Lifetime Tamarack fishing kayak. It’s faster, lighter, roomier, carries more weight, and is more stable than my kayak. Flier was built using unconventional materials and construction methods. Surprisingly, the main tool used to build it was an old hacksaw blade! No expensive fiberglass or resins were used, almost everything was water-cleanup, inexpensive, and locally available. No power tools were needed. In her third year now, Flier has been used on over 70 fishing trips on the ponds, lakes and rivers of Vermont. When not in use, Flier lives on top of my car all summer, ready for a row or fishing session any time. Under oars Flier punches into the wind better than my commercial plastic kayak. It weighs less than half of what my kayak does. Flier’s center thwart is located to balance on the shoulders... Flier can be portaged long distances through the woods. My 70 pound kayak has to be dragged, and even a couple hundred feet doing that is a workout. I built Flier in a tiny rented room on the 4th floor of an office building in Vermont. Because it was winter and lakes were frozen here, I first tested her on the Pocomoke River in Maryland in early February 2020, just before Covid 19 hit. By summer I had used her for fishing for brown and rainbow trout, bass, and crappies in three states. (See Flier in action in the video links below.) Flier’s construction was greatly simplified over conventional wooden boat building, but to be successful does require using some specific commonly available materials and a few unusual (simplified) boat building methods. It also requires a commitment to good workmanship. An inexpensive 29 page Flier plan and foam boat building booklet is available for instant download. It explains the the full build of Flier in detail and provides construction drawings, information, tips, and design theory that a compressed video just cannot include. The plans can be downloaded from: Your plans purchase provides channel support and makes possible new projects. Thank you, truly, for your comments, subscriptions and support!  Follow-up fishing videos: Fall fishing in Flier, Vermont smallmouth and pike:    Rowing and catching big crappies in Vermont in Flier: Music in the video is courtesy of .