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DougWright Flats Boat

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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, and more so 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 :)

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the money is there. Hope they do a killer job as usual.

we sell 24-25 foot Ranger bay boats for $100k and move at min about 1 a week.

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Originally Posted by Nate5.0 (Post 4569244)

the money is there. Hope they do a killer job as usual.

we sell 24-25 foot Ranger bay boats for $100k and move at min about 1 a week.

pretty neat project...hope it works out for them!

... crazy those rangers go for that now... I had a 2006 24 ranger bay with 300hpdi, leaning post live/bait well, bow live well, stern live well lorance, 101 minkota...pretty much loaded out. 54k and now they are almost double that :eekdrop:

Quote:

Originally Posted by LAriverratt (Post 4569661)

ya it's nuts...still blows me away but they sell like hot cakes around these parts.

New Ranger Boats for Sale FL | Fishing Boat Dealer Palm Harbor Florida

$90k for a 23' and $99k for a 25'

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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.

after the green coat is applied, the putty is applied
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4313/...72b0eafa_b.jpg

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4304/...a408588d_b.jpg

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4327/...5d5dfedb_b.jpg

These are really small boats that could be put in the back of a pick-up truck. Guys are wanting something simple to get back into the shallow waters with for fishing. From what Jr says, they have a bunch of people wanting them.

Joe

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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.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4315/...4e3b0f0d_k.jpg

Flat boat, thin water and a fly rod are a blast !