Jacques Coon's Drift Boat Build

In the summer of 2018, I saw a Jason Cajune drift boat in the lobby of the Sage Lodge located near the Yellowstone River, in Montana’s famed Paradise Valley.

- Josh Coon

The boat was a modern take on the traditional Western river fishing dories that infused the clean lines and flowing curves of low-sided Montana skiffs—typically made of fiberglass at production scale. The boat would be equally at home on the water or in the showroom of a high-end furniture gallery. Two years later, while fishing on the Pere Marquette river (Michigan) with my dad, Jacques, and son Evan, I described the Cajune boat. Six months into the pandemic lockdown, Jacques was looking for a project and excitedly agreed to lead a build.

While Cajune does sell plans, I decided to design the boat, taking heavy inspiration from Cajune, but still allowing me the opportunity to customize the build. Using the computer-aided drafting software Solidworks®, I began to shape the hull – tinkering with form, overall width, and length. River drift boats are flat bottomed with rocker on either end. The flat bottom allows the boat to float in very shallow sections of river while the rocker enables quick pivoting and positioning capability. After running water draft calculations, I settled on a 17' 4" long hull, which should only draw about four inches of water with a 1,200 pound load.