Don Hill began his boat building career in 1961 in the shops of Woody Hindman and Tom Kaarhus. He and Keith Steel would hang around them to learn what they could about building the boats, not working for them officially but lending a hand when needed. After awhile he decided to build a boat for himself. The early boats were of the Keith Steel design with a circular curve bottom and lessor bow angle. Those boats worked well but in the mid 70’s Don thought he had a better design that would turn and maneuver easier. He increased the angle of the bow and also the flare of the hull from the oars to the bow by making the curve more parabolic. He found this design to lift the boat over standing waves rather than plowing through them like the circular curve bottoms did and make the boat handle much better. This is the design that you will find in the plans on this site. You can find more information about the plans on the Plans Info page and if you have more questions just Email Us.