Okay, we are finally ready to preview our new Phowler Total Concealment 2N'1 Blind System. We have been getting calls ever since we starting doing our custom blinds for a layout style boat, but we did not really want to go that direction as everything out there currently is a one use boat. We like the concept of a layout boat blind, they are very effective in some situations, but you are limited to that use and the boat is primarily a hunting boat, other then using as a deck style boat in the off season, it is resigned to being mostly a one season rig.

We started out designing a totally new style blind about two years ago and the project has been on and off the front burning a number of times since then as other projects and RD has taken priority. This past summer we built a boat to start prototyping this new blind on, we did a number of paper drawings and wood and cardboard mock ups to get some of the challanges worked out, then this winter we started welding up a prototype between other projects. After some trail and error we felt we had a very good design, so last month we put together a production model on our 1866 Phowler Extreme flat boat. With some serious help and engineering from our custom cover folks, we are finally ready to show you all what we came up with and get your ideas and feedback. We will be introducing the 2N'1 blind at our local outdoor show the end of Feb, so this is a sneak peek.

So here we go with the pictures:

First off, this is an all aluminum and cordura blind, all welded. The entire frame weights in at 145 lbs and it is totally removable from the boat, two guys can lift it off easily and the whole thing fold up to 6-8"s deep, so you can stand it up along your garage, hang it or just lean it up against a fence.

Here is the raw frame:


The hard deck on the left and the deck walks between the holes will support the biggest guy walking on them and are none-skid covered.

Here is the finished doors/lids and paint:


[img][IMG]http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m185/pwhnts5/2N1%20Blind/IMG_1715.jpg[/img]

Notice the doors are supported, they have aluminum panels lamentated into the door, it works really well. We have yet to install the finally buckles on the doors for trailer, but the doors are complete. More to follow.

Okay, now lets show you all how easy it is to come up out of these lids/doors:





Here are the adjustable seats for the layout:


There is tons of room in this blind, the area under the hard deck is all storage and open to the inside. We put a small Mr. Heater under the hard deck and with the lids closed the heat rolled all the way from the front to the back of the boat, it was really comfortable, this will be a warm blind to hunt from. The seats are extra thick cushioned, you can sit in one all day.

Now for driving and dog space. In the back there is a large zippered opening to allow the driver to stand or sit and drive. In addition with the hole part way open you can have a dog hide.


The hard deck lets you walk front to back easily:


More to come on the "2" part of the 2N'1 Blind

Okay now for what we think is the really cool part, this is what took all this time to figure out, how to make this a "2" use blind. This set-up takes all of 5 seconds to do:








The front support drops down by itself, so the blind is up and supported at once, then just pin for safety and you are ready to hunt sitting up. There are three different height positions you can choose from.

Now just fold up the layout seat and pull out a Buck and Bird Seat (that store in the back under the cover) and sit down, you now have a complete pop-up blind, just close the doors and you are ready to hunt:





With a little grass and cover added, you will disappear.

More to follow

Okay, so now you have a full pop-up blind to hunt:









The corners are zipper closed to keep wind and rain out:







Back drivers hole or dog hide open:


Now closed:



Notice the decoy nets on the bow, depending on the net size you can get from 3-8 dozen deks on the deck and there is alot of room in the boat for decoy transport as well.



So that is our new Phowler Total Concealment 2N'1 Blind System.

We had to wait to show it until our Trade Mark and Copyright applications had been filed.

We are really excited about this new design, we think it will fill the bill for guys looking for a layout style blind on those days the duck are really weary, yet want to have a good hybrid pop-up for other days when you have good cover around you. The best part, it is completely removable and easy to store so you have a regular boat to use in the off season. All the skin unsnap, so you can remove them, roll them up with your grass on them and store them inside in the off season.

This one is on an 1866 with full pods and extended deck. We can do a four man version on this boat without the extended deck and with changing the pods and up to five one of our 20' boats.

The only thing we have left to do is have the grassing webbing sewn on (being done right now), install the door buckles for trailering (and you will be able to roll the upper corners back and buckle them if you want more opening) and this new blind is ready to go. Pricing is done, but we will not have it on the web for a few weeks until after the show, but we can say that this blind, as it is finished right now (without camo paint) will be around $3300-3500 with seats and full camo skins. This blind can be ordered with one of our boats or fit to other boats, however you can figure a couple hundred extra to customize to fit some boats with narrow gunnels or odd configurations inside.

There you have the first look, what do you all think?

FYI: We will also be introducing two additional blinds in the next few weeks:

- The Phowler Total Concealment SuperFly Pop-up Blind, a heavy duty aluminum framed and cordura covered soft blind that we think will overcome alot of the short comings of the "out of a box" soft blinds out there. It is tougher built, better fitting skins/curtains, heavy duty hardware (not cheap light weight stuff) and designed to last a lifetime, not just a couple of season.

- The Phowler Total Concealment Light Marsh Blind, a simple version of our Extreme Blind designed to offer a lighter weight more cost effective removable hard blind. This blind can be hunted from either side and is low when the side screens are down to make it easy to set and pick up decoys and all your toys.

Thanks,

PW

pretty slick!

That's pretty sweet. Are you only making it for Phowler boats?

I'm not a fan of boat blinds but I will say that is pretty sweet looking!! Good job!

We can build this style of blind for any boat, but there may need to be some modifications depending on side height, how open the hull is etc. But the concept is easily adaptable to most boats.

PW

Man, that is an awesome idea man! Definately the only way to have a boat blind

I love the concept. Have you thought about having it so that both sides can pop up for an even bigger blind? I often go out the night before and sleep in the boat so any extra room would be a plus. I also take my young boys out and they like to move around inside the blind.

Having both side move up is something we did try, it is not functional and requires way to many extra pivot points and adjustments to make it easy to use. There is a pretty good amount of room under it when it is up, you can move from one end to the other under the blind.

Thanks for the replys and feedback, we really want all opinions on this one.

PW

muddoc,

you guys thought about doing anything for CC?

every boat blind I've ever seen has stood out like a sore thumb from 6 miles away. I think the smaller the better...

Looks expensive to me.

We have been working with someone on a rig with a console and it can be done, size of boat will be the determining factor. On an 18 or 20" wide open boat we could get 3-4 layouts holes in with a very low profile console, but it will all depend on the boat set-up.

These blinds are not meant to compete with an out of the box blind or a permanent welded layout style boat blind, those are always cheaper to make and sell. But we do beleive they are very competitively priced compared to any custom blind on the market. You can pay way to much for way to little or you can pay to little for something that looks great new but does not last. We try to make products that are fairly priced and that will last a lifetime, that is what we want for ourselves and so that is how we build them for others.

PW

I likes it !!!

I've gots a partner that has one of them GatorHide GatorTrax boathulls .. and I'm
tellin' you .... when them GoldenEyes, BuffleHeads, and them CanvasBacks goes
to raftin' up out in the middle with them Coots .... he hammers 'em !!!!

In mines opinion 'bout boatblinds is that sometimes thay is the ticket. Down here
you need everythang in yore arsonnel to git it done ifin' you gonna be somewhat
successfull in yore DuckBryd huntin' on a everyday basis.

It looks like ya'lls done a fine job on the designs of the application and thay is only
two drawbacks I can see ....

1. The price ...... I know .... it cost alot to build somethin' that nice ..... still cheaper
than one of them GatorHide boathulls tho.

2. Ya'lls model ..... Man ..... Ain't ya'lls gots a good lookin' woman fo the photo shoot !!!

I am with Brooks on this one! You need to find a better looking model for the shots for the website. Dam Bubba is getting uglier every day!

Damn, now you gone and hurt Bubba's feelns, he'll be cryn the rest of the day and won't get his work done now.

Looks expensive, huge, and cloth, zippers and duck hunting don't mix.

One minor flaw that I see is that the doors will interfere with each other when two people try to open up at the same time. I don't know. Just looks like it. If that makes sense. Other than that it looks great! It may be expensive but think about having a hide type boat and being able to remove the blind for fishing season. Would be like having two boats in my opinion. I like it.

Good observation, we had the same concern when we decided to do a semi hard door with the aluminum laminate. They will stand up against one another nicely, the guy in the middle will have a more limited shooting range, but when we tested it with three shooters it worked very well, in fact, if they opened fully the middle guy could swing right over someones head, so having a bit of a limit on the middle shooter, in our opinion, is a safety thing that we liked about how it worked. Also the doors do have some flexiblity, so on over twenty tests with three guys over and over again coming out together no-one got hung or could not have made a safe shot of birds out front or overhead.

PW

nice does it fit on all your models and how much over the price of boat for this setup

They will work on any of our boats, they will start at around $2700 for a smaller boat (however we recommend at least a 17' boat or a 16' commercial hull or larger) and go up to $3600 for one of our big 72" wide boats. There are a few options as well. You can get the set-up as just a layout frame as well (no pop-up) starting around $2000. Our boats start around $5000 and go up to $7750. So a complete rig as just a layout will start around $7000 for boat and blind, with pop-up around $7800 going up to around $11350 for one of the big boats.

PW

cool set up paul. need to make a demo model for a 1648 pd hull, i know a guy that would use/show the shit out of it

sonny,

I think I know that guy two, he will only manage to sink it

We should have the pictures of the Phowler SuperFly pop-up and Light Marsh Blind ready to preview next week or so and our new 56" wide Extreme hull ready to preview by the end of the month. By spring we will also have a redesigned V front out as well. Let me guess, "that guy" you know probably wants one of each to test out.

PW

Been an MMT lurker and reader for a long time. Haven't done much posting.

You have a great idea and obviously have spent plenty of time R&Ding. A couple of things for you-

I don't know who said it, but the zippers are a show stopper for me. I've never had good luck with zippers in cold weather. Spent 8 years in the USMC and have been in FedLE for 2 years. Have spent too many days in cold and wet weather with zippers that failed. Reminds me of the canvas tops on the back tarps of the HMMWV. I was responsible for 18 of those and not a one of them had a canvas with a zipper that worked after the 1st Field Op. Only people harder on equipment than Marines are duck hunters. Like my Gunny used to say; mission of the Marine Corps is to kill people and break things. Duck hunters are synonymous- just replace the people with ducks....

I really like the versatility of the the pop up and layout combination. Excellent design in frame from what I can tell. Have you considered using a different type of camo material? I'm a fan for the 3-D effect (much like the competitor blind version). I also like the brush strap options you have on there- can't not have those. Will you also have them on the "catwalk" part of the blind? Would also consider some kind of ability to stand brush up in front of you as well (not sure if that makes sense or not.) Some type of "pipes" to stand up brush towards the front.

Price seems reasonable in terms of comparison to other boats with the same "functionality." Especially when you consider the weight difference. A stock mud motor will power a boat with your blind with less effort. Course, getting mods done to your motor is half the fun of owning a mud motor.

With that being said, how does your blind effect the load distribution for the boat? Looks to me you might have some side weight issues. Maybe not, just guessing by the pictures.

Again, well done. Thanks for putting in the time and effort to develop what looks to be a good piece of gear.

AND, I applaud your bravery to put it up on the forums here for everyone to snipe and pick apart.

S/F.

No, Im thinking that he would be happy with just one, but if you were to allow both of them, he prob would not turn it down.

Also glad to here about the new shop, If you need help or a hand with anything let me know. I got sundays and mondays off, and it is just a short ride down the river to your shop. Thanks for all you have done over the years, and a little helping hand is the least I can do.

I like the concept and some of the innovation on this, you definitely have my attention.

I share the concern of the doors opening up on each other, somehow I think a little more spacing is needed to make this work. Also, when in the sitting blind mode, the boat appears to be overweight on the one side, if you aren't up on land it'll list. won't it?

Great job!

With this hull being 66" wide I doubt very seriously there will be any significant listing to one side due to 3 or 4 hunters sitting on that side. I have a 1848 Phowler Extreme and when I hunt 4 from the boat it will only list a small bit. It's definitely one of those "have to see it to believe it" things but I doubt that 66" wide boat moves more than an inch or two and you won't notice that.

Nice set up, you guys out did yourselves

being able to remove it is a big plus in my book. Do you have any photos of the removal process and what comes out? Also, do you have any photos of it grassed?

thanks

Sorry, did not get pics of the removal, but it is easy, everything comes off in one shoot, two guys, 10 minutes and it is off.

PW