Black Brant III

“What is this Black Brant III, and why the new design?” In order to understand how things go out here in Devlin Boat Land, you must take a step back and understand how a fleet of boat designs progress and mature over a long span of time.

Over the twenty-odd years that I have been designing and building hunting boats, I've had time to evolve a number of successful designs. My Dad says that I am a persistent “tinkerer,” which is probably a nice way to say that, while I think my designs are the best available and I believe in them without reservation, I am also open to change, and that the way to Nirvana is to strive continually to do better. Call it Protestant work ethic, or psycho-babble; the bottom line is that many of our designs are revised, little by little, becoming better all the time.

In the case of our Black Brant designs, I already had a boat that did its job very well: to allow two to three hunters to hunt safely and efficiently. Enter the desire of some of us to travel faster under power in shallower water, that led to a new design, the Black Brant III. This boat is a shallower and faster version of the Black Brant design, and if that is what you need, then this is the boat for you.

It was difficult to replace the original Black Brant because it was so efficient at its design brief. If you find that most of your hunting is in open water and you really aren’t traveling more than a couple of miles from ramp to your hunting area, then the Black Brant design is the best for your purposes. She is quite a bit deeper and a little slower than the Black Brant III.

But if you find that you need to operate in shallower water, that you are traveling quite a distance from launch-ramp to the hunting area, and that a couple more inches of sitting blind height doesn’t hurt, then by all means choose the Black Brant III.

In both cases, these are thoroughbred hunting boats, as good as anything out there, and both have undergone rigorous trials over many years. 

—Sam Devlin

Black Brant III 

LOA:  14′ 3" —  4.34m

Beam:  5’ 6″ —  1.66m

Draft:  7.5″ —  190mm

Weight Dry:  225lbs. —  102kg.

Depth Combing to Floorboards:  14.75″

Depth Keel to Top of Coaming:  21.25″

Width of Cockpit:  3′ 10.5″

Length of Cockpit:  7′ 8″

Max HP:  30 HP (short or long shaft)

Epoxy required to build the Black Brant III: 

• Resin 3 gallons,
• Hardener 1.5 gallons
• Wood flour, cell-o-fil, & pumps

NOTE: Boat plans will need to be purchased from Devlin Builders, separately for all kit variations.