Hi guys,
Thank you for the wealth of knowledge and experience of this forum.
I wanted to share my take on the 12' boat conversion and see if you notice any issues with my approach or have any suggestions.
I had to go with 12' because it will be my transportation/exploring dinghy on a bigger boat during the summer, and it has to fit on a 12' deck.
It will be my fishing / fun boat in spring and fall to use on the small waters of Ontario.
Original purchased package
All cleaned up:
I will put Fasco Epoxies Super Slick 2000 Epoxy Bottom Coating below the waterline and keep the top side bare as brushed aluminum.
After taking out the seats and old foam, the boat weights 105LB
I want to keep track of the weight because the boat with the engine will have to be raised and lowered by my deck crane with 500LB capacity.
When I started working on the subfloor, the first problem I noticed was with the drainage.
If I do this again, I will look for a boat with drain/reinforcement ribs going from the bow to the stern for proper drainage.
On this boat, if left as is, there would be 1" of water left in each section, and this is not acceptable for me.
To address this, I was thinking of using rigid foam to fill most bottom sections and fiberglass and epoxy resin to flatten the middle channel but because the boat is almost flat in the second 50%, there would be a lot of epoxy involved.
So, I decided to cut out the drain in each rib and reinforce each rib it with the aluminum angle to compensate for the lost rigidity.
Here is the cutout and reinforcement:
Each rib has a second angle for the subfloor plus the subfloor itself. I feel like this will be enough to keep those ribs from collapsing.
This is not ideal, but I could not think of any other solution here to keep water flowing to the bilge pump.
I also filled the space under the floor with rigid form panels and high-density polyurethane-based (it's structural after curing)
Old transom was replaced with 3/4 HDPE plastic for the main piece and motor mount panel.
I decided not to do the transom cutout because i'm still within the outboard engine specs height, and it will give me 2" more freeboard on the stern.
I put 1/4" rubber gasket between the motor mount and the transom to reduce the vibrations sent to the hull.
The front section is almost done.
The small port compartment will have the battery, and the large compartment will have a plastic box with a closable drain to use as a cooler or dry storage.
I'll foam under and around the big box to add rigidity and keep it stable.
I'll cut a hatch in the front V deck piece to keep a small anchor and the rod in this front compartment.
This is what I have so far.
I used mostly 1/16" 1-1/5" aluminum angles.
1/8" 1-1/2" angle is used for the front seat base cage
I'm debating adding livewell plumbing to the big box in the bow. I would not have to use it if I did not need it.
It seems like a livewell will be an overkill for such a small boat. I'm not planning on doing the tournaments in this boat.
Question:
Would you put a livewell in?
If you would, would you put it into this big box in the bow (with an overflow drain somewhere in 1/2 of the height so it would not fill full of water)
or add a separate smaller livewell somewhere closer to the middle? Again, the plumbing will not take up much space and it does not have to be used.
How useful livewell on such a small boat if you are not doing the tournaments?
Thank you for the wealth of knowledge and experience of this forum.
I wanted to share my take on the 12' boat conversion and see if you notice any issues with my approach or have any suggestions.
I had to go with 12' because it will be my transportation/exploring dinghy on a bigger boat during the summer, and it has to fit on a 12' deck.
It will be my fishing / fun boat in spring and fall to use on the small waters of Ontario.
Original purchased package
All cleaned up:
I will put Fasco Epoxies Super Slick 2000 Epoxy Bottom Coating below the waterline and keep the top side bare as brushed aluminum.
After taking out the seats and old foam, the boat weights 105LB
I want to keep track of the weight because the boat with the engine will have to be raised and lowered by my deck crane with 500LB capacity.
When I started working on the subfloor, the first problem I noticed was with the drainage.
If I do this again, I will look for a boat with drain/reinforcement ribs going from the bow to the stern for proper drainage.
On this boat, if left as is, there would be 1" of water left in each section, and this is not acceptable for me.
To address this, I was thinking of using rigid foam to fill most bottom sections and fiberglass and epoxy resin to flatten the middle channel but because the boat is almost flat in the second 50%, there would be a lot of epoxy involved.
So, I decided to cut out the drain in each rib and reinforce each rib it with the aluminum angle to compensate for the lost rigidity.
Here is the cutout and reinforcement:
Each rib has a second angle for the subfloor plus the subfloor itself. I feel like this will be enough to keep those ribs from collapsing.
This is not ideal, but I could not think of any other solution here to keep water flowing to the bilge pump.
I also filled the space under the floor with rigid form panels and high-density polyurethane-based (it's structural after curing)
Old transom was replaced with 3/4 HDPE plastic for the main piece and motor mount panel.
I decided not to do the transom cutout because i'm still within the outboard engine specs height, and it will give me 2" more freeboard on the stern.
I put 1/4" rubber gasket between the motor mount and the transom to reduce the vibrations sent to the hull.
The front section is almost done.
The small port compartment will have the battery, and the large compartment will have a plastic box with a closable drain to use as a cooler or dry storage.
I'll foam under and around the big box to add rigidity and keep it stable.
I'll cut a hatch in the front V deck piece to keep a small anchor and the rod in this front compartment.
This is what I have so far.
I used mostly 1/16" 1-1/5" aluminum angles.
1/8" 1-1/2" angle is used for the front seat base cage
I'm debating adding livewell plumbing to the big box in the bow. I would not have to use it if I did not need it.
It seems like a livewell will be an overkill for such a small boat. I'm not planning on doing the tournaments in this boat.
Question:
Would you put a livewell in?
If you would, would you put it into this big box in the bow (with an overflow drain somewhere in 1/2 of the height so it would not fill full of water)
or add a separate smaller livewell somewhere closer to the middle? Again, the plumbing will not take up much space and it does not have to be used.
How useful livewell on such a small boat if you are not doing the tournaments?
