Thanks everyone for the kind words! I am mighty proud of her. She is just under 18ft long and around 8ft wide. She is also very light for her size at 500lbs hull weight!
This site will help those in Texas keep up with all of the massive flooding occurring in the Texas rivers and lakes lately.Real-time data. Stay safe out there and use good judgement!
https://www.texasriverdata.com
I have added a post to my blog about restoring a small Sea King V-bottom boat. As a kid, I spent many good times in one just like it with my Dad. I found one identical to it on Craigslist, so I totally rebuilt it to use for trotlines on the rivers. Several members have asked me about it so...
Pretty boat in your avatar! Most tiller handles have some type of friction adjustment or nylon squeeze ring built into the handle mechanism. Perhaps you should take it apart and see if you can adjust something to make it tighter. If it has a nylon ring inside maybe you can roughen it slightly...
The wood was just finished in a natural tint. I used West System epoxy over the bare wood on all sides first. As this is not UV resistant, I then gave each piece several coats of a good UV resistant varnish over the cured epoxy. it has held up very well so far.
I've got one on my 12ft v-bottom with an older 18hp Evinrude. The motor is so heavy for the boat that it will not get up on plane easily without it. Now it jumps right up and hauls butt. It was worth every penny. You need to make sure that your cavitation plate is at just the right height so...
Here's how I did mine in a similar boat such as yours. I mounted it low down below the gunwales so tree limbs wouldn't damage it when running limb lines. I can see it from my seat when driving the boat.
I've built several boats over the years. My last boat was a 32ft steel hull trawler. Lofting is the term used in the marine industry to scale up the shape of a boat. A jon boat design would be super simple and great fun to build I would think. The basic bulkhead cross section stays pretty...
Thanks for the kind words folks! I admit that's a grungy tank! I actually found it floating in the river with a full tank of gas no less... :D the boat balances out perfect in the water. I fished in it all day today too!
I bought an old 1967 Montgomery Wards Sea King a few months ago. It had several bullet holes and was in sorry shape. I wanted it because this was the same year model boat that my Dad and I fished in when I was a kid. I also bought a 1968 Evinrude 18hp Fastwin to match the motor that we used back...
A quick update. I found out that it was mostly too lean on the idle speed needle. I turned it out 1 1/2 turns and got it fine tuned and it runs nearly perfect now. I do think the crank seals are leaking as it dribbles a little oil mixture from under the flywheel. It only misses very seldom now...
Another issue is when the fuel tank is nearly empty it seems that the motor will loose significant power. I have about 8 ft of fuel line between the tank and engine. The motor is freshly rebuilt with new rings, carb kit etc. it has about 4 hrs run time. It just has nev run very well at idle.