Duracraft 1519 Project

[FishinsMyLife]

Making this thread as more of a way to keep up with what I want to do/have done to my boat. Might help out a couple people along the way.

Boat is 14'8" long and 36 inches wide at the bottom. Motor is a 30 hp 1988 Evinrude.

1. Max out speed (without buying a new prop for now)
2. Replace transom and hardware
3. Paint camouflage for duck/goose season in the fall
4. Add seat(s) and rodholders
5.Add aluminum deck with storage from front to bench seat
6. Replace plywood floor with aluminum
7. Hydroturf surfaces
8. Get a bow mount trolling motor or get a cheap mount and convert one of my transom mounts.
9. Possibly add a gunbox



The way it sat when I got it.

Ran well on the local flow.

Caught some fish out of it, too.

Finally got the chance to put the boat on GPS. According to the "GPS Tool" app for my Blackberry, I was running a disappointing 23/24 mph with another person and 25/26 with only me.

I assumed the previous owner had it maxed out for speed, but the cavitation plate was at an angle when I got down and looked at it. The pin was in the second hole from the bottom

Moved the pin up a hole, and I got a little more out of it. One more and even better results. The top hole was too much, so the second from the top is where it's pinned now.

The previous owner shimmed the motor up 1/2-3/4 of an inch with a piece of wood. When I get the chance, I'm going to experiment a little more with this.

I plan on taking out that wood, dropping the motor down, and trying to trim it up one more hole.

If that doesn't show any benefits, I'm going to add wood shims (with the pin in the hole second from the top) to get my cavitation plate a little bit higher. If it starts to get where it'll blow out on turns, I'll drop it back down to what worked. Compare the results and go with the most practical/safe setting for speed.

 

[FishinsMyLife]

Haven't had much of a chance to take the boat out the second half of summer, but I'm trying to get it ready to take back to school in a week.

Several of the bolts holding the foot on worked their way out, stressing the two that stayed in. The weight was too much before I realized it and broke this piece of the shaft. Luckily my buddy knows a guy that we graduated high school with that said he'd try and fix it for me.

From this:

To this:

I was happy. I've been on hold for a week waiting on backordered parts to get in so I can get the 'Rude back up and running.

Transom wood is shot, and so is all the hardware (previous owner syndrome: why did he use non-stainless screw-head bolts? Chiseling and drilling is a pain), and the brace isn't in great shape either. That's my project for tomorrow. Dropped some cash today on tools and materials. I had forgotten about how expensive this gets.

Transom wood measured and ready to cut tomorrow

 

[FishinsMyLife]

The farther I get into this "project," the more I have to make up for the previous owner's mistakes. Treated transom wood.

I'm probably just going to wire wheel all the metal, paint it, and put the transom in. There are a couple bad spots where the bolts went through, but I'm going to deal with it for now. It won't be any trouble to take the transom back out and get a sheet welded on once the transom is secured with non-corroded hardware, and bolts as opposed to rivets.

Also, my transom "knee" brace is shot. All the corners but one (3/4) where it attaches to the transom are snapped off, so I'm going to need a new one. The previous owner already had them welded back on once it looks like. Over-tightening it into rotten wood is the culprit.

If anyone knows where I can buy one, or if you can fab one up for me, let me know.

 

[Ictalurus]

Looks like you have your work cut out for you. Seems like a tank of a boat, the knee brace seems like a hard piece to find, probably gonna have to chell out some cash and fab one up.

 

[FishinsMyLife]

That's what it's looking like.

I just remembered..I know the decal says "Alumacraft," but the previous owner knew a decal maker. He told him Duracraft, but he cut him an Alumacraft by mistake. I hope it was free. :lol: