Looking for advice on this boat

[VT-Bass13]

hey like what you are doing and nice work

this is what i did to my 16ft boat check it out may or may not give you some ideas

https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=25172

 

[Keystone]

Pemnuts, do you hit Pepin often? Living in Albert Lea makes it a bit of a drive to the river for me. But I have been from Red Wing all the way down to the end of Pepin several times since moving here in 1996.

Looking forward to seeing this boat finished. You are doing a nice job so far!

 

[Pemnuts]

Thanks again for the positive comments guys, it's inspirational to see others appreciate work being done on a 24 year old boat =]
As for craigslist boats, this one turned out to be a good deal for us - and if it were not for this wonderful website we might not have had the nerve to even begin bringing it back into service. Thanks to Jim, and all forum members for posting your years of experience on this site.
Keystone, we do get up towards the mouth of Pepin from the south side of it, even in our canoe.. now with this larger boat, Pepin will be a fun ride. I'm actually interested in heading your way in a couple weeks, the last time we were in your area we spent the entire day catching northerns one after the other in Fountain Lake during an algae bloom. As I think back on that day, it was the first time I ever got tired of reeling in large fish. When it was time to go we headed back to our launching point and managed to swamp our canoe when my tired arms tried lifting the 65 pound battery up so my son could take it out. The hand off didn't go well and the battery sunk to the bottom and the canoe was taking on water so fast all i could think of was rescuing the Suzuki outboard that was still hooked on to the canoe. After a few minutes of "What the hell just happened??" I found the battery at the top of a sand mound made from power loaders and it was easily within reach - a few feet one way or another and it would not have been recoverable. Anyhow.. the battery still works perfectly and we have another memorable story to tell anyone willing to listen =]

 

[Keystone]

Winter kill this year was bad. I'll know next week how the Pike, Walleye and channels did and let you know. I do pretty good on that lake pulling spinner rigs around. Not uncommon to catch a few dozen Pike in a morning and some real decent Channels. Let me know when you are heading over. Do most of my fishing solo but always ready to have some company.

 

[Pemnuts]

We used fiberglass resin to coat our wood decking, not much to say about it other than it's going to seal out moisture. A couple days curing time in the shed worked out well.

It's a wonderful thing to have a son that likes fishing, loves boating and is very handy at getting things done. If not for him, I'd still be working on the deck framing, cussing at having to get out of the boat to cut something, then back up the ladder into the boat to test fit it only to find out I've cut it more than twice and it's still too short ~ :roll: I'm also glad that I listened to his advice and trimmed the hatches back about a quarter of an inch on two edges of each hatch so the carpet fits tightly between the hatch and the deck after it's glued on and stapled. Did I mention that he owns and drives our boat hauler? yeah he likes trucks too. Thank you, Son, for making this old mans' dream a reality.
We covered all of the wood in carpet in about four hours.. that carpet glue sticks to everything and thanks to the rain today we had to do the carpeting inside the house on the living room floor. One of my dogs found out that.. yes, it sticks to paws too.. Now I have boat parts from one end of the house to the other, laying upside down with all sorts of heavy things on top of them. Luckily for me, no carpet glue got on the living room floor.. just on my hands and clothes, and somehow on one of my elbows. I was relieved to put the lid on that bucket of glue for the last time.
The pictures that follow show the resin we used, some parts that have resin applied, and my son doing a test fit for the pieces on the roll of carpet to make sure everything fits - about halfway through the application of resin. I'll post back tomorrow with pics of carpeted pieces, soon as I can flip them over =]
Pem

 

[Pemnuts]

In the pics that follow you will see I decided to staple my hatch hinges on, I realize that the staples will eventually pull out. After a few minutes of debating with myself about whether to use piano hinges or use a spare tie down strap for this, you can see that I won, and "Git Er Done" took over.
20 minutes later it was finished. No binding hinges, no drilling, no measuring, and the staples are actually really strong. If it works out and the lids don't fly off going down the road then it's all good. I'll use real hinges if that happens.

I used a wood hammer to wrap the tie down strap around to make sure the straps have enough play in them and allow the hatch to open freely. Pics show this, and hatches closed and open. The live well at the bottom will probably be 'hinged' to the underlayment (not shown ) when we install all these parts onto the boat. I also decided not to use a loop for the hatch pulls because I don't want to risk tripping my handicapped *** and falling into the water

 

[bobberboy]

Like they said. Looks nice and you don't have to undo all the work someone else did to make what you want. All in all it looks like you've done well on both.

 

[Pemnuts]

When I first saw this boat in person I never really thought I would see the build part come to an end, but now there's finally a light at the end of the tunnel. The top part of the front deck is not finished yet - just sitting in place with the hummingbird 597ci HD in its location. It'll be our first time using it. The vertical part under the live well is covered in a off white vinyl, and the vertical parts underneath the rear seat box will have this too.. undecided if we should add a left side seat at this time. I don't like cleaning up too much, it makes it hard to find tools and parts and also makes it easier for me to remember what I wanted to accomplish next :lol: