Thought I would make a quick update to this thread for those of you following it.
I've fished the boat a LOT over the past 2 months. Overall I really like it, I don't think you could ask much more from a 12' boat.
A few things I'd do differently next time..........
The rear pedestal is pretty much useless. While one person on the pedestal in front is fine with one person sitting on the low seat in the back........two pedestals are too much. I stand up and fish all the time both alone and with a passenger.......but two people standing is a bit much. It's truly the perfect one person boat though.
I will likely need to redo the middle bench top and the piano hinge at some point. There is no lip to provide extra support on the hinge side of the hatch, and the hatch sags a bit there. The other option is to maybe have the seat hinged on the side. Word to the wise, if your seat is on a pedestal and the hinge is on the front of the door..........don't turn around 180 degrees quickly to see what the person behind you is reeling in, you may just go for a quick ride. :lol:
While I'm glad I have the electronics and trolling motor in this setup, and while I love the onboard charger......if I were to do a mod like this again I'd want a 14' boat for this type of weight. When fishing with 2x 200lb guys, the boat is fine when underway but I wouldn't want to be out when the water gets bad. I got stuck on an island camping during pike season, and had to head 3 miles to the launch through 2' rollers. Luckily another person there was able to take my wife back in their boat because it was a bit scary.......I was OK on my own but 2 people would have been a disaster. With that said, the boat is super stable and is truly the ultimate 1 person boat.
I'm getting 18.3-19mph on the GPS (with the old prop) when it's just me in the boat and it rides well with just me.....but when 2x 200lb guys are in the boat I'm only getting around 14.5mph and there is a LOT of boat in the water. If I trim the motor up past the second hole when there are two people in there, there is too much weight upfront with the passenger and batteries, and the motor will cavitate. If I wasn't worried about flotation, I'd cut the back bench open and move the small battery and charger back there, but I don't really feel like it's worth the hassle, and I want the flotation foam in there in case of a disaster..........I'll just keep it on small waters when I have two people.
While the Harbor Freight trailer is nice, I want to put full length bunks on it. I think there is too much weight on that middle roller. I'll likely modify this for next season.
Finally.......this past weekend I almost finished cleaning the motor up. I degreased the entire thing (what a chore!), sanded edges of any paint chips, washed, degreased again, and then painted with OMC brand paint for that specific year motor. It's now the exact color it was when it left the factory. I also ordered the decal kit today as well, I'm hoping it's here for this weekend so I can apply and then get the motor remounted on the boat. In addition to this, I purchased another brand new 9.5x10 Quicksilver prop, the original was in pretty rough shape and I figured it was time for a new one. I also had a local OMC mechanic go through it a couple of months ago, and he scoped it and did a compression test, and said it's in perfect shape inside. Now after the paint and decals, I'm hoping it lasts another 34 years, and it should look pretty good too once the decals get here. I'm curious if the new prop will pick up some speed for me, and will test it this weekend. If nothing else, I'm hoping the paint and decals will give me another 10mph... :mrgreen:. Regardless, it looks much better now than it did with the duck boat camo spray paint job on it.
The only pic I have of the motor after paint, I'll try to get some updated pics of the boat so you can see the floor, etc.....all in it's final stage.
id you find the boat to be Tipsy" How wide is the beam on your boat may I ask
