Why every tin boat guys needs to carry plastic worms...

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We left the house around 4:30pm, hit the water before five. We got a nice days worth of rain Friday so the water was up a bit. I wasn't filming the trip up and just out of curiousity stuck the nose up the riffle to the next level, about a 2' climb over 50' that usually has exposed rocks all the way up but this time they were covered. Figured I'd just bump one and drift back down but once almost all the way up I blipped the throttle and put it on plane and popped over the berm and away we went. Made it another mile or so dodging some nasty stuff, fish walls, riffles and other obvious chutes going up. I was actually laughing as we cut throughthe last bad spot and leaving off the throttle when we hit about half planed out.

Took almost an hour to fix the hull, then fished a bit. I hooked a nice bass on Nate's rod and he brought it in but once it got to the boat the line came untied. So we watched a 14-16" fish with a 3" firetiger lure hangin out of his mouth scraping the bottom trying to get iot loose for five minutes before we lost sight of him.

Coming back down it was too dark to film and I was getting spooky about the water but it all went well. Sacrificed some tin and a lure making things go better perhaps. We came down a decent drop off at an old railroad tressle (maybe the old bridge structure) and I was sure we were going to take some over the bow but didn't, felt like hill hopping in a car. Finally pulled a sharp left to hit the original chute and we were on the way home, eating bugs and dodging rain drops. I ran the boat wide open and it didn't leak more than normal.

One interesting bit, with the left trim tab missing that side ran about 3" lower vs. the right side. I was surprised to see that much difference. I'm going to UHMW the hull this winter, thinking 3/8" covering so we can run this skinny stuff with ease.

Jamie
 
That's why most jet boats have the bottom extend about .5 inch further than the transom, welded with a T-joint fillet, instead of the outside corner fillet as the cookie cutter boats have. When a rock slides down the hull, it dents in, but can't grab the transom and rip it away as you have seen (and a big rock would need some of Russ010 "finesse" worms to plug the hole :lol: )

When are you throwing some UHMW on there? It's inevitable, you know. :wink:
 
That answers the question on the UHMW. Answered while I posted.

How do you plan on installing it, with the formed in bottom strakes the boat has? General consensus down here (and I'm talking the infamous lower Etowah) is that boats with those strakes are not candidates for UHMW, and most guys just wait until they tear the bottom up badly, the cut out the entire bottom, replacing it with flat, before adding the plastic.
 
Atatchment method is probably going to be stainless machine screws into 3/16" angle or flat stock welded to the strakes and the side junction and have the UHMW bridge across it. The strakes are right around an inch high and 8 inches apart, leave the back open so the water will run out on launch, maybe drill some angled holes 1/4" diameter so it'll drain faster. It should plane fine and run as skinny as before if not better. I'm not 100% sure about around the intake though. I know I'll have to make a new spoon out of UHMW and this'll give ma chance to build a ride plate for the pump.

It sounded like a gun going off when that rock caught the trim tab...

PIC_0007.jpg


Jamie
 
Ranchero50 said:
Atatchment method is probably going to be stainless machine screws into 3/16" angle or flat stock welded to the strakes and the side junction and have the UHMW bridge across it. The strakes are right around an inch high and 8 inches apart, leave the back open so the water will run out on launch, maybe drill some angled holes 1/4" diameter so it'll drain faster. It should plane fine and run as skinny as before if not better. I'm not 100% sure about around the intake though. I know I'll have to make a new spoon out of UHMW and this'll give ma chance to build a ride plate for the pump.

It sounded like a gun going off when that rock caught the trim tab...

PIC_0007.jpg


Jamie
Do you figure the extra 100 pounds or so (I think that is what I calculated 3/8 UHMW on a 1448 to be) to slow you down much?

I do see the open bottom actually making you a little more stable at rest. Many of the Australian offshore alloy boats have 8+ inch tubes, open at the transom, that run down the keel, to fill with water at rest, and increase stability, while emptying out on plane, to reduce weight. Granted, the flat bottom is going to lessen the impact of this some, but I think you might still see a difference.

When I finally get to mine (this winter is looking promising for it), the goal was, from the get go, to run 3/8 UHMW. I was also planning to go ahead and build the hull myself, to avoid the strake issue, as well as build the transom the right way (to avoid the little mishap you had tonight), but I'm starting to worry about weight, as the donor ski I acquired was a '93 XP, with the 70hp 650cc. I'm a bit concerned as to what sort of performance I'll get with a slightly heavier boat than yours, with 100 pounds of UHMW plastic, as well as a 25 gallon bait tank, and a regular 2 people, and occasional 3rd.
 
I don't know if I'll really notice the difference. The boat seems to perform the same with or without my 8yo. Perhaps without all the surfaces on the old riveted hull rubbing against the water it'll go faster? Either way, about two miles of what I run is skinny water, most of it's slack water as well so there's no ripples showing the rock monsters. Three sections I went through last night were mill races with exposed boulders and that was pretty insane.

Now I just need to find a local dealer for UHMW or a sister product. Most of what I've found has been up around Jersey.

Jamie
 
This is what I want to use, Tivar dryslide, a UHMW that we use at work in a part of the folder that I redesigned because the teflon strips kept wearing out and straight UHMW was wearing and marking the signatures as they came through the folder. This stuff wouldn't mark and has been in several machine for over a year without any wear.

https://www.quadrantepp.com/default.aspx?pageid=258

The bad is it's around $600-800 for a 48x120" sheet of 3/8 material.

Jamie
 
Ranchero50 said:
This is what I want to use, Tivar dryslide, a UHMW that we use at work in a part of the folder that I redesigned because the teflon strips kept wearing out and straight UHMW was wearing and marking the signatures as they came through the folder. This stuff wouldn't mark and has been in several machine for over a year without any wear.

https://www.quadrantepp.com/default.aspx?pageid=258

The bad is it's around $600-800 for a 48x120" sheet of 3/8 material.

Jamie
'Bought the same price as standard UHMW, at least from the places I've found.
 
The dryslide is about 30% higher than regular UHMW online. I hate that stores want you to request a quote for everything... I can buy a lot of thicker aluminum for $800.

Going to patch the hull today and put the trim tab back on.

Jamie
 
Ranchero50 said:
The dryslide is about 30% higher than regular UHMW online. I hate that stores want you to request a quote for everything... I can buy a lot of thicker aluminum for $800.

Problem is, the thicker aluminum, while it will take the impact better, still 'sticks' to rocks. My home river is the Etowah, which is one of the tougher rivers in this part of the country, as it is relatively young, thus all the rocks are still sharp and pronounced, and it is filled with fishtraps from the Indians, many of which were "repaired" during the Civil War, by dumping molten slag in. Aluminum boats do not like hitting these iron rocks at all.
 

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