mtnwkr
Well-known member
I guess after all my lurking I should contribute to the board. I've been using a 12' smokercraft shallow V for flyfishing out of the last few years. With just me I can stand, fish, dance, whatever. Add a dog or another person and it gets tippy real fast. I'm also surrounded by bays and inlets and used it for crabbing when the weather was perfect.
This boat was my grandfathers and he bought it new in 88', I bought it off him a few years ago as he was to old to use it anymore.
I wanted something a little bigger, wider and deeper. My goal was to find a 14'er that was big enough to take out in the salt with a few crab pots or salmon fishing but still small enough to fish all the small local lakes by myself.
After much looking I bought this 13'4" Gregor welded aluminum. When I bought it the guy told me it was 14' and I believed him, not bothering to put a tape on it myself. Wish I would have. Too late now though. The size is ok though, Its 16" at the transom, 20 in the rear, 28" up front and a beam of 64". All welded, no big dents, repairs or damage. Came with a sweet running Honda BF100s that although is a little underpowered, moves the boat 17.5mph with the dog and I in it. haven't had two adults in it yet. Also came on a galvanized EZloader.
this is the day I brought it home.
took it out the next day...Sue approves.
First up was replacing the seat tops. The old plywood was mostly rotted but came out in big enough chunks to use as a template. I thought about cutting a walk-through in the middle seat but decided to use it as storage instead.
This is what I found after removing the old wood.
I cut the middle foam in half and moved it to the sides, stuffing in more foam wherever I could.
New seat wood.. Later cut the middle bench in three.
Missing some pics but here is the somewhat finished project.
4 coats of spar varnish on the seat wood. Used a SS piano hinge on the middle bench, worked great. I ran small SS screw into the seats from the bottom instead of rivets so they are easy to remove for future projects.
To be continued...
This boat was my grandfathers and he bought it new in 88', I bought it off him a few years ago as he was to old to use it anymore.
I wanted something a little bigger, wider and deeper. My goal was to find a 14'er that was big enough to take out in the salt with a few crab pots or salmon fishing but still small enough to fish all the small local lakes by myself.
After much looking I bought this 13'4" Gregor welded aluminum. When I bought it the guy told me it was 14' and I believed him, not bothering to put a tape on it myself. Wish I would have. Too late now though. The size is ok though, Its 16" at the transom, 20 in the rear, 28" up front and a beam of 64". All welded, no big dents, repairs or damage. Came with a sweet running Honda BF100s that although is a little underpowered, moves the boat 17.5mph with the dog and I in it. haven't had two adults in it yet. Also came on a galvanized EZloader.
this is the day I brought it home.
took it out the next day...Sue approves.
First up was replacing the seat tops. The old plywood was mostly rotted but came out in big enough chunks to use as a template. I thought about cutting a walk-through in the middle seat but decided to use it as storage instead.
This is what I found after removing the old wood.
I cut the middle foam in half and moved it to the sides, stuffing in more foam wherever I could.
New seat wood.. Later cut the middle bench in three.
Missing some pics but here is the somewhat finished project.
4 coats of spar varnish on the seat wood. Used a SS piano hinge on the middle bench, worked great. I ran small SS screw into the seats from the bottom instead of rivets so they are easy to remove for future projects.
To be continued...