Alex_c
Well-known member
Have had this boat for about a year. Paid $1300 for tub, trailer and a nice running 1984 35hp pull start Evinrude with remote. This thing leaked like a sieve and had a few hairline cracks around the ribs towards the stern. Previous owner added a tonne of weight to the front and the repair job he did to the middle bench failed causing the lower portion of the hull to flex and stress at various points. After tearing everything apart, there are only a few areas that will need some tig welding.
Plan is to make a starboard side console forward of the middle bench was with a walk-thru on the side. The bow will get a casting/storage platform with an anchor roller and a chain locker for the fast moving rivers we have here. The stern will get a raised platform to house a large fuel tank and a battery. I want to keep this boat fairly light weight to keep it nimble and above the water when I head out into the ocean for crab and salmon. With a 16" transom I am limited to fair weather and keeping the weight down means as much freeboard as possible.
This is my first foray into boat building/modification but I do have quite a bit of experience with steel fabricating and I am finding aluminum very easy to work with compared to the heavy gauge steel I am used to.
Today I pulled about 200 lbs of crap out of the boat. The bow cap must have weighed 50 lbs at least!!
First set of pictures are what the boat looked like when I bought it and the last one is after day 1 of gutting. Got the boat 95% gutted, pulled off all the mild steel hardware that was holding things together, pounded out most of the dents.
I want to reinforce the bow just above the keel as there is not much there at all for bracing...actually the boat doesn't have much for bracing to begin with, but I know that an aluminum boat is only as strong as its skeleton, so I will be trying to make this thing as rigid as possible and eliminate any and all flex in the hull when hitting bigger waves.
Any suggestions on what I could use to put a cap over the existing keel?
Plan is to make a starboard side console forward of the middle bench was with a walk-thru on the side. The bow will get a casting/storage platform with an anchor roller and a chain locker for the fast moving rivers we have here. The stern will get a raised platform to house a large fuel tank and a battery. I want to keep this boat fairly light weight to keep it nimble and above the water when I head out into the ocean for crab and salmon. With a 16" transom I am limited to fair weather and keeping the weight down means as much freeboard as possible.
This is my first foray into boat building/modification but I do have quite a bit of experience with steel fabricating and I am finding aluminum very easy to work with compared to the heavy gauge steel I am used to.
Today I pulled about 200 lbs of crap out of the boat. The bow cap must have weighed 50 lbs at least!!
First set of pictures are what the boat looked like when I bought it and the last one is after day 1 of gutting. Got the boat 95% gutted, pulled off all the mild steel hardware that was holding things together, pounded out most of the dents.
I want to reinforce the bow just above the keel as there is not much there at all for bracing...actually the boat doesn't have much for bracing to begin with, but I know that an aluminum boat is only as strong as its skeleton, so I will be trying to make this thing as rigid as possible and eliminate any and all flex in the hull when hitting bigger waves.
Any suggestions on what I could use to put a cap over the existing keel?