1974 14ft Meyers boat project

[stault]

This Boat belonged to my parents that bought it new, both have passed away, and I received the boat two years ago, it still had the Johnson 6hp motor that came with the boat which I still have. I decided to do a face lift and show you what I came up with, here"s where it started and where it ended

That is a removable casting deck when front seat is taken out, also I have a storage hatch where I keep my first aid container, air horn Battery for my fish finder ect

Finished project with a 15hp Johnson, I took it to the Lake to see how it would handle, very solid, it was a windy day, water a little rough and with my GPS I was doing 19 mph, and got up on plain

 

[Tallpine]

Great job! Sweet looking little boat.

 

[stault]

Thanks, I started this in January and finished last week, I wanted to approach this with weight in mind and structure and usability and I think I've meet everyone of those.

 

[sonny.barile]

I like your design. The boat looks light and roomy.

 

[Tallpine]

Two words come to mind, (functional simplicity). This should be a "poster child" for what to do with this type of boat.

 

[stault]

Thanks, I'll be 64 in a few days, and swinging my legs across those bench seats got old real quick . I put the seats in and added those sliders and it did work good for fishing out both sides of the boat, but still a pain. I had 24" of relative flat floor space to walk on and now I have 43". I bought a new Hummingbird Helix 5 SI and wanted to come up with a easy way to adjust it out on the water for view and remove the fishfinder when done for the day so I used my Slick camera tripod end and with the push of a button I can take it off, just thought I'd share that, if your out at yard sales or Craigslist you could look for something like that and save a lot of money and it works great

 

[Ole Big]

Nice.

 

[stault]

The seats came from Bass Pro, and I found the backs weak and would push back very easily so I placed 1/2" aluminum on each side for strength, I thought this may help others with the same problem

 

[Tallpine]

That pistol grip ball head is a great idea!

 

[gillhunter]

Extremely well thought out and executed build =D>. Looks like it will be a joy to fish out of!

 

[perchjerker]

I know this thread is a little old. I sent gillhunter a PM and hope to hear back

I am sure some of you can answer some of my questions

I have an almost identical boat and would like to something similar to this

my main question is about removing the benches and the bracing

Looks like he just made some out of plywood? Do you think that will cause any problems? Is this strong enough? And what about it rotting after a few years? Unless its marine grade, he does not really go into any detail about it

I would only use mine on small lakes with and have a 9.9 for it but still I am leery of this without the advice of others who have done it

Also, isn't there flotation under the benches? I never looked at mine (its currently up north at my cabin so I cant just go out and look)

please give me your thoughts.

 

[stault]

I was extremely happy with my first voyage out on the lake as per the sides of the boat, since then I've had it out on the river in some very choppy water and theirs no shake, rattle or roll going on with the way I brace the sides, the braces are out of regular plywood and the floor is marine grade , I did that for a reason, didn't know at the time if the design would work and it was the least $ spent to find out, and the hardest part was getting the pattern layout right, everything bolts together and upgrading that sometime will be easy if needed. Their is no flotation at this point, however, I may look into that in the future, I do have a bilge pump as per some back up. The boat is a real pleasure to spend the day fishing