I have been looking through the builds for awhile now. I live in Alabama and mostly fish for catfish. I recently purchased a 1851 polar kraft that I am planning on redoing. I have a few questions about the boat I hope on of the experts here can answer. The bottom of it has ridge down the length of the boat. The previous owner said it was an icebreaker bottom. The other question is how thick should the transom be? He had a 115 on it which was way to big for the boat which ended up putting stress cracks along the top rail. He had already tore out part of the transom on it. I hope some on can answer these questions.