Dudley's Old Sears 14' V-hull Build

[DDudley]

Hello everyone.

From what I know, I have 1970s Sears 14' Aluminum semi-v hull. It's a great little boat (my first). I would like to open it up some, run electrical, and create some storage.

Feel free to post feedback or whatever. I could use some ideas and or suggestions.

Thanks.

 

[DDudley]

My buddy and I took the boat out to do some musky fishing on the Shenandoah River over the course of along weekend. The boat was just what we were hoping it would be, a good 2 man fishing boat. No musky were caught (2 follows), but we got a good feel of the boat. It was also a chance to get some ideas for what we wanted to change to make it a more practical fishing boat.

First observation, this sucker plains! With my 240lbs in the back, 15hp evinrude, 12v deep cell battery, trolling motor, and gas tank near by, the bow of the boat was at nearly 10 o'clock, and the stern was low-ridin' in the water. I got a little scare the first time I gave the motor too much gas. 8)

Anyhow... I learned that I was going to need to distribute more weight toward the front of the boat to keep this from happening (especially when there is only one person in the boat).

Next, benches are nice, but seats are nicer. So, I plan to add 2 swivel seats to the redesign.

Finally, I thought this boat would be improved if it lost a bench (or two) and a floor was installed for easier mobility when moving around the boat. Plus, it might give us better stability when standing up and casting.

 

[DDudley]

I am planning on moving more weight toward the front of the boat by placing at least 1, maybe 2 12v batteries in the bow (1 dedicated for the trolling motor, and 1 to run lights and FF). The cut-out in the bench toward the bow is where the battery box will go. I would like to build a deck for storage above it.

I also want to cut out the second bench to create more room and cut the third bench in half. The remaining 1/2 of the third bench will be a good place to attach a seat. Also, I would like to move the gas tank forward from the back to where the second bench was.

 

[bobberboy]

Much debate about this but IMO cutting the seats compromises the structure of the boat. The sides of your boat don't have ribs designed to support them without benefit of the seats. The seats serve to hold the sides of the boat together. If you look at open boats you're likely to see heavy ribs coming up about 2/3 up the side and much heavier gunwales.

Check out Buffords clever compromise to opening up a boat:
https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=9912

 

[derekdiruz]

I had a boat that I pulled a bench from. It did lose integrity. However I never put in a floor. If you add a floor and properly secure it front to back, that boat will be solid as a rock again. So far looking good

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[DDudley]

Thank you for the advice about compromising the integrity of the structure of the boat by removing the benches.

It is something I had been concerned about. Also, I checked out that link to that mod you had suggested.

I am hoping that with a floor in place, and maybe even some side braces running at a slight angle from the sidewall to the floor, the boat's walls will be secure. >?

 

[DDudley]

I had a boat that I pulled a bench from. It did lose integrity. However I never put in a floor. If you add a floor and properly secure it front to back, that boat will be solid as a rock again. So far looking good

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

I am hoping you're right. I've seen some other builds where they pulled out the benches and it seemed to be okay with the right mods in place.

 

[DDudley]

So far I have painted both the inside and outside of the boat. I did so with a thick coat of Duralux marine enamel. It looks one-thousand times better. Although the boat had no leaks prior to paint, I am hoping that a couple of thick coats of Duralux on both sides of the boat will give it an extra layer of protection. It sure seems like it now has a nice "seal".

 

[DDudley]

Does anyone have any suggestions/ideas for how they would put a floor in? I have been reading through several threads where modifications were done with boats similar to mine.

The 2"x2"s laying inside the boat are just there to help me gauge things while I plan.

I am wondering if I should run support beams to frame the floor vertically from bow to stern or horizontally from starboard to port-side?

From where the bench that has be cut in-half is located, the rise from there to the bow becomes more extreme. This section is proving to be more challenging when trying to determine how to add support beams for the floor.

I would like to keep the floor as low as possible, but I would also like to have enough floor to stand on as well.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DDudley]

A few more pictures from earlier work.

 

[DDudley]

It has been a while since I posted pictures. We've been able to make some progress since the last time I posted.

 

[DDudley]

There was much debate about how the floor was going to be laid in the boat. We weren't sure if we were going to lay plywood on top of a frame, whether the frame would run along the ribs of the boat or if we were going to give the frame some feet to level the floor, or if we were going to just lay plywood down without anything underneath.

We decided to use 2x2s to build the frame. We then added posts (feet) to the frame to help level it inside of the boat.

Next, we chose to go with 3/4" plywood. It's heavy, but I think it will hold up much better than 1/2" or thinner. Once cut, we sealed it with Thompson's Water Seal (2 coats).

 

[DDudley]

Once the frame for the flooring was built and the plywood for the floor was cut, I laid the plywood down on the carpet to measure length and width of each piece.

I purchased cheap "outdoor" carpet from Home Depot. It was not the stuff I was originally planning on buying because marine carpet is crazy expensive, and I'm on a fixed budget.

After some bargaining with the flooring manager at Home Depot, I was able to get a 6' x 22' piece of this carpet for $38. It came off a huge roll they had inside of the store they were trying to get rid of.

 

[DDudley]

With the floor in the boat, there wasn't much leg room clearance leftover. So, we decided that seats were going to be necessary. Plus, it's just so much more comfortable to have a sturdy back rest if you're going to be out on the water.

I purchased two of these seats from Bass Pro for $19 a piece. They were on sale online just a couple of weeks ago.

Also, they required some seat posts. The 13" seat posts were too high. Went with 7" seat post up front and then mounted a seat swivel to the rear bench for the other seat. I think the center of gravity is better this route.

 

[DDudley]

In order to address one of my earliest concerns about the boat where there was too much weight in the stern, I decided to move the gas tank forward.

To prevent the gas tank from sliding around on the carpet when the boat was moving, we built a box for it to fit in.

The gas line runs through a hole toward the back, and the access door on top opens toward the inside of the boat. This way, one can easily access the gas tank from outside the boat.

 

[DDudley]

As previously mentioned, we wanted to distribute the weight from the the back of the boat toward the front.

One of the biggest factors of their being too much weight in the back of the boat was having the trolling motor battery back there. With the deck installed in the bow, and an access door cut, we solved this problem. This is where we will keep 1 (maybe 2) batteries.

I did not run the deck all the way to the front because I wanted to have an anchor slot. This will allow easy access to the anchor.

Playing around with a door and trying to untangle an anchor in a dark cramped space on a swift moving river like the Potomac did not sound like much fun. I hope this set-up eliminates that issue.

 

[DDudley]

This was my solution to the question about where to put the witch panel that will control the navigation lights, fish finder, bilge pump, and courtesy lights inside of the boat.

 

[DDudley]

So here is where we are at with the build right now.

Of course there are some things I may hove done differently. But, I'm not unhappy with how things have turned out so far.

This little project has been a good teacher so far. If I ever decide to mod a boat again, I will certainly use this experience to guide me through that build.

More to come...