Are any of you boaters?

joko104 said:

We live up an estuary/canal leading to the Gulf of Mexico, with rivers everywhere around here. I have a lot of boats and have had a lot more. I've probably given away at least 10 - all running - for free to get rid of them over the last few years - ranging from 4 personal watercraft (jet bike/boats), two 40+ foot twin diesel cabin cruisers (one a fishing style hull), a 32 foot twin 454 big block Sea Ray speedster, a 32 foot twin 6 cylinder inboards cruiser, a 9 foot little boat with a 5 hp outboard on a trailer with center steering station, and a picklefork trimaran drag boat hull (that I can think of off the top of my head.) All but the 2 big cruisers included the trailer.

I still have a 52 twin turbo cat 1980s diesel Cigarette, my Bass Tracker and am restoring a 1960s 12 foot "Ski Bird" 2 seat little race boat (turning out to be it far worse condition so it is a total strip down to the bare hull, removing half a century of multiple different color paint, and repairing all the hull and floor damage. If any of you are into boating I'll put up pics thru the restoration. I had forgotten I had bought it along the road for a few hundred dollars on the trailer with an old Evinrude and then just parked it in the weeds (becoming invisibly overgrown.) I like how it looks and thought it would be an easy quick clean up - not a total strip down to a completely empty bare hull with virtually nothing reusable.

Surprisingly, the motor runs perfect - though looks like hell. Most people would have considered this a scrape/junk hull. But it is quite unique and rare. When done, it will weigh a total of under 500 pounds running a 2 cylinder 2 stroke 60 hp outboard, which will give it a terrifying top speed of around 60 mph. In a 40 footer on smooth water that isn't that extreme. In a 12 foot 500 pound boat with you inches off the water it is. I figure it a 2 month project - if lucky.

My best boat has been the cheapest. My 17 foot bass tracker. I stripped it totally about 4 years ago. Put in an aluminum floor, a new 30 hp outboard, rewired it all, new seats and buffed out the hull to a mirror finish (that lasted about 3 months). That boat always gets me home - and I've been trapped with a boat full of people many miles offshore out in the Gulf in water so rough there were no other boats out - even the big 30+ footers had headed in. But we were on an island way, way out there and didn't notice the wind really kicking up.

Quite an exciting challenge struggling against the wind and tide with 4 foot white caps coming in at a 45 degree angle - in a boat that has less than 2 feet freeboard in the front - and less than a foot in the rear. No problem. I actually enjoyed the challenge, but I was driving and the others seemed a mix between being miserable and terrified. LOL

Probably going to add a 4th boat for personal boats. Probably have a couple more boats laying around somewhere.

So... are any of you boaters?

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joko104 said:

We live up an estuary/canal leading to the Gulf of Mexico, with rivers everywhere around here. I have a lot of boats and have had a lot more. I've probably given away at least 10 - all running - for free to get rid of them over the last few years - ranging from 4 personal watercraft (jet bike/boats), two 40+ foot twin diesel cabin cruisers (one a fishing style hull), a 32 foot twin 454 big block Sea Ray speedster, a 32 foot twin 6 cylinder inboards cruiser, a 9 foot little boat with a 5 hp outboard on a trailer with center steering station, and a picklefork trimaran drag boat hull (that I can think of off the top of my head.) All but the 2 big cruisers included the trailer.

I still have a 52 twin turbo cat 1980s diesel Cigarette, my Bass Tracker and am restoring a 1960s 12 foot "Ski Bird" 2 seat little race boat (turning out to be it far worse condition so it is a total strip down to the bare hull, removing half a century of multiple different color paint, and repairing all the hull and floor damage. If any of you are into boating I'll put up pics thru the restoration. I had forgotten I had bought it along the road for a few hundred dollars on the trailer with an old Evinrude and then just parked it in the weeds (becoming invisibly overgrown.) I like how it looks and thought it would be an easy quick clean up - not a total strip down to a completely empty bare hull with virtually nothing reusable.

Surprisingly, the motor runs perfect - though looks like hell. Most people would have considered this a scrape/junk hull. But it is quite unique and rare. When done, it will weigh a total of under 500 pounds running a 2 cylinder 2 stroke 60 hp outboard, which will give it a terrifying top speed of around 60 mph. In a 40 footer on smooth water that isn't that extreme. In a 12 foot 500 pound boat with you inches off the water it is. I figure it a 2 month project - if lucky.

My best boat has been the cheapest. My 17 foot bass tracker. I stripped it totally about 4 years ago. Put in an aluminum floor, a new 30 hp outboard, rewired it all, new seats and buffed out the hull to a mirror finish (that lasted about 3 months). That boat always gets me home - and I've been trapped with a boat full of people many miles offshore out in the Gulf in water so rough there were no other boats out - even the big 30+ footers had headed in. But we were on an island way, way out there and didn't notice the wind really kicking up.

Quite an exciting challenge struggling against the wind and tide with 4 foot white caps coming in at a 45 degree angle - in a boat that has less than 2 feet freeboard in the front - and less than a foot in the rear. No problem. I actually enjoyed the challenge, but I was driving and the others seemed a mix between being miserable and terrified. LOL

Probably going to add a 4th boat for personal boats. Probably have a couple more boats laying around somewhere.

So... are any of you boaters?

Click to expand...

RetiredUSN said:

I build boats when I get a break from my business and Dump's.

View attachment 67268094

This one is a 14" crabbing skiff designed to be bashed into oyster beds and other rough stuff. As you can see by the bottom exposed chimes. The transom hasn't been cut yet to fit the outboard because I didn't know if the guy would be running a long or short shaft motor.

My next one will be a 18' version with a much wider transom.

Click to expand...

RF667799 said:

When I was a kid we had a johnboat with a 6hp outboard and a canoe. We used those at a cabin we had on the Mississippi River. When I was 18 I got my own boat, a 16' Larson ski boat with a 60hp Evinrude. Couple years after that I acquired a 14' johnboat I hauled around in the back of a truck to fish farm ponds. No outboard, just an electric trolling motor.

My last year in the Army I bought another 14' johnboat, this time with a 25hp Johnson outboard, later repowered with a 25hp Nissan when the Johnson blew up. A few years after I got out of the Army I wanted my kids to experience the joy of waterskiing (and myself to have an entertaining venue to drink Tequila on the weekends) so we got a 18' Rinker I/O. I gave both those to my son eventually (minus the Nissan which I kept for my next boat) and he still has the johnboat. The boat I put the Nissan on was an 18' johnboat. I used that rig very little over the next several years because I got into trapshooting which took up all my time. Right about the time I quit trapshooting I bought an older Bomber style bass boat at an estate sale. It had a 85hp Mercury that I promptly (like the next day) blew up. I repowered it with a 40hp Merc. Still that is one boat I've often wished I kept. It was a very practical layout for the type of fishing I do. Nevertheless, I got back into motorcycles and sold both the bass boat and the johnboat to pursue that hobby.

When I had enough of motorcycles for awhile, I wanted to get back into fishing so I traded one of my bikes (a Kawasaki VN2000) for a Tracker Pro 185 with a 50hp Mercury. I guess that was about 2010 or so and it was a damn fine boat until I finally sold it just a month ago. I suspect the new owner with get lots of years enjoyment from it as well. It was just getting a little cramped for me. Also the safety factor as I get older. I swim well, but probably not in cold water. A couple of the lakes I fish are renowned for their rough water at times. The Tracker's Revolution hull handled round water well but could be a wet ride. That style of boat has little freeboard. They seem easy to fall out. Do you know how many guys drown because they were peeing over the side and fell out? I bet a bunch of them. I replaced that Tracker with a Sylvan 1900 Adventurer with a 125hp Mercury and a 9.9 Yamaha kicker. Deep V boat with a walk through windshield and a weather top. Very spacious, lots of freeboard, a toe-kick for peeing over the side and fits my fishing to a tee.

Well I'm sure that was boring enough for most but I can't help it. Boats are one of my great loves.

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OldFatGuy said:

We own a Hudson Skiff, built sometime about 1880. The design originating sometime around 1740-60. It is 22 feet long, 12 feet wide mid hull, with an enclosed cabin. It is single masted with an 18' mast, double sailed. Nothing like what we think of when we hear skiff. I bought it for $700 in 1974, spent about $26k restoring it. One in similar condition, another restoration, sold at auction 6 years ago for $4,200. It does not have a motor, but it does have two emergency battery powered radios. As restored, it can sleep 8, below and above the deck. It is surprisingly stable on the intense currents of the Hudson River for a shallow body boat, easily weathering summer storms. I've sailed it countless times up and down the Hudson with the family for touring and fishing trips.

It's original use was for harvesting river sturgeon, other river fish and hauling freight up and down the Hudson. The design later became known as a keel boat, still seen plying rivers like the Missouri and the Mississippi. Today the hull is painted dark blue below the waterline, an emerald tinted white above. The deck and mast with natural oiled finishes. Lots of patina brass appointments, we are too lazy to polish. My first wife painted two large almond shaped eyes on either side of the bow, still in place.

Every year it is dry-docked at our place in Rhinebeck on the Hudson during winters. The hull is constructed almost entirely of old growth oak sealed with pitch, the deck white pine, the original mast from a single oak. These days it is used by my 4 kids and their families for the same tours and fishing trips we took when they were young, and I was much younger. I haven't been on board for about 5 years. Tho we usually fly the American flag, we've been known to fly the Jolly Roger. There is an old working signal canon mounted on the cabin roof. Scares the local denizens when fired as we approach small river harbors and marinas, to be greeted by the local barking dogs.

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OldFatGuy said:

We own a Hudson Skiff, built sometime about 1880. The design originating sometime around 1740-60. It is 22 feet long, 12 feet wide mid hull, with an enclosed cabin. It is single masted with an 18' mast, double sailed. Nothing like what we think of when we hear skiff. I bought it for $700 in 1974, spent about $26k restoring it. One in similar condition, another restoration, sold at auction 6 years ago for $4,200. It does not have a motor, but it does have two emergency battery powered radios. As restored, it can sleep 8, below and above the deck. It is surprisingly stable on the intense currents of the Hudson River for a shallow body boat, easily weathering summer storms. I've sailed it countless times up and down the Hudson with the family for touring and fishing trips.

It's original use was for harvesting river sturgeon, other river fish and hauling freight up and down the Hudson. The design later became known as a keel boat, still seen plying rivers like the Missouri and the Mississippi. Today the hull is painted dark blue below the waterline, an emerald tinted white above. The deck and mast with natural oiled finishes. Lots of patina brass appointments, we are too lazy to polish. My first wife painted two large almond shaped eyes on either side of the bow, still in place.

Every year it is dry-docked at our place in Rhinebeck on the Hudson during winters. The hull is constructed almost entirely of old growth oak sealed with pitch, the deck white pine, the original mast from a single oak. These days it is used by my 4 kids and their families for the same tours and fishing trips we took when they were young, and I was much younger. I haven't been on board for about 5 years. Tho we usually fly the American flag, we've been known to fly the Jolly Roger. There is an old working signal canon mounted on the cabin roof. Scares the local denizens when fired as we approach small river harbors and marinas, to be greeted by the local barking dogs.

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joko104 said:

Bass boats are not well suited for rough water as I stated in the OP. I totally redid an 80s aluminum Bass Tracker to the bare hull, plus replaced the rotted wood floor with aluminum - and added A LOT of foam. We go offshore farther than anyone else in such a boat. As you note, in the rear there is less than 1 foot free board. However, the water is always warm here.

IF you can safely be headed in the right direction and are really good at what you're doing, they can handle up to about a 3 foot chop - but it is very challenging and slow going.

This boat I'm doing pre-dated the law requiring small boats have enough flotation to not sink - meaning it has none. Adding flotation foam is one major design aspect of this 12 footer, plus triple bilge pumps, in the event it is wave swapped. That makes a boat so heavy that the motor would bog down so much it couldn't develop any rpms. So I also will prop it way down just-in-case.

While the general rule is get the biggest motor your transom can handle, it is speed that gets boaters in trouble REAL fast, particularly if wind is making any level of wave chop. You need enough power to both hold the boat into the waves and to keep going, but going slow is the only way to safely do it if caught in a wind storm off shore. Worst case is to throw out the anchor hooked to the bow hook and ride it out, but that's truly miserable in a small boat.

We've gone thru dozens of boats of all kinds and sizes. A couple were truly awesome jet drag boats, but totally wrong for anything but smooth lake water so we got rid of those. Past the age for PWCs, so got rid of those. While we have BIG boats, they are almost never used. Small boats are so much easier and more fun all the way around.

A deep V hull sounds like what is best suited for you. The kicker motor is a must have, though a trolling motor and deep cycle battery can get a person home too - just very slowly.

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RF667799 said:

When I was a kid we had a johnboat with a 6hp outboard and a canoe. We used those at a cabin we had on the Mississippi River. When I was 18 I got my own boat, a 16' Larson ski boat with a 60hp Evinrude. Couple years after that I acquired a 14' johnboat I hauled around in the back of a truck to fish farm ponds. No outboard, just an electric trolling motor.

My last year in the Army I bought another 14' johnboat, this time with a 25hp Johnson outboard, later repowered with a 25hp Nissan when the Johnson blew up. A few years after I got out of the Army I wanted my kids to experience the joy of waterskiing (and myself to have an entertaining venue to drink Tequila on the weekends) so we got a 18' Rinker I/O. I gave both those to my son eventually (minus the Nissan which I kept for my next boat) and he still has the johnboat. The boat I put the Nissan on was an 18' johnboat. I used that rig very little over the next several years because I got into trapshooting which took up all my time. Right about the time I quit trapshooting I bought an older Bomber style bass boat at an estate sale. It had a 85hp Mercury that I promptly (like the next day) blew up. I repowered it with a 40hp Merc. Still that is one boat I've often wished I kept. It was a very practical layout for the type of fishing I do. Nevertheless, I got back into motorcycles and sold both the bass boat and the johnboat to pursue that hobby.

When I had enough of motorcycles for awhile, I wanted to get back into fishing so I traded one of my bikes (a Kawasaki VN2000) for a Tracker Pro 185 with a 50hp Mercury. I guess that was about 2010 or so and it was a damn fine boat until I finally sold it just a month ago. I suspect the new owner with get lots of years enjoyment from it as well. It was just getting a little cramped for me. Also the safety factor as I get older. I swim well, but probably not in cold water. A couple of the lakes I fish are renowned for their rough water at times. The Tracker's Revolution hull handled round water well but could be a wet ride. That style of boat has little freeboard. They seem easy to fall out. Do you know how many guys drown because they were peeing over the side and fell out? I bet a bunch of them. I replaced that Tracker with a Sylvan 1900 Adventurer with a 125hp Mercury and a 9.9 Yamaha kicker. Deep V boat with a walk through windshield and a weather top. Very spacious, lots of freeboard, a toe-kick for peeing over the side and fits my fishing to a tee.

Well I'm sure that was boring enough for most but I can't help it. Boats are one of my great loves.

Click to expand...

SMTA said:

And also writing fiction, as we can clearly see here.

Click to expand...

RetiredUSN said:

I build boats when I get a break from my business and Dump's.

View attachment 67268094

This one is a 14" crabbing skiff designed to be bashed into oyster beds and other rough stuff. As you can see by the bottom exposed chimes. The transom hasn't been cut yet to fit the outboard because I didn't know if the guy would be running a long or short shaft motor.

My next one will be a 18' version with a much wider transom.

Click to expand...

EnigmaO01 said:

I have a deep v fishing boat but have been playing around with this Hobie kayak for fishing. I built the stabilizers out of lobster pot floats and PVC that install with pins. The seat I also built as the original seat did that not suit me. Too low for fishing I also added a fish finder and transducer and anchor system. As you can see a paddle is not needed. I took it to Maine on vacation this summer. Had a blast casting for largemouth and smallmouth bass at night. Very stealthy.

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joko104 said:

That's plenty cool! At one time I had every copy of "WOODEN BOATS" ever printed. I know the massive challenge they can be. They are truly beautiful boats and ride particularly well.

A person never recovers what they put into a boat. But working on it makes it YOUR boat, uniquely yours.

We had 2 wood twin diesel Trumpy's, some considered the finest of them all. One was a full cabin cruiser - 45 foot - and the other a one-of-a-kind 42 fishing model (cabin in front, low transom/sides in back. Also has a Huckins (PT boat company) 45 fishing model - wood. Was going to restore them. Decided that was far more than I dared to bite off and ended up giving all 3 away for free. I considered it a bargain (on my part) and they figured they were getting a real deal too! But I think I was the winner because they got the headaches. I was worried of the massive cleanup costs if any of those 3 sunk, dumping diesel and oil into the water. For the one dockside on the St John River the cleanup cost would probably be at least a quarter million dollars. I wanted those boats OUT OF MY NAME!

Finding the time for boating can be a challenge, particularly if the boat isn't left ready-to-go or has to be launched first. I'll use a boat that is left dockside at least 5 times more often than if the same boat is on the trailer.

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Rexedgar said:

Got any stock tips?.........:mrgreen:


Aside; we rode up the Hudson River Valley many years ago, beautiful! Took in a show at the Rhinebeck Aerodrome.....

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RF667799 said:

You would have to work pretty hard to fall out of the deep V.

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