New Guy, Hi All, boat info

[andrew cox]

Hi Guys,
I have been building my ideal fishing/pleasure boat for a while, The style of fishing I like is basically bottom bouncing in the Estauries for bream and flatty and when not doing this draggng the ski bickys around with the kids on them. I found as in literally found a little bare abandoned 14 foot ski/fish hull in a ditch, its a fair age and was rotted out inside and hadnt been in the water for 20 years at least, its a GRP hull which is actually quiet sound , all the ply floors and seatframes etc were long gone and she had some fractures in the top deck, it was forward control,
Its a very unusual hull in that imagine just the transon where the outboard sits maybe 15 inches in lenght is recessed into the hull about 15 inches so she has the ends either side of the leg of the engine, the transom was rotted away so I have laminated a new transom and glassed the thing in , its real strong.
I have reconfigured the cockpit so the helm is now mounted at the rear and offset to the starboard side, I will make a nice rear lounge for it, I am working on the idea of have a rear facing front lounge to take two people, will have it so the back rest folds down allowing access under the front deck for storage, I guessed I would fit basically in the middle of the cockpit either side a 25 litre fuel tank and a folding seat on top of these, giving capacity of 6 all up not that it would ever carry 6 but it might, then we just glass in a new floor and fit some storage boxes in the top of the deck either side of the motor in the cavitys on the stern side of the transom, is about a 15 inch long gap to fill, these were packed full of foam.
We will have to add some rod holders, a canopy and anything else that looks purposeful.
For power and this was a real scratch coz the engine bay is narrow, the only engine really suitable would have been old OMCs, inline Merc, Chrysler, waited and waited and now I have turned up a 1969 Evinrude Triumph 55 hp, 3 cyl loopy, never been in salt and really clean looking, only problem is its a long shaft 20 inch leg and my transom is a 15 inch short, I reckon I can get some heavy alloy plate and totally cover the engine part of the transom add 5 inches pack the inside out on top of the new transom and run the alloy back down into the outboard well with some stainless bolts thrown in for good measure, is this going to do the job? guesstimate the hull speed will be close to 40 nots as shes got a real shallow V, should fit a hyra foil to the leg, it doesnt have trim tilt, best I can expect for the age of the engine is tilt only which is better then nothing. Anybody else running one of these motors with the elec shift? what are they like?
What do you think of my plan reckon she will fit the bill for some bottom bouncing and general hooning?

[disorderly]

I'd love to see some photo's.

Scott

BTW welcome to ausfish

[andrew cox]

Thanks Scott, I will post some after shes painted, its only undercoat white now and not real pretty to look at

[wags on the water]

Welcome to the site Andrew.It sounds like you have taken on quite a large project.

[andrew cox]

Its not a hard job, i have built a few boats over the years from scratch so tackling some wood floors and a new transom is no big deal, I figured it was easy to start with an old seasoned hull and fit it out to my specs, it should be a fairly reasonable machine when done, hopefully not cost a big pile of money, let me loose in a Bias warehouse and watch me go!

[Poodroo]

Welcome to Ausfish Andrew. It doesn't matter if the boat doesn't look much at the moment. There are quite a few of us who would appreciate some photos of the varying stages of progression. You can snap some before and after shots so that we can see the transformation on here. Good luck with it.

Regards,

Poodroo