Duranautic 14’ v-hull project

[basser01]

So after much research and weighing of all my boat requirements, I settled on getting a Duranautic DNB14RDS utility v-hull. Its a 14’ aluminum V-hull with dual split rear bench seats. It is a 2013 that i bought new from a marina this year (2018). It has never seen the water as it was their boat show demo model. I live on the south shore of Oneida Lakr in NY and plan to use it mainly around my section of the lake to drift and troll for walleye, smallmouth and perch. I would like the option to fish in some of the bays and weedbeds for largemouth also. I want to add a bow deck, lower floor, bowmount trolling motor, sonar/gps, and rod holders. I will post progress pics as I go.

 

[basser01]

This is the boat as i got it from the marina. I got the trailer seperately.

 

[Big Gee]

Sounds like a great project.

I'm looking forward to your updates.

 

[basser01]

So I have a back log of progress to upload from the past two seasons with this boat. First off was powering the boat. I came across an 8hp mercury 4stroke outboard that I tried. It did move the boat, but with only me and some fishing gear, I had a blistering top speed of about 8 - 10 mph. That was no good, especially since I planned to deck the bow, add a bow-mount trolling motor, etc. So I found a 2002 Mercury 15hp 4 stroke outboard. This moved the boat along at a respectable 18 - 20mph with me, a fishing partner, decking, battery etc. but was slow to plane. With only me in the boat the performance was adequate. I did not try changing prop pitch on either motor to maximize performance. Ultimately, I upgraded that to a 2020 Yamaha 25hp 4 stroke. That is being installed today and I will jreport top speed, performance , etc.

 

[basser01]

Their is a factory option to have a floor installed into this boat. I had the marina do this as I wanted to see how the factory floor was supposed to go in. In this boat, there is a 2" lip along the front of the rear most split seat, the rear and front of the first middle bench seat that the floor boards rest on and there are gate latches that hold the floor boards down. You can see these D shaped latches in the photo. The front floor board rests on a J shaped bracket that was riveted to the rear of the front/middle bench seat. The whole thing is fairly ingenious as it provides a flat floor with very little weight added to the boat and it can all be removed in about 2 minutes by pulling the latches. If I ever need to replace the floor due to age, each floor board is an exact rectangle measuring 2'x4'. The square panels in between the two split bench seats are screwed down to the flat split section of bench. You can also see the 15hp merc and the clamp on seats I had at the time.

 

[basser01]

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