Help identify what my boat is.

[Joolz]

Hi all, new member here and new to boating. Just brought home this beauty last night - for a price so unbelievably low I dare not divulge it as you'll all think I'm pulling your leg. Could use a slap of paint, a few tweaking and some customization. But fibregrass haul seems solid. Motor is a 20HP Johnson from 1975. Steering wheel and cables all seem fit.

With two small children, wife and I thought it would be neat to get a small motor boat to share our lake time between swimming and some boating. This is a nice little15 footer that ought to be easy to handle for a very green beginner such as myself.

However I'd like to get some input as what exactly this is. It looks like a speed boat but far from it. Was used mostly by a couple of elderly gentlemen for fishing, so I suppose it is a fishing vessel? But I'm mostly interested in knowing its classification, so I'll know what to refer to it in future conversations. As seen in the pics it has a V shaped haul. I'll be chatting with you folks very shortly about some mods. Today I purchased a couple of boat chairs for it as I plan to move the bench far to the rear (for the kids to sit on) and install the chairs for the driver and front passenger. This will be the first mod, plenty more to come and I hope you can help with my future queries. Thanks for looking

 

[MTboatguy]

Wasn't somebody just talking about building one of these a couple of weeks ago?

Now to answer your question, might be hard, it looks like a home made boat.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Home made kit boat. What does the title and paperwork say

 

[Ned L]

I agree, looks to be sheet plywood construction that has been fiberglassed (absolutely nothing wrong with that, it is a fine construction method). I'd say that for a first time boat on a smaller lake you couldn't do much better.
Simple little boat that is low maintenance that will be a lot of fun.

As for what "type" of boat it is,.... It doesn't really fall easily into much of a category. I suppose it is set up with remote steering and for family use you could call it a runabout.

 

[Joolz]

Ok, so I'm the proud owner of a custom-built fiberglass runabout boat. Great, that helps tell my friends what this contraption is. And I have to concur, it's small and lightweight and well, old. So even if I was to accidentally bang it around a bit, there shouldn't be much harm done. It may not be a looker but as a first boat it is plenty for us. Kids sure seem to like it, which is the main thing.

As for paperwork: there isn't any other than a simple bill of sale. That's the great thing about Canada, no need for a title and all the headache associated with it. Boat doesn't have a serial number (or if it did, it may have been painted over). My understanding is that for a boat this size I don't need to register it or whatever it is that larger boats may need. As far as I know all I need is to get a watercraft operator's license and I'm good to go. If someone familiar with Canadian laws can comment/correct me on this, please do so. I'm in Alberta. Thanks for the input.

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

Maybe one of the Glen-L designed boats.

 

[MTboatguy]

You might take a look through this thread that was posted a while back on building mini race boats, there is some information about Glen-L and other boats that look similar to what you have there.

http://forums.iboats.com/forum/gene...topics/9955803-i-wanna-build-a-mini-race-boat

 

[Alumarine]

If you have 10hp or more you have to register it.
It's easy and free.
https://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/marinesafety/debs-obs-paperwork-paperwork_boat_licence-3212.htm

 

[Joolz]

Marc, thanks for the link. I had no idea of the 10HP limit but glad you mentioned it. May just have saved me $250. I also need to obtain the boating operator's license which seems to be really easy and can be done in a day. So that's yet another thing to do before I hit the lake, which I'm hoping will be out for a test drive in two weeks.