pantaloonz
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2014
- Messages
- 237
Good day all, not sure if this boat is too small to for this forum, if so, mods feel free to delete.
Last weekend I picked up 2 high qualtiy fishing poles, a nice achnor, and 4 life preservers, oh yeah it came with this:
Small fishing craft, no idea the manufacturer, 12' from tip of bow to stern. Though even that's pushing it by an inch, or so. Here you can see the transom plate is shot, comes off in my fingers. One of the rivets in the transom is gone. Drain "flute" is a custom job so I have no real plug. She is beastly heavy. Rightly so it was built as a sturdy row boat. Here's the catch:
I want to lighten her up, and turn it into a more portable small fishing craft able to handle ONLY a small trolling motor, nothing more, sometimes less (just paddle it around) - The seats are all foamed up underneath and the corners are reinforced. Most of seats are loose; one pretty significantly. There is a reinforced rail along the whole thing.
First off I plan to cut the stern by almost a foot indicated by the red line, (the transom needs to be replaced anyway) after that I want to trim the sides down. I plan to start by taking roughly the amount shown in the 2nd picture below; around the entire cirucumference of the boat. a bit less on the sides.

I'll keep the rope pull. This will remove the reinforced rail, as well as the welded corner plates, which should bring the weight down considerably, and yes will weaken the overall rigidity.
The seats are coming out, I think the foam is water logged, feels overly heavy.
1. Am I being too aggressive with the material reduction?
2. I'd like the new transom to be quality ply. Am I'm going to have problem making a solid rigid connection : wood -> metal.? Is there a better option I"m not considering?
3. I'm sure I'll make more holes in the hull as things progress, on purpose and by mistake. Several threads comment oin a popular wood filler, is there a compound of choice for aluminum hole repair?
Thanks again,.. and here I go again..
-Pantz
Last weekend I picked up 2 high qualtiy fishing poles, a nice achnor, and 4 life preservers, oh yeah it came with this:

I want to lighten her up, and turn it into a more portable small fishing craft able to handle ONLY a small trolling motor, nothing more, sometimes less (just paddle it around) - The seats are all foamed up underneath and the corners are reinforced. Most of seats are loose; one pretty significantly. There is a reinforced rail along the whole thing.
First off I plan to cut the stern by almost a foot indicated by the red line, (the transom needs to be replaced anyway) after that I want to trim the sides down. I plan to start by taking roughly the amount shown in the 2nd picture below; around the entire cirucumference of the boat. a bit less on the sides.


I'll keep the rope pull. This will remove the reinforced rail, as well as the welded corner plates, which should bring the weight down considerably, and yes will weaken the overall rigidity.
The seats are coming out, I think the foam is water logged, feels overly heavy.
1. Am I being too aggressive with the material reduction?
2. I'd like the new transom to be quality ply. Am I'm going to have problem making a solid rigid connection : wood -> metal.? Is there a better option I"m not considering?
3. I'm sure I'll make more holes in the hull as things progress, on purpose and by mistake. Several threads comment oin a popular wood filler, is there a compound of choice for aluminum hole repair?
Thanks again,.. and here I go again..
-Pantz