I haven't had the pleasure of a deep V, but give me the opportunity and I guarantee I will fall out. One of the few talents I can freely brag about.
My old bomber style after I put the 40hp on it. Geez...I notice my garage was much less cluttered back then.
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Spend a lot of time in a boat. Not boating, fishing; now and then catching. A boat is a tool, that and a truck to pull it and a yeti full of silver bullets. It's an addiction.
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I live in the NE. My boat spends the winter in Florida. I fly down to check on her every few weeks. Makes the winter tolerable.The North Central Natural Gulf Coast of Florida is a fisherman's dream come true - fresh water, in the shallow islands brackish water and offshore. Probably over 1/3rd of the population here are older people who retired here from the N.E. (Ohio, Penn, etc) for the fishing. Many people travel from Europe - mostly Germany - to come here too. This is considered the birthing grounds for the massive Gulf of Mexico with hundreds of square miles of sea grass beds, shallow water estuaries and hundreds of mangrove "islands" - all ideal birth nurseries. But it also is a low population area so by no means is over fished. Overall this is a natural paradise of incredibly divert wildlife.
My first was a Larson All American, with a little Mercruiser Chevy II motor and an Alpha stern drive.
It'd run just as fast as new boats - and maybe a tad faster as 2 stroke motors weigh less. I'd guess if the motor was in good shape it'd hit 30 mph with one person - and that's pretty fast on the water.
Trivia tidbit: The horsepower rating on old motors was done differently than now. In the past, it was horsepower at the motor driveshaft. For newer motors it is horsepower at the propeller. So an OLD 40 hp 2 stroke equals a modern 30 hp. The lost power thru down to the lower and then 90 degree turn to the prop costs from 20% to 25% horsepower. However, torque lose isn't quite as large.
The old Merc on the back of that boat would make more torque than the 1985 Evinrude on this boat, though that Merc looks more like it is a 1970s model. Back then, Merc was the hot motor to have and the killer motor was the 90 hp - growing to 125 hp Mercury "Tower of Power" - an inline straight 6 cylinder. Mercury motors in the 60s and into the 70s had beautiful motor covers with a lot of chrome and design to it.
Spend a lot of time in a boat. Not boating, fishing; now and then catching. A boat is a tool, that and a truck to pull it and a yeti full of silver bullets. It's an addiction.
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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.
That's how my Rinker bowrider was powered. Marine version of that GM 4 cylinder and an Alpha I drive. Mine was 120hp but some later ones were a little more. Not a super fast boat. Topped out around 32 mph if I recall right. Could pull 2 skiers or a tube and not use a lot of gas doing it though.
This was my first, picture taken around 76-77.
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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.
Old boats such as that and what I am working on are slowing gaining collector's value. So are old running 2 stroke motors. A hull is a hull for runabouts and there is a beauty in their simplicity.
A few years ago I looked those over at a fishing and boating show. Very cool and the stabilizers are a nice idea.
But after a couple of hours in it my back needs a rest but I am going on 62.
I took it for a test ride in one of my ponds going as fast as I could with the pedals. Did a sharp turn and nearly flipped it without the stabilizers.
If to do this boat redo again, I wouldn't. Everything about the hull is a disaster - the hull is all there is.
The wood floor and framework is all encapsulated in fiberglass and is rotted of course. While there is an acceptable easy way to patch over it, to do this boat perfect;u would require splitting the top from the bottom - and then carefully removing all that wood and fiberglass in the sole/floor and support framing. Using modern materials rather than wood would save about 50 lbs - at least a 25% reduction in weight. Patching it will probably add 30 pounds. But maybe 1 in 10 people who split a fiberglass on a boat restoration every finish it.
Removing all the many layers of paint chemically is messy and only partially works since a very mild paint remover has to be used on fiberglass. While just sanding probably wouldn't take more time, I'll save as much of my patience for sanding after removing most of the paint chemically when sanding well for paint prep matters.
The other challenge is many people have worked on this boat - and not competently. It is a mix of rivets (easy to remove) and small nuts and screws - not stainless steel - and most are impossible to get to on the back side. I may have to leave in the old snap bases. They're all good, but that will really be a challenge for painting in an appearance important area. I'll just have to work with what I got.
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?
We have a pontoon 23’ with 90 hp Honda.
Unfortunately we have a short summer. The boat doesn’t do well on ice.
I wish I had bought my latest boat last spring so I could have had all summer to enjoy it.
To add insult to injury, one attraction of this boat was its little 9.9 kicker motor. There is a local power plant cooling lake that has historically been regarded as one of the best fisheries in the state. With the power plant running it was also fishable year round. I used to fish there a lot, but not for the past 9 years because that lake has a horsepower limit and my Tracker was over that limit. So when I got my latest boat I thought, "Great! I'll be able to fish there this winter again."
Well, they closed the power plant a few weeks ago.
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