Your boat is getting heavy.

 

You can literally do what ever you imagine.

 

Before you get too crazy with additional weight bare in mind that your hull is on the skinny side for the length. The more weight you add the less shallow the draft. You can always add some pods though.

 

Think that the sides, even though they flex a little bit will be alright just the way they are?

If I don't stiffen the gunnels will it be OK if I put my raised deck on the gunnels? I was thinking about putting C channel pads to hug the gunnels to keep from flexing.

 

I'll see if I can get a piece of aluminum from the scrap yard that's clean enough to make a transom out of. Briggs what size channel or tube did you use to support that bullet proof transom?

 

My transom looked just like yours, holes everwhere. I cladded it with 1/4" and gusseted it on the inside with 2.5x2.5 angle. Neither of these materials would have been my first choice, but they were free from the scrap rack at work, beggars can't be choosers.

 

Worse case I get it tacked up and take it to a welding shop to tig weld it if I can't get it

 

Got a little work done on the deck. All welded up. Aluminum is a totally different animal than steel! Hopefully I'll be messing with it tonight!

 

Had to much weight in the front of my 1872 sea ark. 1st owner wasn't a bowfisher and messed up keel than did shotty job fixing. 2nd owner beefed it up for bowfishing but abused it. Than I abused the shot out of it. Big waves flexing hull front to back with heavy weight front to back. Cracked the keel and almost sunk, bandaid fix with just a weld over Crack. Next year recracked it. Now cut 3" aluminum pipe in half, bent with the shaped it to keel and welded and capped front to back. Definitely stiffened it up.

 

Wow that's crazy! So you're pretty much saying beef it up or beat it up and sell it to someone who will beef it up?

 

I think he's saying if you don't beef it up properly the first time $hit can't get bad in a hurry.

We've established the transom needs work. You would also probably benefit from braces that run the length of the hull.

 

This is what I was getting at when I mentioned that your boat was getting heavy. Heavy at the front, and heavy at the back = busted boat. Brent broke his first Mothership.....an all welded, beefed up SeaArk.....in the same fashion. I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer or a know it all, but I think we all have a little bit of a responsibility to promote safety and common sense. Beef it up if you want, or buy two more pieces of sheet and start over.......Use this one as your classroom, and move on when it's time. Fall in love with a riveted 1860 for the rest of your life? :laugh: Unless you have some unheard of ability to be a satisfied bowfisherman, it just ain't gonna happen. One way or the other, (or the other, or the other) this project should keep you out of the tavern for a while. :tu:
And don't let Gary fool ya.....He's got a lot of years under hood. Making 3/16" stick to an old painted pop can with a mig welder is no easy task.

 

That's correct it's not easy, it is possible for experienced welders. I sometimes take my experience for granted, I struck my first arc in 1991. Welding dissimilar materials is not for a newbie, especially aluminum.

 

Had to dig deep to find the pictures but this is the original mothership and the result of too much weight front too back, fishing in some rough water plus a shotty bandaid fix. We were shooting stingrays and had several hundred lbs. Windy day had to cross a large River mouth to get out of the wind. On our way back across hit some decent waves at pretty good speed. Before I knew what was going on the back of the boat sitting low in the water, looked like I had motor trimmed completely up causing even more water in the back. Open a hatch and saw water filling up, bailed water and made it to the closest shore. Bailed water and had boat sitting good, so tried heading back to launch, and within 200 yards had to beach the boat. By the time I beached the boat the second time we had to turn the transom out of the waves as the waves were coming over the transom. Another minute or so out there the boat would have been sitting at the bottom. Had to hitch hike back to launch than pull the boat out on a private beach. Thank God it was summer, warm weather, and had friends with me and made the right call as it's not uncommon for me to be out by myself in the middle of the night and do my fare share of winter fishing. hard to see but 18" Crack right down keel with one spot that was actually missing a chunk of metal. It was dead center middle from front to back of the boat. You can see where original owner tried add a piece of metal and securing it in the same spot.
Here you can see my new permanent fix. The aluminum tubing cut in half and welded the whole length of the keel has done an amazing job of stiffening up the hull and stopping the boat from flexing. Also can see the plate we added on the winch hook as the hull was starting to have issues there as well. From being in that situation myself and the other guys just want you to do right so you don't get yourself in trouble

 

Yeah you guys are totally right. This thing has been used and abused and I keep thinking I can make it into a carp commander rig with walk arounds and pretty much rebuild the whole boat. I haven't cut anything up too bad so Im just dreaming right now.

The other issue im having is money. I obviously can't drop 7-10 grand on a new or used rig for probably a good 5 years. I just want this to last that long and also be able to sell it when I'm done for a profit or break even.

I figured with a small 25hp motor that will save hundreds of lbs in the rear. So Briggs I guess I don't know what your suggesting. Should I beef up the transom? Should I try to correct the twist/flex in the hull? Should I do a little bit of both but keep it simple and light? I'll have to look up the mothership breakage on here to see exactly what went wrong. I appreciate all your incite! I will be looking back at the comments to see if you already answered some of my questions. Thanks!

 

Thanks Delaware for the pics! It kinda looked like he used steel rivets in there! I can't believe that's 3" tube cut down it looks small like 1.5". How did you end up bending that stuff to fit the contour?

 

And I was at the welding supply store and I was chatting with another customer and he just so happens to have an econotig for $500. So that's an option as well to make sure all the welds are up to par!

 

I would add the longitudinal stiffners Delaware suggested and reinforce the transom. How much additional weight are we talking here, it's aluminum after all, another 60-80 lbs? That's what a battery weighs.