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14 foot fiberglass boat rebuild

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jlt:
   I have a 15 ft fiberglass boat given to me
 I just had to repair crack in transom and repainted it with epoxy paint.
overall about 1 days work.
   
     I have made a couple of aluminum boats. 1 has a 350 chev engine  And a
   Berkley jet

    #2  is a 13 ft with a jet ski motor and pump.
 
  Haven't figured out how to post pictures here.   JLT

Rover:
Tom, sometimes a good heavy fiberglass boat is good thing :)

Wolvenar:
I haven't done any fishing in yet, maybe today if I am lucky.
But my daughter and I were able to play around with the boat on the water a bit.

With a tiny 9.8hp  ( yeah the hood is not the correct one) this little boat tops out with us two in it at about 20-21 mph
Not to bad for such a little setup.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwHb8KVG_sU
No leaks but that doesn't mean it wont take on water in other ways  :-\
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAiAkVlKE0g
Some great sites up here in the middle of no where in the summer

ghurd:
20 MPH on the water is fast in something like that!

Something frightening?
Try a 12' (11'-10") 68 pound Jon boat, with a reworked 9.9HP (15HP) Evinrude.
Empty the boat of EVERYTHING (even the orange puffy jackets), put the gas tank up front, get it up to full speed...
The rooster tail is amazing, looks like a 40HP on a canoe...
Then... move the tiller 5 degrees...
I didn't know a jon boat could plane with the hull going sideways... let alone for that length of time or distance.

It is the stupidest thing, no wait, it's in the top 5, no wait, its in the top 50 of the stupidest things I ever did.

When you are young and think you are invincible is NOT an excuse.
At the time, as soon as the motor kept on track with the boat at almost 90 degrees to the direction of travel, I said to myself "Dude!  You really screwed up this time!"   :o

Your boat looks a lot safer!
G-

Wolvenar:
Well a season of fishing complete, and other than some gotchas with trolling motor connections, this boat was great fun and a dream to get out and in lakes with. I could get into almost any hole with enough water to attract ducks.

I even got absolutely nuts and dropped my 30HP Johnson on it. Thankfully I was able to avoid all the DNR..
The 9.9 hp as nice as it was, had a bad tendency to flood and leave me with a sore warm from the rope starter to get going again.
The 30hp has electric start and nearly always was an instant starter.
After some jokes about it from a friend, I decided to shut him up, and put the motor on as a joke, well it didn't stay a joke.
Well I never expected to actually take it on a lake that way, until one day I wanted to go fishing, I was short on time if I wanted to get any fish, and I did NOT feel like lifting that heavy thing off and dealing with it.
 
So off to the lake.
I took it very easy on the poor little boat, for a while.. Little by little ramping up the speed until it seemed like it was beginning to be unsafe, and unnecessary, and I was giving it a LOT of safety margin. Any real speed could ONLY be accomplished with a passenger in the front o the boat as well.

Then one fateful day, I decided to see just how much I could get outta that little boat before it seemed like it was actually beginning to stress.
Turns out, stressing the boat is not the problem, CONTROLLING the boat is. Once I would get much past 30mph it becomes obvious there is NO chance of turning,  though it still handled that power fine up to about 50.
I figured this was pretty much full out of the motor anyhow, not for a lack of power, but the prop is probably just not aggressive enough.

With my curiosity finally appeased, I went about using the boat /motor combo the rest of the season wisely with zero troubles, and easy push button starts.

The near 50 year old boat was certainly built well back in the 1960's and all it's repairs are holding up splendidly

Along  with the beverages brought on each trip having been cooled in a fridge running on my solar system, the batteries that ran the starting and trolling motor where, with few exceptions, charged from that solar power as well. 
Since most of my time on the lake is powered by the batteries and trolling motor, this project at least some links to alternative energies, however distant and is great fun.

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