Recent content by Matthew R. Snyder

Greg -- to follow up on the e-mail you sent me (thanks!) ... On the alaskans, prop selection makes all the difference. With the right prop (usually a cleaver or something with a heavy cup) I can put the boat up on pad even when it's jacked all the way up. With the wrong prop, she cavitates like...

Hi, Jessie's 10 and still goes hard in the paint. I'd like to develop the second string while she's still got game enough to help. Looking for a golden litter out of name-brand field trial lines within a 8-hour or so drive of Syracuse, so I can drive to meet mom and breeder before making a...

Hiya John ... thanks for the call Friday! I didn't have much to report when we talked, and still don't ... increasing numbers of hunters chipping away at dwindling ducks at least until we get some new weather around here. Glad you got out and blooded the new blind. It's a slick looking...

Mike the correct answer is, "you should get a smoker ALSO." As for on the grill, having done it a bunch of different ways ... rotiserrie works good but it's a PITA and takes a lot of babysitting while you cook. Tastes real nice but the easiest/most consistent results I get are from a method...

John, we've had good luck with Yamahas on our Lunds. Fair warning, my buddy had a Yam 60 4-stroke on his 18 Alaskan and it was underpowered when loaded for hunting, but on a 16 it should be OK with the right prop. You might also give the new Yamaha F70 a look. Offer stands to come take a...

Yeah ... some of the numbers on the students' drawing got transposed a little. (damn i wish i knew how to draw in CAD!) so the stern-on view numbers are all wrong in the drawing. I think I am going to have to go a little wider than I had first planned (to as much as 90" max beam, 84" transom...

Thanks ... I'll keep the site posted through further development of the prototype plans, spec and bid, and the build. I have learned a great deal about lots of kinds of boats over the years but this learning curve is even steeper and more interesting.

Joe -- Frontier is laid out just like a 20' Lund Alaskan. I wouldn't be surprised if Brunswick helped with the "sharing." I thought about buying one, or a 20 Lund with which I am very familiar -- my dad and my cousin both have them. I like them but for the money, it doesn't give me that much...

As regular readers know, I really like Lund Alaskans for what they do well: Big payload-to-weight ratio; ability to carry a large amount of people and gear across big waves and into shallow places. I have been thinking for a few years that I'd like a boat that's a little bigger than my 18, and I...

John: Mine is one of four Alaskans (18s and 20s) in the local family-and-friends fleet, which we use all over the finger lakes, Ontario, Block Island Sound, Chesapeake, and so on. Mine is an 18 Alaskan that's 14 years old and I still really, really like it. A properly engineered...

www.championtrailers.com is a real good source of knowledge, both online and over the phone. Whenever I've had to buy an axle (or anything else) I have had good luck with them. Good prices too. I tow a boat with a nominal, dry, hull + motor weight of about 1200 lb.. I run a 3500 lb. rated...

Thanks, Rich. Some good resources in there! --M

That might be where this path eventually leads, and I'm trying to start with the Alaskan as my basis of comparison b/c it's a pretty unique hull that I am very familiar with. There are some boats that look very much like an Alaskan that handle nothing like it (like most of the big Starcrafts...

Ahhhhh .... ha! I hadn't thought of that (been trying to figure out how to do the same thing with a bob and a measuring tape and a flat piece of ground) but your way makes a hell of a lot of sense. Any reason I can't measure over the strakes? They're the same height throughout (e.g. a level...

That's Oneida Lake ... which drives a LOT about how we rig boats to hunt, fish, haul, and play on the water. We also hunt throughout NYS, much of the mid-Atlantic and lakes Erie and Ontario. Oneida's a shoaly lake prone to high winds and high-frequency, steep-trough wavesets, no rollers...