2025 Devlin Snow Goose Thread

Henry,
For what is worth I taped all my seams with 10 oz biaxial tape. The bottom of the hull has two layers of 6 oz S cloth. It is well worth the additional cost in my opinion and is easier to tell if its wetted out than kevlar. For bottom paint, as William stated, I stand behind Wetlander. If it does wear, super easy to touch up. On my sole I used a product called SeaDeck to dampen sounds and provide a non slick surface. If you go this route be sure to use 3m adhesion enhancer. Richard
 
This is how I have my bow lights, I have them as tucked in and protected as they can be while still satisfying USCG regulations. My bow overhang is tripled 1/2 inch fully radiused and the block the lights on share the dimension and roundover. I like the aesthetic. My lights are incandescents with LEDs retrofitted, but when I built I didn't trust the limited designs available that were sealed LEDs.

Unless there is some sort of variable slick design that allows you to satisfy USCG requirements on a strongly curving hull, you need a plane parallel to the centerline and that is tough to find on a curvy boat.

Light bars also didn't exist when I built. At some point I'll put an LED light bar under the bow overhang.

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Neal Haarberg said:
I will chime in here. I do not have a snow goose but do have a boat very similar. I designed it by looking a lot of pictures of the Snow Goose

I used Lou's FME paint on my boat and it has held up very well. I used Interlux Intergrip to create a non slip surface on the deck and it has worked out well. Just put some in a salt shaker and sprinkle it on between coats.

For the sole I used a truck bedliner and would not do that again. It was great during duck season but was terrible in the summer. As it has worn out in spots. In particluler where I stand when running the boat so I purchased a 4' x 10' rubber mat on Amazon a couple years ago and it has worked great. I plan on getting some outdoor carpet to swap out this summer as the black material gets hot in the summer sun then the rubber mat can go back in for duck season. When I do it again I will use the Intergrip and rubber mat/ Carpet.

For the Navigation lights I would do like Tod did, out of the way not on top like mine.

A couple things that I did do that I am very happy with. In the bow I have 2 plugs. One where I can plug in a an extension cord to charge my deep cycle mounted in the bow with an on board charger also mounted in the bow. My original outboard did not require a battery so this was used for lights, bilge pump, and any other accessories like my trolling motor for summer time bass fishing. Now with my 40hp yamaha which requires a battery I have a switch that I can run all of the accessories from either battery that way I have some redundancy. The second plug is for the Trolling motor and headlights which get swapped out seasonally.

I mounted a hitch receiver in the bow. Currently I have 3 accessories that go into it. a Light bar. a cradle for my Marsh Rat with a light bar. and the Motor mount for my trolling motor. These get swapped out as needed. This has given me a lot of versatility with the boat.
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Bow plug/plugs are slick, thanks for the idea. Will be added next time I work on the boat.
 
RM Anderson said:
Henry,
For what is worth I taped all my seams with 10 oz biaxial tape. The bottom of the hull has two layers of 6 oz S cloth. It is well worth the additional cost in my opinion and is easier to tell if its wetted out than kevlar. For bottom paint, as William stated, I stand behind Wetlander. If it does wear, super easy to touch up. On my sole I used a product called SeaDeck to dampen sounds and provide a non slick surface. If you go this route be sure to use 3m adhesion enhancer. Richard
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I don't know that I'd do kevlar again, but I didn't find it bad to work with, including getting it to wet out. It seems like I read way more about how tough it was than what I experienced. If you sand it, however, that is messy. If offers a LOT of abrasion resistance.

I'm not saying that something like Wetlander is a bad idea... just that from what I've seen, you don't want to let a wood boat sit and rock up against any shore for extended period, so some kind of super coating may give you a false sense of security because the real risk is chewing/punching through the relatively thin glass into the wood. If it is 100% sand or marl that does not ever have rocks, old pilings with bolts sticking out or a lot of oyster shell, then it may be a big benefit.
 
Just want to add that Neal's suggestion for a hitch receiver in the bow is an excellent idea. One could mount a winch if need be to pull yourself through channels with thick cattails. Also love the ideas about lighting. Excellent thread; much here to learn from! Richard
 
tod osier said:
This is how I have my bow lights, I have them as tucked in and protected as they can be while still satisfying USCG regulations. My bow overhang is tripled 1/2 inch fully radiused and the block the lights on share the dimension and roundover. I like the aesthetic. My lights are incandescents with LEDs retrofitted, but when I built I didn't trust the limited designs available that were sealed LEDs.

Unless there is some sort of variable slick design that allows you to satisfy USCG requirements on a strongly curving hull, you need a plane parallel to the centerline and that is tough to find on a curvy boat.

Light bars also didn't exist when I built. At some point I'll put an LED light bar under the bow overhang.

View attachment 64469

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Tod, I always like your bow set up, but my question about your side light set up is " are they close enough to the gunwale to satisfy the USCG requirement to shine in a 112.5 degree arc? Serious question.
 
Brad Bortner said:
Tod, I always like your bow set up, but my question about your side light set up is " are they close enough to the gunwale to satisfy the USCG requirement to shine in a 112.5 degree arc? Serious question.
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They will be when he upgrades to the bright shiny LED lights that I put on my boat lol.

I will let @tod osier respond, but since I have similar light style as him, I figured I would chime in. Honestly, if the USCG wants to come out and start measuring 112.5 degrees of arc, Id just tell them to write me the ticket. Once I figured out how worthless that little pole with a mini green and red light were once a light bar was added, I figured I would use the water as a reflection at night. This was the absolute best option I could come up with. There is a couple bass tournaments where they let boats leave before sunrise and stage, one of the biggest tournaments aligns with early season duck for me. I have been caught on that lake with 100+ boats on that lake, and they let 5 go every 10 minutes starting in the dark. Its PURE CHAOS and two years now, I have had guys come up and compliment the nav lights I had on my duck boat and their ability to see them because of how they reflect off the water. Light bar is fine when we are going head on, not so good when a bass boat is chasing me down from behind. Even when i have my little bitty white light on my transom on, the issue is when you have 40-50 staged boats e around the shoreline of the lake, it can really mess with someones eyes if that light is at a distance up against the shoreline or a moving one. It becomes mesmerizing and almost looks like a bunch of fireflies when running down the lake with so many white transom lights on with that many staged boats rocking to the waves. So I do love these nav lights that I went with for that very reason.
 
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To reiterate what Tod has mentioned, the biggest threat to your hull is chewing or punching a hole through the thin layer of glass. UHMW is a wonderful material but I have not figured out a way to marry the material to a stitch and glue boat. Pictured below is a sled I built of the same...indestructible. Richard 20230912_175737.jpg
 
William Reinicke said:
You could always build the lights into the hull.... I did these style lights on my current boat and I really like them and they are out of the way and push light out against the water so its seen easier by other boats. They portray out light more than you would think and when running tight river systems, it really compliments seeing whats on either side of the boat with the light bar shining forward. The only thing brought into question is the legality of this style. I have had my boat since 2018 and never had an issue and I have run all over the country in it. I still carry my little stock nav light that came with the boat. I always said if I got checked, I would just put it in the port (that I have never used) and said this my nav light and those are for vision purposes in the fog. But Ive been checked many times and never run into an issue with this setup.

All my boats have been to a switch panel for wiring and obviously power to the switch panel from a battery. I would think you could figure out how to run 1/2" pvc in the boat to organize the wire, or do a run of good insulated wire. Also let me just put this out there on batteries for these little waterfowl builds, lithiums are getting cheap. Look into redodo lithiums. I know some guys on the bass fishing scene that have gone to these and love them. I am probably going to make the switch in my boats as well once I wear out the AGM's i have now. They are so much lighter and have an app that connects bluetooth so you can monitor the charge on your battery. I know your boat wont be the smallest, but might as well get it done right. I use the NOCO onboard chargers and their newer series have the lithium recharge option. Just plug her in the night before you go out and know your batteries will be fully charged for the hunt the next day.

Here is the link to the rocker lights I used to do my boat. Just mount them to the side of the hull and wire them in together on the same switch.

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Thanks for the Redodo recommendation, their prices are good enough to take a chance on. Now I need to read up on wiring, fuse boxes, and switches. Good thing this will be a simple boat with limited electronics!
 
HenryHawthorne said:
Thanks for the Redodo recommendation, their prices are good enough to take a chance on. Now I need to read up on wiring, fuse boxes, and switches. Good thing this will be a simple boat with limited electronics!
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simple... ive built so many switch panels, but anymore you can just buy them and mount them now. Just google rocker switch panel for boat and they come pre-wired anymore. Simple power to switch, and then lines into rocker switches for your accessories. Depends on how many rocker switches you want for needs in the boat. you can get wild with it or keep it simple. Just do a simple youtube of people attaching a light bar to a rocker switch and its VERY self explanatory. Grade school wiring... seriously. If you can build that mini boat and figure out dimensions, you can absolutely run this kind of wiring to a boat.

So I have 5 on my current boat.
1 - Light bar
2- Nav lights
3 - Interior box lights
4- Bilge Pumps
5 - Interior of boat lights

you could even plumb wiring to the front of the boat thats hot all the time and put them a TM plug if you plan on putting a TM on it at some point or a winch. I bought a winch and rewired it to go right into the same 3 prong TM female adapter that came on the boat. I keep my winch stored in a box of the boat, then its mounted to a quick release trolling motor plate. I mount the winch to the tm tray, plug it in, and whaa laaa I have a winch to get me out of shit situations. if you need a spud pole for a hairy situation like this.... just so you know a 17lb dig bar from harbor freight works really well and only $17. I always thought that TM plug pulled constant power from the battery when not plugged in, makes sense its always hot right? So I put that wire on alligator clips, so when I need my winch, I just plug my red to hot and black to ground and then plug in the winch and go. Wire just hangs out dangling in the box where my Battery is when not in use, and then there is no draw of power to the adapter. I could put it on a switch if I wanted to, but that just seems annoying as I didnt ever need my winch this year, so seems like a waste of a switch and space. Alligator clips on the battery work just fine for what I am doing.

If you plan on using the boat for fishing and putting transducers on it. Seriously the best thing I have ever put in a bass boat for electronics is the Sea Clear power wiring system. Makes life so easy to run the wire, add electronics and transducers. The hardest part is running the wire, otherwise its as simple as twisting caps to put wires together and Im not sure what they are doing, but it absolutely gives better returns on fishfinders. What I also love about their system is it comes with a master on/off switch. You can add this as well between the switch panel and your battery if you want, so godforbid a switch flips on accidently or your forget to turn a light off, you arent dead in the water. Just remember you have to manually switch this on/off power yourself everytime as well. Some fishfinders are known for a constant draw, even when everything is turned off, even though the companies claim there isnt. So this is why Sea clear put this switch there, it cuts all power to electronics between the batter and the finders/xdcers. If you plan on running everything off 1 battery (which is fine, I do it all off one battery in my boat), the NOCO single onboard charger is TINY. So it should mount anywhere close to your battery. You could even glass in your plug to be super convenient if you wanted to get fancy with it. If you have any wiring questions, just reach out, that is something i FOR SURE can help with. Fiberglass... ima stay over here and out of the way on that one.
 
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Oh one final piece of advice, just spend the money and get wire connectors with the built in heat shrink. For boats this is imperative. You could even take it one step further and put a piece of heat shrink down the wire, do your connector, melt the heat shrink on the connector and then run that heat shrink over the connector and do a second layer of heat shrink just to be sure of the waterproofing. Up to you how waterproof you want your connections to be.
 
William Reinicke said:
simple... ive built so many switch panels, but anymore you can just buy them and mount them now. Just google rocker switch panel for boat and they come pre-wired anymore. Simple power to switch, and then lines into rocker switches for your accessories. Depends on how many rocker switches you want for needs in the boat. you can get wild with it or keep it simple. Just do a simple youtube of people attaching a light bar to a rocker switch and its VERY self explanatory. Grade school wiring... seriously. If you can build that mini boat and figure out dimensions, you can absolutely run this kind of wiring to a boat.

So I have 5 on my current boat.
1 - Light bar
2- Nav lights
3 - Interior box lights
4- Bilge Pumps
5 - Interior of boat lights

you could even plumb wiring to the front of the boat thats hot all the time and put them a TM plug if you plan on putting a TM on it at some point or a winch. I bought a winch and rewired it to go right into the same 3 prong TM female adapter that came on the boat. I keep my winch stored in a box of the boat, then its mounted to a quick release trolling motor plate. I mount the winch to the tm tray, plug it in, and whaa laaa I have a winch to get me out of shit situations. if you need a spud pole for a hairy situation like this.... just so you know a 17lb dig bar from harbor freight works really well and only $17. I always thought that TM plug pulled constant power from the battery when not plugged in, makes sense its always hot right? So I put that wire on alligator clips, so when I need my winch, I just plug my red to hot and black to ground and then plug in the winch and go. Wire just hangs out dangling in the box where my Battery is when not in use, and then there is no draw of power to the adapter. I could put it on a switch if I wanted to, but that just seems annoying as I didnt ever need my winch this year, so seems like a waste of a switch and space. Alligator clips on the battery work just fine for what I am doing.

If you plan on using the boat for fishing and putting transducers on it. Seriously the best thing I have ever put in a bass boat for electronics is the Sea Clear power wiring system. Makes life so easy to run the wire, add electronics and transducers. The hardest part is running the wire, otherwise its as simple as twisting caps to put wires together and Im not sure what they are doing, but it absolutely gives better returns on fishfinders. What I also love about their system is it comes with a master on/off switch. You can add this as well between the switch panel and your battery if you want, so godforbid a switch flips on accidently or your forget to turn a light off, you arent dead in the water. Just remember you have to manually switch this on/off power yourself everytime as well. Some fishfinders are known for a constant draw, even when everything is turned off, even though the companies claim there isnt. So this is why Sea clear put this switch there, it cuts all power to electronics between the batter and the finders/xdcers. If you plan on running everything off 1 battery (which is fine, I do it all off one battery in my boat), the NOCO single onboard charger is TINY. So it should mount anywhere close to your battery. You could even glass in your plug to be super convenient if you wanted to get fancy with it. If you have any wiring questions, just reach out, that is something i FOR SURE can help with. Fiberglass... ima stay over here and out of the way on that one.
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That's a serious power harness! I'll probably put in a single transducer, but it will mainly be for depth. The fishing I'd use this boat for would mostly be poling and sight fishing for reds in the marsh, so I'm not planning to rig it with fancy fish-finders.

Thanks for the tips, will get back with questions when I get there.

@tod osier - what transducer did you use? And why did you choose in-hull rather than through-hull?
 
HenryHawthorne said:
That's a serious power harness! I'll probably put in a single transducer, but it will mainly be for depth. The fishing I'd use this boat for would mostly be poling and sight fishing for reds in the marsh, so I'm not planning to rig it with fancy fish-finders.

Thanks for the tips, will get back with questions when I get there.

@tod osier - what transducer did you use? And why did you choose in-hull rather than through-hull?
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My bass boat at one time had 4 graphs, 3 transducers, the trolling motor and all the accessories (livewell, interior lights, etc etc). I’m down to 2 big graphs, 3 transducers. All wired together with Ethernet so they communicate with each other. It got serious for awhile.



I forgot to mention, I do run a fishfinder on my duck boat. It’s just the head unit tho, as I don’t fish out of that boat anymore at all. If I do it’s catfishing trips up the river channels. Similar to my duck route paths. I use an old lowrance with navionics chip. I can lay down paths. I’ll go early season (sometimes a week or two before season start) and scout and lay down routes in the day light. This allows me to get there in the dark with ease or when fog is thick and my light bar is deemed worthless. It also lets me lay down waypoints of hazards like rocks or stumps that might hurt the boat if I hit at speed. The paths change year to year as river channels change over summers. I’ll go slow with my old path and if it gets shallow on me, I back out and find the channel again. When it’s all done, I delete the last years route and I then have a nice route laid down for the current season. It’s kept me from using my winch as much as I used to.

This is a simple power plug from unit to battery that I ran. To prevent power pull while boat is parked, it’s just a simple twist and pull of power cord behind unit.
 
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HenryHawthorne said:
@tod osier - what transducer did you use? And why did you choose in-hull rather than through-hull?
Click to expand...

I felt like shooting through was just aesthetically better for me, that and the satisfaction in thrift, since I just used a standard transducer (there were not so many fancy options back then when I built, if not going with a serious marine unit). I just bedded the standard transducer in a puddle of epoxy contained in a wooden form (no bubbles in the epoxy is key).

I will, in the next couple years do a serious electronics upgrade, as I want some of the new features available like being able to map the bathymetry of lakes and side/front/wide scan sonar and a liveScope, type option. I do not think I'll be able to shoot through with that one.

Since you are thinking wiring I don't know how much you have thought about marine wire and how you will make your connections. I'm a believer in tinned wire and connections just crimped and heat shrink if it is exposed to the elements at all.

I've been really happy with genuinedealz.com for custom wire lengths and connectors. They have great prices for individual connectors and wire by the foot. They appear to have a new name and it has been a couple years, so buyer beware. They are in GA, so they may be somewhat local.

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If you are making some larger cables yourself, look at buying a cheap hydraulic crimper off amazon. I bought one when I put solar on our camper and needed to crimp a lot of large wire. Very fun to use and works great. The below is just an example, there are many. You will pay for it the first time you need a large wire crimped.


Finally, think about a mini console. I had just a ram mount for years, but I really like having the console. It folds down to be able to put my hard covers on. It is also the overhead profile of the snow goose and was a fun project to make.

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Thanks Tod and William! Yes, I like your mini console and have been thinking about something like that - and may plagiarize it directly. Looks perfectly functional and minimalist. Similarly, I'm thinking through removable grab handle ideas - maybe a way to use a pushpole in a recessed "dock" for that purpose.

I need to research chart plotters/fishing finders - it's been a long time since I've bought a new one. As this boat will be mostly used in salt marshes and local rivers/feeders, primary needs are good mapping, ability to chart courses and hazards, and monitor depth. Ideally, I'd like something that records and maintains depth information - between large tidal changes and fluctuating river water levels, being able to use it to think through what areas I can/can't get to in certain situations would be quite useful. Not sure if that technology is readily available/cheap enough for a duck boat, but would be nice to have. Fishfinding would be a distant third, but I could see value there for periodic use in deeper bays for tarpon, reds, etc.
 
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