Anyone converted old speedboat/bassboat glass hulls into sneakboxes?

Hi Yukon Mike, - I think we should invent the latest in PDC (personal duck craft) or maybe a BBJS (Barnegat Bay Jet Ski)
I have seen a canoe/jet ski frankenstein that looked real squirrly - and what do you expect from 65HP and a canoe? Can you say tumblehome?
There are some good web tutorials available about cutting down a PWC hull/motor and re-purposing it - looks like a good project.

I have thought that a PWC could be made into a wicked duck boat, but have not had the guts to try it.
Dave
 
Quane,how about a used PWC,take all the glitz and unecessary stuff off,fabricate a large goose decoy cover from semi ridged material,tow a sled with another large goose decoy cover.The sled would carry the extra 2-3 doz mag divers.Use it as a sit up blind boat for divers.Those two big confidence decoys could be seen for miles.Shouldn't take long to get where you're going,either.
 
Thanks for the comments and sorry it took so long to reply back. I also got a few PMs asking for more details about my boat conversion, so I thought I would post them here so everyone can read about them if they want. I found the old hull in a man’s pasture and I offered him $50 to take it off of his hands. I was looking for a 16 to 17 foot hull, but couldn’t find any that had a V bow and a flatter bottom. The longer boats I found in my area all had deep Vs and I hunt a lot of shallow areas where a deep V would be hard to hunt from. So I settled for the 13 foot hull in the picture.

I helped a buddy build a similar boat and learned some things from that process. One other person in my area had an older conversion that I looked at to get some more ideas from. Over the years I also stole several ideas from people posting pictures of their boat conversions on duckboats.net. I thought about doing this project for several years because I knew it would be the cheapest way to get a Barnegat Bay “flavor” of boat. I used pine, exterior plywood, and luaun for the frame and deck. Every thing is coated in 3 coats of raka epoxy and the deck and splash well are covered in 6 oz fiberglass cloth. I think I had less than $550 in the boat and an old junk trailer to haul it. I built it on the weekends and breaks through college and I guesstimate that I put about 60 hours in the project. If you look at the pictures, you can see that I didn’t spend a lot of time sanding, which shaved off quite a bit of time.

The first thing I did was float the boat with a load that was distributed as evenly as possible. I then marked the boat at each corner and on the bow at the water line. I didn’t like the way conversions looked that were cut off at the same height on the bow and stern. I also liked the looks of the conversions I’ve seen that have a transom that is not flat across the back. Thus, I marked the bow 12” (I think) above the water line and the stern 8” (I think) above the water line, but didn’t cut the transom off at that same height. The additional height at the bow also helps a little with the sea worthiness as the boat rides pretty flat on plane. One thing you also have to watch out for is the splash guard along the sides of these boats. If you don’t cut above the splash guard, you have a funky woop-de-do on the side to contend with when you deck it over. I used a string and my eyeballs to mark a line along the sides to cut the boat’s top off with a saws-all.

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I then cut out the old transom (the hardest part of the whole process) and replaced it with new plywood (2, ¾” pieces of plywood epoxied together). I then attached wood along the inside of the boat so I had a place to screw the deck to. As you can see below, I didn’t care much about how or what I used as a backing since it would be out of sight and out of mind when I was done. I used screws to hold the wood in place until my peanut butter epoxy cured. The screws where then removed and the holes filled in with thickened epoxy. The ribs were also initially screwed into place, but those screws were removed after my epoxy fillets cured.

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I like the way boats look with an arced deck, so that is what I shot for with this project.

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I put a splash well in the back to keep from taking water over the stern in rough water, during quick stops, and when I run up on a stump. Although it is a wet ride in rough weather, it has proven to be a very seaworthy boat so far. One day this fall, the wind switched on me and picked up speed. There were times that day when I was in the trough of a wave and literally looking at the crest of the next wave at eye level. I was wet when I got back to the ramp, but I had surprisingly little water in the boat itself.

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Let me know if you have any other questions.

 
Here you go Bill in Nashvegas.

http://nashville.craigslist.org/boa/646242551.html

Go and get this thing before you make me start a project I do not have time for. HA! HA! Shawn
 
No I would have jumped on it. It was that speedboat hull that Looks a whole lot like a scaup with a trailer for $200. I will keep my eyes peeled for you. Shawn
 
[inline "Boat & trailer 004 (Small).jpg"][inline "Boat & trailer 004 (Small).jpg"][inline "Boat & trailer 004 (Small).jpg"]Bill, Here is one for free, boat and motor. I needed a trailer and motor. This is the second one I have. That was also free. Up here you have to pay to get rid of them. After reading this thread I started thinking because I don't need this boat cut it into a layout. The other one (no picture) I am going to make into a big water boat. That is 19' ft long. This going to happen after I build a BBSB Hee hee The point is I wouldn't pay any thing for a hull out of fiber glass of the vintage you see in the picture.

Boat & trailer 004 (Small).jpg
 
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that is one sweet conversation, now it looks like a duck killer,
how is it working out for you?

how does it handle?

how stable is it when you shot out of it?
 
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