I've built around 14 to date and still own my original (which happens to be the picture you attached
As for pros:
- If you've never built a boat, its a good one to start with
- Plenty of help available over on the Gator Boats forum (myself included)
- Easily modified to suit your needs
- Very stable
- Less cost than say a comparable stitch and glue boat due to the decreased amount of epoxy and glass
As for cons:
- It is still a flat bottom boat and it will ride like one in rough water
- Built to specs, it does take a bit of HP to get it up on plane (the hull is kind of a cross between a displacement/planing with all of the rocker in the rear)
- The cost of materials is no where near the $160 estimate that is listed on the Gator Boats page
As Howard said, its easy enough to modify and if you're not really concerned about the overall lines of the boat removing the rear rocker will help you plane with less HP and give you a higher capacity. I've been out in some pretty nasty stuff but never intentionally and nothing near that of what I could imagine Erie could kick up too. With common sense and erring on the side of caution to the days you hunt and where you hunt it wouldn't be an issue. Just had a marine surveyor check out one of mine, and gave the thumbs up for inland lakes and protected coastal waters.
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask and you can see more photos (if you haven't already based on your attached photo) at my website,
http://www.tollerboatworks.com
Brad
You have talked about the cost on this build what will be a more realistic figure without the extras that you put in your boats? Also I was going to take out all the rocker on the transom, I will be using a 7.5hp for this boat. The motor was given to me so it will have to do until I can afford a bigger motor. When I was talking about big water I should have stated that I was going to use this boat to hunt off the Islands within a mile of the launch on lake Erie. I would not be using this as a tender boat for layout shooting or anything like that. And for how I was going to hunt out of it, well I think I am on my own, Nobody I know hunts ducks anymore...
Brad can you help me out on the Gator forum, I cant register for some reason. It does not like my yahoo email address.
Thanks
For The Help
Keith