Observations you've already likely confirmed: 1.) The mud motor's mass has raised the center of gravity too high and made the narrow hull width a very dangerous combination. 2.) The bow lights work well to illuminate obstructions approaching...over the horizon since the bow rides high without any load. 3.) This hull has best utility when used in flooded timber on sheltered water, not open bays, large impoundments of the upper Mississippi, or large water bodies. ]
IF the hull can be salvaged at a reasonable cost, why not simply sell it with full disclosure that it needs repairs and what they likely would cost the new owner? At least this way you recover some of your cash outlay, and/or initiated the "building fund" for the right hull to fit that motor.
I frequently hunt alone, too: Four years ago we were hunting the diver flights on the St. Marys River near Neebish Island. We had been there for three days in mixed sleety snow conditions with consistent hunting success on three huge pods of redheads scattered over about three miles of the river, along with some ringnecks, bufflehead, and some scaup pods. Two guys showed up our last day at the cabins we rent from pulling a V-bow Jon Boat with a fixed elevated blind on it and mud motor. We had just finished cleaning birds from the morning's outing and were reorganizing gear and taking gas cans down to refill my partners Crusader-19. It was pretty apparent that the two new hunters were from the Saginaw Bay area, based on their rig. They dressed quickly to launch their boat and go scout the open water, layered head to toe in Sitka Gear togs, all of it shiny out of box new. Strong southwesterly breeze blowing, so I warned them they would face a stiff chop with up to three footers when they cleared the headland to the south (Kemp's Point), which they ignored. After they launched, the truck owner pulled the trailer and drove back through the resort to the designated trailer parking area while his partner attempted to dock their rig in an empty slip. I held their boat in the shallows while his partner, butt-crack guy, started-up the mud motor...wow those things are loud! It became quickly evident that he was having major difficulty maneuvering the boat in the wind. He had said during introductions that it was his boat, so I assumed he knew how to pilot it. After three passes at the open slip bay he kept missing the point of timing when he needed to really hammer the throttle to get the hull to "answer" and come around on the wind to ease it into the slip. On the last two of those passes I ended-up having to lay on the motor cover of Steve's boat and use my wader-clad leg and foot to push the Jon boat's bow away before he skewered Steve's Yamaha 115hp motor. On the fourth pass, I shouted again to "hit the gas hard" when he needed to throttle-up to get the bow to spin around around on the wind where he could better control his boat's approach; which he ignored again, so I grabbed Steve's boat hook and stepped out of the Bankes and wrapped myself around a piling at the end of the slip he was trying to get into. I grabbed the gunnel with the boat hook and used my position on the piling to leverage as much upper body force I could muster to jerk his bow around to get him lined-up with the open slip and get the front third of the boat in and aligned enough that he could "bumper car" it in the rest of the way. I got a nasty look for my efforts.... That's when I demurred on telling them that they would be better served, with their shallow water rig, to trailer over to the State Campground on the Munuscong River and run-out onto open water to hunt. I did tell them where the ring necks were concentrated on the bay. Butt-crack guy never spoke another word to me; how odd. Oh, they came back from their scouting trip soaked...and tied-up in another slip farther away from us. Louie appreciated that enhanced tie-up distance from his boat...
