Vintage Herter’s Jon Boat??

[Mike Derenthal]

I’m in possession of a fiberglass / aluminum framed Herter’s boat. It measures 15.5’ bow to stern and 64” wide. 4 bench seats. I’m not sure if I want to turn this into a restoration project for someone else who might find the value in it, or if I want to customize (bastardize??) it for my own fishing boat. Anyone out there have any experience with these things? Thank you in advance!

 

[Carl]

Mike,
Welcome to the DHBP!
Where in FL are you located? I'm in Tampa.

These are pretty cool little hulls, I know some of the guys on here have experience with them. Hopefully someone will jump in soon.

 

[Mike Derenthal]

Thanks Carl. I’m over in Orlando. Yes, Google searches keep pointing me back to this forum, but I’ve been unsuccessful in finding any relevant threads now that I’ve joined. Curious to hear what I can learn about this cool old boat.

 

[Dani]

What kind of restoration is needed? And welcome to duckboats from another FL member! What places do you normally fish? Fresh water or will you also head over to salt water?

 

[Mike Derenthal]

Thank you Dani. If I restore it I'll clean it up and get it as close to an original paint color and such as I can. In that case trying to find some pics or insight. My other option (honestly my original intention) is to power it w/ as much as it can safely handle w/ a tiller outboard (looking for advice on that as well) and build out a casting deck over the front two bench seats (I think the added bow weight will be helpful actually), and possibly a floor deck in the remaining, and clean it up. I'd be using it mostly for inshore (bay, lagoon, ICW, etc) trout, red, snook fishing.