What do you think????

K

kulsh

Member
So, I had a brain storm, maybe not new to you but I thought it was a good idea. Well here goes, take a small sailboat like the one that is pictured below. And cut a bigger well in it, add some grass rails and beef up the transom so you can put a small electric motor on it and camo paint it. So what do you think of my idea? Do you think it will be stable enough for the marsh and small ponds? Let me know what you think.....

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Look up Sunfish conversion in the search function. You'll get some good ideas of what has been done.
 
Thanks for the help! I thought I had a original idea but I am glad to see I was not the first. The pictures on the sunfish conversion are very helpful. I just wonder how stable this boat will be. I have not hunted in a few years and dont have a boat at this time, so its going to be tough to get this in motion before the end of the season. I just bought a house 1/4 mile from lake Erie metro park in southeastern Michigan, so I have the fever once again. All the guys I used to hunt with sense moved to other hobbies so needless to say I am alone on this project. If I ever get out of the gate and start this, I will post pictures..
Thanks
Again
 
I had a sunfish standing in the corner of the barn for two years, waiting on me to have time to finish converting it. I'd already cut out the cockpit and made most of the other cuts/removals. My bro in law knocked it down, and when it fell, it split th ebottom from sbow to stern, all the way down the keel. I threw it on the burn pile. They are cool for a quick/easy conversion to a marsh boat, but I wasn't going to go through a complete exterior and interior re-glass of the bottom to get there....cost vs effort: LOL They are neat hulls, and though they have almost no freeboard, they do have some rocker for handling chop, which is hard to find on most of your typical low-profile boats these days.
 
Thanks for the help! I thought I had a original idea but I am glad to see I was not the first. The pictures on the sunfish conversion are very helpful. I just wonder how stable this boat will be. I have not hunted in a few years and dont have a boat at this time, so its going to be tough to get this in motion before the end of the season. I just bought a house 1/4 mile from lake Erie metro park in southeastern Michigan, so I have the fever once again. All the guys I used to hunt with sense moved to other hobbies so needless to say I am alone on this project. If I ever get out of the gate and start this, I will post pictures..
Thanks
Again
Click to expand...


One observation is that there have been a number of them built, and folks can do a nice job, but they also seem to turn over quickly (i.e., those that build them sell them in a couple years). To me this turnover suggests that they are quickly outgrown or found not to serve their intended purpose well.
 

Here is the link to how I did mine:
http://duckboats.net/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4447;#4447

I've used it once already this year on an early goose hunt. Unfortunately, my shotgun skills were not up to hitting the couple of geese that I had the opportunity on.

I use mine as a one man layout stuck back in a shallow marsh. The boat sits low enough in most areas that my head sits pretty even with the surrounding vegetation.

Working on a 8' pond box for my son for this year with the plan to use the sunfish to carry both of us back into the marsh while towing the pond box full of decoys and then layout hunt from the sunfish and the pond box.

They end up being good for a marsh/layout type of boat for one man, so are somewhat limited.

If you do the conversion, put some frames on the floor. I had to add some after I was done as the floor was oil canning both in the water and on the trailer.

Good luck and maybe I'll see you out there sometime.
 
Klush,

That's a good looking Sunfish sailboat. IMHO, I'd sell it and use the money to buy a "real" duck boat - maybe the cash will get you closer to a Momarsh or a small jon boat. The only boat I'd cut up would be a junker.
 
I do not have pictures because I got a new PC, but I built one and still use it from time to time.

They are very stable, I cut mine down from 14ft to 12 and half feet, giving it a bigger transome for better motor performance. I rebuilt the transome to make it 15in and put a small skeg in the bottom.

The original cockpit can be cut completely out, it is a real bitch but it is worth it, it will make a nicer finished product. The floor will need to be beefed up a bit I used luon plywood and glassed over it. I built sides and glassed over that too.

They make a good boat for hunting but you need to put a lot of thought into it and it is not as easy as you may think.
 
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