21ft flat bottom The "Bucket"

[Flat Bottom]

Alright tinboaters... floor is about as done as it's gonna be. I have not put any side material on yet, waiting on the initial test run to make sure everything is legit. Today I got the console fastened down good, got the engine controller attached nicely and got the piece i'm going to place over the old console face cut and coated with urethane (1st coat) Got the old console face cut out so I'll have room to put the steering wheel and either a switch board or some independent switches. Foamed in some spots on the bottom of the sides next to the floor. Tomorrow the plan is to get the last coat or two on the new console face, and get the steering wheel installed to i can take the boat on a test run. The weather around here has been extremely Sh@#$%^ lately so it's hard to get stuff done, and i may be doing a test run in 3" swells... (that's how i seem to test everything out for some reason...) Here are a couple pictures of the progress and with any luck tomorrow i'll be out on the water.

 

[novaman]

Lookin really neat with all that space wide open. I like it much better with the console moved to the side to open up the center as a walkway. Keep up the good work and of course the pics. The pics are what keeps us all jealous. :wink:

 

[Flat Bottom]

Lookin really neat with all that space wide open. I like it much better with the console moved to the side to open up the center as a walkway. Keep up the good work and of course the pics. The pics are what keeps us all jealous. :wink:

haha the pics keep me from feeling like nothing is getting done... I can scroll back and think alright... It is moving along... just slowly.

 

[novaman]

I think we all have to do that from time to time, just to see how much we've really accomplished. The saying, "Rome wasn't built in a day", or a summer or 3. :wink:

 

[Flat Bottom]

Well it happened! Finally got out on the water today, took my fiance and my good friend and of course the chocolate lab. Didn't have a real boat fuel tank for the big engine, so i duck taped the primer hose into the spout of a normal 5 gallon can haha... it worked. Much to my dismay, the boat did awesome, went right up on plane every time, engine ran great, we spent a good couple hours out on the boat just enjoying the sunshine and thinking of ideas to finish the inside of the boat off. I really was impressed at how well the boat did, makes all the hard work blood and sweat worth something. Here are a couple pics.

 

[Bigkat650]

Glad you got some use on it over the weekend! It looks like it would be a fun boat to run on, nice and stable and I bet that motor scoots it along nicely. =D> =D> =D>

 

[Flat Bottom]

Glad you got some use on it over the weekend! It looks like it would be a fun boat to run on, nice and stable and I bet that motor scoots it along nicely. =D> =D> =D>

Yeah, everything came together nicely. The engine pushes the boat perfectly, very stable and just all around fun big enough for lots of people. It will work great for bass fishing, sturgeon fishing, cat fishing... potentially some bow fishing, just a great rig to get out on the water and enjoy a little peace and quite. Once it gets really hot around here it will be awesome to swim off of too!

 

[Flat Bottom]

Finally got an at least temporarily permanent fuel tank, 9 gallon. It should work better than the 6, i would love to have a bigger one, however that just means i'll be dumping a ton more money worth of fuel into the thing haha... I figure any kind of long trip planned i'll put an extra 5 gallon can of gas in, that way it will be like a reserve tank, hopefully enough to get me back to the dock. Plus I will likely always have the kicker on there, and that thing pushes the boat nicely and sips fuel in comparison to the 140hp suzuki. I've had alot of fun with the boat so far, only had it out twice but plan to do a little bass fishing on Thursday. I really like the boat being open, I may end up building some permanent compartments primarily around the fuel and battery near the stern, but for now everything is opened and exposed, and besides not looking as nice and professional it is actually kind of the look I am going for so... Anyways here are a couple more pics... Still have to get some siding put on the inside and fix up the seats a little bit. What do you all think so far?

 

[bigwave]

I think the boat turned out awesome, a functional boat is better than a pretty boat. Do you see any issues with the flat part you replaced on the hull, I have been curious about that since I started watching your build. What lake is that? Reminds me of some country my cousin has in Moab.

 

[Flat Bottom]

I think the boat turned out awesome, a functional boat is better than a pretty boat. Do you see any issues with the flat part you replaced on the hull, I have been curious about that since I started watching your build. What lake is that? Reminds me of some country my cousin has in Moab.

So far I have not seen any issues related to the repair work I did on the hull, Before I could barely ever get it up on plane, I even tried trim tabs, the tunnel that was in it just sucked it down into the water, Now it pops right up on plane every time without an issue. As for the lack of strakes on the piece I replaced it may be somewhat noticeable that it slides a bit more, but for a completely flat bottom it feels just like it should, and it still has lots of strakes throughout the bottom, just not on the replacement piece. The body of water is the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon, I'm on the Oregon side It is a very large river and a great place for boating, fishing, watersports... whatever. Thanks for the comments!

 

[Flat Bottom]

Working on wiring and siding the last day or so. The wind is back blowing like mad... Went out sunday and finally caught some fish off the boat. Caught half a dozen bass even tho we were walleye fishing it was nice to catch something. I got 1/4" rubber mat for the sides its turning out pretty good.

 

[Flat Bottom]

Well, I got some fishing in the last week, good weather, good beer, good friends. Caught the heck out of the shad. Got my lights and switch panel in, so were moving right along.

 

[hsiftac]

Boat is looking fantastic, what do you do with the shad? around here we just use them for bait

 

[Flat Bottom]

I will either use them for sturgeon bate, or crab bate when I make a trip down to the oregon coast. We just got back from 8 days up at a lake in eastern oregon. caught lots of big trout and some nice kokanee's. The boat is working great. Also went out and did a little more shad fishing last night. The current was ripping, and there was alot of debris in the water so we only caught a dozen or so before giving up. My anchor won't hold this beast back, so i had to add a huge concrete weight to it to hang the boat up in the swift current below the mcnary dam. It sucks dragging it back into the boat, but it makes for much better fishing when your not dragging with the current. I need to get a getter anchor system setup. Anyways, there is the update for now. I got lights and bilge pump installed along with a seasense 4 toggle marine switch. I'll try to get some pics up.

 

[Flat Bottom]

Havn't got any progress pictures up, but here's a video of our sturgeon fishing trip today. We had 3 on total, 1 up to the boat, and several missed bites. My uncle had a nice big on that jumped twice and threw the hook, I hooked something big that drug line like crazy then snapped the leader as we unhooked from the anchor. Here's the vid.


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[Flat Bottom]

Here are a few more sturgeon fishing video's. The Boat is working out great so far. I'm going to try to get a little video tour setup on it. It's still a work in progress but that's half the fun. Enjoy Let me know what you think!


[youtube]lExPouplk7M[/youtube]
Nice big sturgeon jump at 3:47, And check out the end of the video for the Biggest damn fish to date up to the boat!!!

[youtube]aLNtzan-MHs[/youtube]

 

[novaman]

Nice fish! How much anchor line do you typically have out when setup to fish? How heavy of an anchor do you use? Do you use a winch for retreiving the anchor, or the ole' armstrong method?

Here's an anchor winch we use for our 20' in good current, steelhead fishing here in N.W. IN., AND S.W. MI. fishing the Saint Joseph river. We use a 68# homemade style similar to a Richter anchor.

 

[Flat Bottom]

Nice fish! How much anchor line do you typically have out when setup to fish? How heavy of an anchor do you use? Do you use a winch for retreiving the anchor, or the ole' armstrong method?

Here's an anchor winch we use for our 20' in good current, steelhead fishing here in N.W. IN., AND S.W. MI. fishing the Saint Joseph river. We use a 68# homemade style similar to a Richter anchor.

I use a 30lb columbia river anchor, its the only anchor that will hold good in the fast current. Pulling the anchor is the easy part. I have an anchor float with a puller on it. You use the boat to pull the anchor. I have a 100 ft anchor line as well as a 200 ft for the fast fast current or deep holes.

 

[Flat Bottom]

Here are a couple pics of the biggest fish to hit the boat thus far. Enjoy!!!

 

[Flat Bottom]

Ok Tinboats, here's the quick walkthrough of the boat. As always it's a work in progress, but this is the jest of it. Enjoy!

[youtube]7MRqNfX464w[/youtube]