Been busy last night!! worked from 5:30pm until 1am on the aluminum supports for my deck. My friend and I decided to make a deck from the front to the middle seat. We were both off today and wanted to fish, but I told him that the little boat was going no where untiul there is a deck and the trolling motor mounted and wired up and there is too much little boat parts in the way to pull the Ranger out of the garage. I worked on the wiring for my trolling motor battery and plug socket, and my friend started to cut aluminum angle. When I got done with the wiring ( had some issues with running wire through the hull) I helped him with the aluminum. Around midnight I said no more power tools unless we are just drilling in short bursts as I dont want to wake my neighbors. We hand cut the last 4 peices of aluminum, mocked up the supports, drilled holes and pop riveted it in place. We didnt have enough plywood since I changed my deck design at the last minute, so we used the 2 largest cut peices and made a functional full front deck and rear deck. We made an aluminum trolling motor bracket and ended up screwing it down to the boat at 7:15am this morning in the Kmart parking lot as I didnt want to bother the neighbors.
Took the boat out for most of the day, and all I can say is I am GLAD I decided to try a full deck. It took about 30 min. to get my sea legs and after that I was pretty much ok with the tippyness of the boat. We eneded up catching 5 and I missed about that many as I was really tired and not all with it..
I'll post some pics after the holiday...
I recommend trying a full deck before you decide that its not for you...I am glad I tried it and pop rivets are awesome! ( never used them before)
