New Member, first post

[loosescrew]

I finally signed up here after reading the posts here for over a year or so now.
I recently retired and have decided to get back into fishing and thus boating to pass the time and hopefully put some food on the table as well.

 

[Canoe]

Welcome to TinBoats!

 

[Reelark]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[TriBull]

I finally signed up here after reading the posts here for over a year or so now.
I recently retired and have decided to get back into fishing and thus boating to pass the time and hopefully put some food on the table as well.

Welcome, Loosescrew! Do you have a boat yet, or a project in line?

 

[airshot]

What area will you be boating and fishing ?

 

[Crazyboat]

Elmer NJ, that's pretty far south and west. Do you boat in the small lakes or along the lower Delaware?

 

[loosescrew]

Elmer NJ, that's pretty far south and west. Do you boat in the small lakes or along the lower Delaware?

Mostly the rivers and back bays at the shore.

 

[Crazyboat]

Mostly the rivers and back bays at the shore.

I grew up clamming Barnegat bay/Manahawkin bay and zipping around Mud City with my friends. These days I mostly boat in North Jersey along the Hudson in a much larger more comfortable boat.

 

[loosescrew]

Welcome, Loosescrew! Do you have a boat yet, or a project in line?

I have a motor, sort of inherited a 15hp Evinrude.
I'm looking for a hull and trailer, something in the 14-15ft range will likely be best with this motor.
I price new, but between there being almost no new boats on the lots lately and the cost. I didn't realize that bare hulls had gotten up over $3k now. I'm pretty much just looking used now. I'll most likely just buy or build a new trailer so all I need is a hull. I've looked at a few so far but all of them so far either don't have a title or they're a salt corroded mess. The best deal I found so far is a 14ft Starcraft about 12 miles from here.
https://southjersey.craigslist.org/boa/d/vineland-14ft-starcraft-aluminum-boat/7821325674.html
I liked this one but thought I'd find something cheaper but so far all I found is either smaller, narrower, rotted, or with no papers. Its the only one that I can just hang my motor on it and go. Starcraft seems to make two 14ft boats, one is more or less just a stretched 12ft hull, and the one above, that's almost as big as a 16ft space wise. The seller also said he brought it here from PA, so its not likely been in saltwater its whole life.
The only other one I looked at was a narrower version and the transom was corrosed through in several spots up near the rear tie down loops and someone had cut out the middle bench seat leaving it with sides that flex pretty badly.

 

[loosescrew]

I grew up clamming Barnegat bay/Manahawkin bay and zipping around Mud City with my friends. These days I mostly boat in North Jersey along the Hudson in a much larger more comfortable boat.

I grew up here but lived in PA for the last 35 years or so, I moved back after the job there ended.
As a kid I spent a lot of time fishing the Maurice and Cohansey rivers, and the back bays behind Wildwood, Stone Harbor, and Sea Isle. Back then I used a boat my uncle owned down that way, an old 14ft Sea King with a 9.8hp Sea King motor on the back. We mostly crabbed out of it in the salt but did get our share of flounder, blues and croakers back then. That boat had more patches than original metal though. At some point he put that aside when he found an Evinrude trihull with a 120hp stern drive, which was basically an outboard power head mounted inside the boat to an OMC drive. That was a fun boat but he eventually took it back to PA to use in a lake there.. After that were were back in the old Grumman. I still have that old Sea King but its not run in ages and the tilt bits were all messed up.