Hey everybody,
I've been lurking around the board for a while now and I have to say that you guys are some of the must creative and talented people I've ever seen. A little background about me, I've fished my whole life and when I was about 6 my grandpa picked up a older fiberglass 14' hull with bench seats and gave it to my dad and me to use. We hung an old 5 hp Johnson on the stern and it worked out well for years of trout fishing at our cabin in the mountains. However, as I grew older we used it less and less frequently because my focus turned more to salt water and less on trout. When I turned 14, I began working as a deckhand on the ocean, I stayed so busy that we ceased to use it all together. In the past few years though I've gotten quite into bass fishing and inshore saltwater and I believe that after seeing some of your mods i can turn this thing into a real fishing machine. As i said the boat is 14' I believe the make is a Challenger. To be honest I haven't even looked at it in a few years because its in storage at our cabin, but I had my dad take a few pictures of it last time he was up there. My plan is to head up to the cabin soon, pack the bearings on the trailer with grease, check the lights, and drag it back down the mountain to work on it. I would like to have a deck laid over the front two bench seats so that I have room for storage hatches and hopefully a livewell. I also plan on decking the stern and back bench seats to cover the gas tank and lay it out like a bass boat. I realize that there is a lot of planning of framing for this step I also want to wire the boat for permanently fixed nav lights, a bow mounted trolling motor, sonar/gps, bilge pump and the livewell (hopefully running everything sub deck). Here's a few pictures, I'm aware that they aren't the best, but at least a start for planning.
My biggest concerns are of trying to tie hardware into the thin walled fiberglass, running electrical and plumbing sub deck and obviously the weight of all the extras. Tell me what you guys think. This is going to a long, but rewarding process.
I've been lurking around the board for a while now and I have to say that you guys are some of the must creative and talented people I've ever seen. A little background about me, I've fished my whole life and when I was about 6 my grandpa picked up a older fiberglass 14' hull with bench seats and gave it to my dad and me to use. We hung an old 5 hp Johnson on the stern and it worked out well for years of trout fishing at our cabin in the mountains. However, as I grew older we used it less and less frequently because my focus turned more to salt water and less on trout. When I turned 14, I began working as a deckhand on the ocean, I stayed so busy that we ceased to use it all together. In the past few years though I've gotten quite into bass fishing and inshore saltwater and I believe that after seeing some of your mods i can turn this thing into a real fishing machine. As i said the boat is 14' I believe the make is a Challenger. To be honest I haven't even looked at it in a few years because its in storage at our cabin, but I had my dad take a few pictures of it last time he was up there. My plan is to head up to the cabin soon, pack the bearings on the trailer with grease, check the lights, and drag it back down the mountain to work on it. I would like to have a deck laid over the front two bench seats so that I have room for storage hatches and hopefully a livewell. I also plan on decking the stern and back bench seats to cover the gas tank and lay it out like a bass boat. I realize that there is a lot of planning of framing for this step I also want to wire the boat for permanently fixed nav lights, a bow mounted trolling motor, sonar/gps, bilge pump and the livewell (hopefully running everything sub deck). Here's a few pictures, I'm aware that they aren't the best, but at least a start for planning.
