In the interest of inspiring ideas in others, I thought I would post pictures of one of my spring projects–making a boat cover support for my Sea Nymph 14R.  We have been getting a LOT of rain here in North Dakota this spring, so it was a timely project.

Here goes:

All of the pieces were glued together from 1/2″ PVC pipe and fittings, with a slight mod to allow the middle pieces on the right and left to slide into the oarlocks using 1/2″ CPVC which I elegantly taped together since it didn’t glue up well to the white PVC.

I built it to break down into three pieces for easier storage when it’s not on the boat, so I simply didn’t glue a couple of the joints where the pipes meet in the middle of the boat.  It is made to make use of a little bit of tension to bow the spine along the length of the boat.

Rather than provide too many specifics, these pics should be enough to inspire you to build a setup that will work for your boat.  I used tees on the bottom of the legs so that there would be  a good “foot” for each leg, but there are other ways to accomplish the same thing.

I just finished building a picnic table from plans available at Home Depot online.  I love the design, and it turned out better than I thought. Home Depot in my area sells a kit for more money than I paid for the materials to build this design (about $125 including finish and fasteners), and it is far inferior.  It saves time to have all the pieces pre-cut, but doing it this way I was able to pick and choose my lumber, and include some neat design features such as the radius at each end of the table and the benches.  If you have a miter saw, a jigsaw, and a drill or screw gun this is a very easy project to build.

Below are the results.  The first photo is after only one coat of stain.  I used three coats of Cabot Australian Timber Oil in the Jarrah Brown color. Applying thin coats and rubbing them out with a rag is key to the process.  Although it is meant for exotic woods, it worked well on the pine boards I purchased at Home Depot for the project.  You can see by the water beading in the second photo (after three coats) that the combination worked rather well.

Every once in a while while I’m putting in or taking out at the lake, someone asks me about the splashguards on the back of my Lund Explorer. I always take the time to tell them I got mine from Whitecap Manufacturing. I have six seasons on mine now, and I can’t say I’ve ever been disappointed. They fit perfectly, were easy to install, and give me another surface to stick decals on!  They were also significantly cheaper than their more heavily-promoted competition. Since my boat is not as deep as, say, a Lund Tyee, I think they also give the kids a little bit of a feeling of security and allow them to feel “enclosed.” I love ‘em because I can backtroll in some vicious chop and they keep my bilge pump from working overtime. I may be a little bit crazy, but I’m also considering them for my 14′ Sea Nymph with its 16″ transom.  I just haven’t finalized what motor/trolling motor combo will end up on that boat yet.

If you like to backtroll and you’re used to taking a bath, do something nice for yourself this season and install some Whitecaps.

Like the looks of the boat?  Check out my last post on the Lund Explorer series.

One of my tasks each winter is to tie up new walleye spinner rigs. This year, as I browsed through the fishing aisles of my local Fleet Farm, I found an interesting new blade being sold exclusively at Fleet Farm. JB Lures is the manufacturer. They make many of my favorite spinner blades and rigs. I’ll be tying up a few of these to use this summer.

These are interesting because they combine the ventilator-style cutout with a willow leaf, and the edges are serrated (serrated plus gyration=cyration?).

The size is 3.5 and the color is French toast. The back of the blades is gold.

What do you do with the huge amounts of snow in your yard this year if you live in North Dakota? Build a quinzee.

What the heck is a quinzee?  Read on in the article from the Dickinson Press (this is where I learned about them):

Winter Fun: Family Builds a Quinzee

There is also a pretty good article online at Boy’s Life magazine that describes the process:

How to Build a Quinzee Snow Shelter

Happy snow construction!  

Having rigged two brand new walleye boats and several smaller project boats with a full complement of accessories, I thought I would share some tips for fasteners to use when attaching accessories.

1.  Use stainless steel.  It’s a little bit more expensive, but one of my pet peeves is when I see a whole set of rusty screws on a boat.  I replaced all of the sheet metal screws holding the windshield mounts on my current walleye boat when it was brand new because they were not stainless and they looked horrible within the first year. 

2.  Use button head screws.  Especially for screws mounted with heads on the outside of the boat hull, they do not snag fishing line (as slotted screws do).  They will also slide across dock edges, etc. without grabbing. A side tip related to the snagging issue: if you have gouges on your spray rails or anything that will catch fishing line on your aluminum boat, file them smooth.

Your local Fastenal store is a good place to find stainless fasteners, especially button head screws, cap screws, and the type of things  you don’t normally find at your local hardware store.  

3.  Use the right size.  It’s often tempting to use something that you have on hand, but jamming screws that are too big into smaller holes just doesn’t look professional, and may stress the items you’re mounting.  When you buy screws for mounting things, buy a few extras and keep them on hand.  

4.  Use locknuts.  I often use the nylon insert locknuts along with a generous washer on the back side of installations.  Your accessories won’t work loose.

5.  Use 3M 5200 or a similar sealant around all bolts and screws.  Jamestown Distributors has a good product demo and sells it, along with all kinds of other good marine project items, such as clear penetrating epoxy sealer for marine wood projects.

6. Minimize holes in the hull, especially below the waterline.  For transducer mounting, use a mounting board such as the one from Rig-Rite.  I generally don’t like drilling or cutting holes in the boat’s exterior at all unless I have to, but I have mounted a receptacle for my onboard charger toward the top of the boat, which required drilling a 1″ hole (yikes!) and I have used buttonhead screws to mount rod racks to the outboard side of the inside of my rod locker (also above the waterline). 

If you follow these suggestions, your installations will be professional-looking and your boat’s resale will be better when it’s trade-in time.  

Enjoy your time on the water!

Inspired by others on the web who have posted pictures of their creations, I set out to build an outboard stand to store my small outboard during the winter months.  I wanted something that would allow the gas tank and accessories to be stored underneath, and I wanted wheels so I could push it around.  My materials included scrap 2x4s, 2x6s, plywood, a few lag screws, and some construction screws.  I think the only things that needed to be purchased were four casters.  Rather than show a set of plans which may or may not work for your size of outboard, here are some pictures that should give a pretty good idea of how this project was constructed. Measure your outboard and the other items you want to store, and build yours accordingly.  Note: you should reinforce the uprights with some angled pieces if you have a heavier motor than my little 7.5hp Honda.  

Outboard motor stand made from 2x6s, 2x4s, and plywood.

Casters are mounted on a block screwed to the inside of each corner of the unit.

Front view of outboard stand showing angle and mounting of top board.

Side view of outboard stand. Note platform on bottom is generous enough to hold gas tank, battery box, etc. for storage.

Being a practical guy, I can’t at this point justify buying a snowmobile just for ice fishing, so my four wheeler has to do double duty plowing snow and dragging my ice house around.  Now on my second four wheeler, I think I’ve figured a few things out, so I will share my tips for setting up an ATV to do business on the ice:

1.  AUGER CARRIER.  If you want to carry your auger on the four wheeler and not in the sled/shelter, which is a good way to go if you like to drill lots of holes and move around, you can make your own auger carrier for your machine without paying the excessively high prices the manufacturers want for their carriers.  I bought a plastic auger carrier from Otter, added some aluminum straps and a bit of wood, and mounted it to my Arctic Cat Speedrack system using 7/16″ coupling nuts.  The coupling nuts fit very snugly in the plastic inserts, and just need to be drilled for pins.  To give credit where credit is due, I wasn’t the original genius who thought of the coupling nut idea for the Speedrack system.  See pics below for my personal mods:

Auger carrier on rear rack of Arctic Cat 400 4x4.

2.  BUCKET CARRIER.  I added a bucket carrier on the right rear of my four wheeler because it’s handy for more than just ice fishing, and also because it’s nice for carrying my flasher and a couple of ice rods for those scouting runs.  Mine is a fairly inexpensive Mad Dog product. I had to redrill the mounting plates to make it work, but I like the simplicity of it.  I added some Goodyear heater hose around the metal rim to reduce rattles and jam-fit the bucket.  Another pic shows the bucket carrier and another view of the auger carrier:

3.  WINDSCREEN.  A windscreen is an essential piece to add for ice fishing in my area.  The wind never seems to stop blowing, and as snowmobilers know, it is COLD when you’re moving across open areas.  This is one piece that I was reluctant to DIY.  Arctic Cat makes a pretty nifty windscreen, so it was worth the money.

4.  SNOW PLOW.  Finally, the snow plow is an accessory that is not necessary for ice fishing, but I felt the need to address it since it is a common winter accessory and it comes into play when setting up the four wheeler for ice fishing.  First of all, my use of the snow plow includes plowing out the parking area for my utility trailer, which is used for hauling my four wheeler on ice fishing expeditions, so it does have an indirect use.  Plows also come in handy for clearing areas on the ice, but I often remove mine when setting out on expeditions where I think it might turn into a liability if I have to navigate deep snow.  This means that an easily removable plow is a good choice.  I have found none better than the Moose Utility Division plows.  It drops with two pins, and is tough as nails.  I choose to raise and lower my plow with my Warn winch and a synthetic winch cable, but it can also be done with a manual setup.

With those mods, I think just about any 4×4 four wheeler can be turned into a relatively capable ice fishing machine.  Many folks would also add tire chains to the list, and I agree that they make a big difference in traction.  I have not, however, found a set that I like very much.  So far, I have had good luck with my machine in four wheel drive, and of course, it doesn’t hurt to ride an Arctic Cat which has significantly better ground clearance than other machines.

One final recommendation is to use a fixed hitch for towing ice shelters and sleds.  The first time I tried to tow my shelter with a rope, and stopped a little bit too fast, I realized I had a lot more control over what I was towing with a fixed tow bar.  Several companies make universal ones, and most ice shelter/sled companies make one for their products.

Enjoy the ice fishing season, and be safe!

This last summer, I stumbled across something I had been looking for, so I just had to buy it (sound familiar?).

In this case, it was a 14 foot aluminum boat on a pretty decent trailer, with a functional outboard–all for 800 bucks.  I was strolling along behind my infant daughter in her wheeled conveyance, and lo and behold, a block away from my house, there it was with a for sale sign.  I talked to the gentleman and soon had it hooked up to my pickup and had it in my yard.  Looking it over, I was pleased, as he had done most of the work already on the 1984 Sea Nymph 14R.  He had painted the interior with a textured non-slip paint in a pleasing grey color, cut and finished plywood for the front and rear seat tops, and completely refinished the trailer and rewired it.  

Sea Nymph 14R with Honda 7.5 4-stroke

For my part, I stripped the decals and had a friend cut new ones for both the boat and motor, refinished the motor hood, installed rod holders, and mounted a RAM ball for my GPS.  Since I was working on my daughter’s boat project at the same time, I went ahead and cut a piece of marine plywood, epoxy sealed it, and replaced the transom pad for the motor, even though it was in fine shape.  I also installed horizontal rod holders, a net holder, tied on a new anchor line for the anchor that came with it, and extended the safety chains on the trailer.  Finally, I mounted a trolling motor mount on the right side of the transom for my electric motor, and made up a battery box with a battery level meter and 12V outlet for my GPS. 

Sea Nymph 14R showing off decals, rod holders, and RAM ball

Future plans include mounting swivel seats front and rear (since a brand new pair came with the boat along with the anchor) and installing a fish finder.  The 1970s Honda B75 four stroke 7.5 hp motor runs well for the most part, but is a little bit unproven, so I plan to switch it out for a newer 9.9 at the first opportunity.  That will gain me a little bit of necessary horsepower.  A 15 hp motor would be perfect on the little craft, but I have a lake that I really, really like to fish that has a 10 hp limit.

The little Honda 7.5 with its two bladed prop needs just a little more oomph.

In doing research on the Sea Nymph 14R, it seems to be a well respected boat.  It is of the variety of boats that generally came with a 15″ transom, so it takes short shaft motors.  They also made a 14 footer with a 20″ transom along the way, which pretty much made the transom straight across.  The benefit to that would have been easier trolling motor mounting and a little bit drier backtrolling, but I can live with my choice.  The best part of mine is its very light weight (I think around 114 lbs dry and empty).  The light weight, combined with the small 8-inch wheels of the trailer, make it very easy to load into extremely shallow places.  Considering the number of pothole lakes around me without boat ramps, I am now very well-equipped to fish places others pass by in search of concrete ramps.  

The little Sea Nymph doesn’t replace my 18 foot Lund 1800 Explorer, but it sure does give me a ticket to places I can’t take the big one.  If you think you can’t afford a boat, just wander around your neighborhood.  For a fairly low price, you might just run into something that will work in almost all but the windiest and largest of lakes.

—————-

Note: the epoxy sealer I mentioned using on both boat projects was obtained from Jamestown Distributors. It is Smith’s Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer.  The stuff is expensive, but worth every penny if it’s used with marine plywood.  A common mistake people make is using green-treated plywood on aluminum boats, which actually harms the metal and doesn’t last as long as properly sealed marine plywood.  Marine plywood is not treated. It is instead a higher grade of plywood that is free of voids.  Combined with the lack of places for moisture to collect and rot the wood from the inside out, the epoxy sealer turns marine plywood into something that will outlast most of us.

Summer Project #1 this year was rebuilding my daughter’s 1960-something Alumacraft Tampico II.  How did a 15 year old get a boat? She inherited it from her grandfather via an uncle.  Typical of many old aluminum boats, it was “improved” by someone along the way. Sporting a 40 horse Johnson of early 70s vintage, a set of worn-out control cables, and a dent or two, it didn’t look like much to anyone but a kid who really likes boats.  In addition, it had been fitted with a flat plywood floor, homemade seat pedestals, and storage hatches.  The problem with this kind of improvement is that it adds weight to a boat that didn’t come from the factory with a few hundred pounds of plywood, and that weight is added high enough to create a flat floor over the top of the original bottom, which means a higher center of gravity.  I always cringe when I see boat projects where people create a flat deck on top of an old boat with a 15″ transom and an original weight of only a few hundred pounds.

So what did we do? We ripped out all of the plywood and started over.  I also determined that the boat was probably not worth replacing the motor with a late-model 40 horse remote-steer outboard and all of the accoutrements. I figured a tiller with less horsepower would be a good match, which also solved the problem of what to do with the broken windshield.  It came off and I carefully cut the closed bow back a bit to provide a more open feel, while carefully planning reinforcement in that area so that the bow was not dangerously flexible.  I left most of the closed bow in place in case a bow-mount trolling motor was ever desired.  

With all of the plywood removed, I spent a large amount of time using Zinsser adhesive remover to take off the carpet glue that was EVERYWHERE on the thing.  Then I worked on the transom, removing the rotten inner and outer boards.  I bought a piece of 3/4″ marine plywood (the kind without voids and without being treated with chemical that attacks aluminum).  After I cut the transom pieces, clamped them in place, and drilled them out for bolts, I ordered epoxy sealer and used a liberal amount.  Once the transom was done, I designed two new bench seats complete with flotation foam underneath and treated those with epoxy sealer, as well.  For comfort and low maintenance, I covered them with marine carpet.  

With most of the work done (painting is next year’s project), I figured it was time to see if the old girl would float.  And float it did.  No leaks whatsoever, an experience I have had many times with aluminum boats far older than me (I own three aluminum boats, ranging from 8 to 48 years old, and none of them leak).  With all of the weight removed from the boat, I tested it with an old Honda 8 horse four stroke motor that I got from another project (Summer Project #2, which I will relate in another post).  Obviously, the boat did not plane, but it pushed it well enough to take my daughter and her cousin fishing and catch several northerns and show the potential of the boat.  I plan to find a fairly late model short-shaft tiller outboard in the 20-30 horse range for it at some point, as well as either refinish and rewire the trailer or replace it all together.

Not bad for a free boat.  With aluminum prices increasing in the last few years, and the cost of a new boat, I would say that I have a headstart for my daughter’s fishing and boating career.  Her grandpa’s boat is alive and well even though he has passed on. She can directly experience heritage through some fish swung over the side and into the old Alumacraft.

The obligatory pictures: