porta-bote bow piece for trollong motor

[G_Sonn]

Hi all.
I just bought a 12' porta-bote genesis iv. It's a pretty neat little boat. It almost ate me during my first setup, but that was my fault. It's pretty cold still, so I figured I'd take the opportunity to make some "upgrades". First thing I want to do is to make a good bow piece for it. It's a pretty straightforward project but I was wondering if anyone here had done it before and what worked out (or didn't) for them. I want to mount my trolling motor to it so I would assume that this would probably mean making it to fit just under the black rubber gunwales(?) with a piece that sticks out from the opening at the bow to mount the motor to. the problems I see with this immediately are how to keep it in place, and the loss of spray deflection functionality. If I cut it just right, the pressure of the boat would probably hold it in place, but I don't want to rely on just that. maybe just hold it there with cotter pins like everything else? If anyone has any prior experience with this, I'd love to hear what you've done.

Thanks

 

[barato2]

Re: porta-bote bow piece for trollong motor

wow, a live body in the PB forum! i've done exactly what you mention, altho it's been a work in progress as i keep refining the design. i fish offshore with mine (as in 20+ miles out...see the "Orca bait returns to the Sea of Cortez" thread for pics) and was worried about taking waves over the bow....the chintzy plastic piece the factory provides is a joke, altho it works OK in its new role as a shop dustpan. anyway, here's a less than ideal pic

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it's made of 1/2" ply, saturated with super thinned epoxy before painting. the "V" shaped thing is oak strips, about 1x3, screwed in place with SS screws through the base, to divert water away from the boat when i do take a wave over the bow. it has worked as intended and actually keeps stuff in the bow (ditch bag and spare outboard) fairly dry even on rough days. i put the rubber clips in to hold my landing net in place when the boat is flexin and rollin. i cut it so it actually overlaps the hull sides and right now, have it secured to the boat with short nylon rope pieces. this allows more flex than i like(as you can kinda see in this pic!) and before next trip south, i will be making some simple brackets so i can bolt it solidly to hull., brackets will stay attached to board and be attached to holes in hull sides with SS 10-24 machine screws and wingnuts, so boat will still fold properly. FWIW, on all my various wood additions to the boat, i've found the combo of SS screws and mild-steel nuts works well....not hard to install/remove but the minor corrosion helps act as the poor man's Loctite.

 

[barato2]

Re: porta-bote bow piece for trollong motor

oh, and you can't see it in this pic, but there is a section of motorcycle inner tube screwed to the front edge and hanging down to prevent water from coming up the "snoot" of the boat, and it's also worked as planned. overall, i'd do this again in a heartbeat but would make up some simple angle brackets from scrap aluminum....i think fastening them to the wood so they fit INside the hull while the board hangs over the top will give you the most rigid setup.

a few more pix:

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rod and gaff holder

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rod holders....the one on transom is through-bolted and on the outside of hull, holds bracket for sonar transducer

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close up of rod holder.....i just drilled right through the hull and they've stood up to trolling strikes from sailfish and 25 lb yellowtail without any stress marks on hull or hole elongation

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[G_Sonn]

Re: porta-bote bow piece for trollong motor

Thanks for all the great pics and info. I'm glad you responded to this, I wanted to thank you. I was on the fence between a porta-bote and an inflatable for a while I was (trying) to so some research and it was your orca bait in the sea of cortez post and some others that pushed me over to the porta-bote side. It's really hard to find anything out about these boats without hearing from "Sandy". I was all set to buy an inflatable at that point, I saw your post and decided on a lark to put up an ad on craigslist to see if anyone wanted to sell their porta-bote. The next day, I had a 12' gen. IV for $400. WAY less than I would have paid for the inflatable (I'll probably use the savings to get a bigger and better motor than my gamefisher 3.0). So thank you.

I started on my bow piece yesterday afternoon since it is still really cold here (Northeast Florida), I'll put some pics up once I get a chance. I ended up going with an hourglass shape having it fit just below the black edge pieces. It adds a few inches up front (for a trolling motor mount) and runs back to where the foam starts. It's a lot like a short, seatless, ladderless version of "official" part they sell. But now, I'm actually thinking about making another part more like yours and attaching it to the lower piece with wingnuts or something. It seems like this would lock it in place really securely and get the good spray protection of your design too. I'm still experimenting with designs. The main things I want up there are the red/green light, and a cleat. I have terrible luck with the clamp on lights. I thought it would be nice the get the trolling motor up front to even out the weight a little and give any passengers something to do once in a while. But I don't usually fish like that so I'm still not sure. I guess I want the option of putting it up there. Every sturdy seeming design I come up with has it getting in the way of the light I have.

Have you had any experience with any adhesives on the hull? I was thinking about putting strips of velcro vertically inside of the hull to keep oars, rods, and such off of the floor. Maybe even mount the the fishfinder head unit with velcro. So, thanks again for all the input, I've got some tinkering and pondering to do.

 

[barato2]

Re: porta-bote bow piece for trollong motor

i'd be dubious about many adhesives being able to stand up to the combination of MAJOR flexing, lots of water, etc.....maybe a "shoe goo" type of thing. but no, i've just bolted everything through the hull rather than used adhesives, so no experience. the plastic drills very easily and stands up to serious brutalizing.......i've run it hard aground at full throttle and once even hit a concrete bridge abutment solidly in 2008 (i wasn't drunk, just coming back to unlighted landing in Mexico at night) and the only effect was a faint white stress line from latter.
but the flex is really prodigious if you get up over 7-8mph or are in big or choppy seas.....keeping everything out of the center of the bilge is a real challenge. i have a similar wood side rail on the strbd side, to which i tie my tackle boxes and with holes for pliers, knife, etc. fishbox also gets tied to the hull on both sides for same reason. your speed limit is when the hull bottom starts to bow outward and set up an oscillation. trimming the motor up a notch or 2 often helps.

it's been going to MExico with me for over 5 years now and getting beat to hell on every trip with no real ill effects. run aground more than a few times; i've gotten cavalier about just driving it up onto rocks to unload my snorkel-happy wife and once drove it all the way up inside a sea cave. lots of approaches to stuff i'll have to "unlearn" when i get the bigger, damage-able, boat down there! i did have to replace the seat hinges but considering i regularly take it out in 5'+ seas and have had it in 12' seas once, i can't complain. last trip (the one you saw pix of), it was a third of the way across to Baja....22 out of 75 miles. the term "unsinkable" has been proven to be inaccurate before but this thing literally is made 100% out of stuff with a lower specific gravity than water except for a few rivets and stainless hdwe bits. and it's seaworthy as hell....before i saw what it would do in big seas, even ones starting to break over me, i wouldn't have believed it. it floats so high that you can drive it through and over stuff that would likely swamp an equiv size tinnie. i even left it below the high tide line once (don't ask...) and awoke at 3 am to find it floating away......slowly, since it was filled to the gunwales with sand and salt water! but it was floating. (plug here for the Eagle sonar, which sat submerged in salt water and fine fine sand for sevl hours and still works like new) it takes on the tiniest bit of water the first day but never more than i take over the side on a rough day.

so basically, i've unintentionally verified most all of Sandy's claims. altho i detest his attitude as much as anyone.....unwillingness to admit that your product has any issues is not the way to improve your product. and as you found, it's silly to buy a new one; you got a hell of a deal as i paid 700 for my Gen II used. but i haven't yet found another boat that can ride 700 miles on top of my Taco with me getting 21-23mpg, be beach launched, and then go way out to sea hunting billfish, dorado, tuna etc.

i've found that mine prefers to have most of the weight towards the stern, esp in any kind of seas. it's a pig with my 215 lb buddy in bow. YMMV.

 

[G_Sonn]

Re: porta-bote bow piece for trollong motor

Do people in big boats ever try to "rescue" you when you're out that far?

So, work and life have been interfering with my progress. I haven't really accomplished anything on the bow piece. I did manage to take some pics with it just wedged in place, though. I've just got the light and cleat sitting there in the second pic, I'm still working out where to put everything. I still haven't decided what to do about the trolling motor mount. I don't think I'm going to bother for now, I don't ever fish like that, so it seems like a bunch of trouble for nothing.





I think the plan is going to be making a second piece more like yours and put the light and cleat on that one. I think I may attach blocks to the lower piece the height of the black edging and attach the two pieces with wing-nuts along the length of the blocks, locking both in place. I'll post some more pics, it's hard to explain.

I think I'm off on Thursday and it looks like it will be somewhat warmer so, hopefully, I'll take her out for the maiden (to me) voyage.

 

[barato2]

Re: porta-bote bow piece for trollong motor

i like your design so far....that vertical bulkhead may be a really good idea.

i commonly find myself fishing near the various charter outfits, but none of them has tried to "rescue" me, yet. the last trip, i left a red hot sailfish bite, tho, because i was getting nervous about fuel to get home, and after demonstrating the hubris to take this thing 22 miles out, i was damn sure NOT going to ask anyone for a tow if i ran out of gas. this experience is what has me thinking about some transom bracing so i can use my 10hp Honda in lieu of current 8hp Rude 2-stroke....two 6-gallon tanks would troll a lot further with a 4 stroke.

good luck on your maiden voyage!