Deck Structure of a bass boat...

BitterSweet

Cadet
Joined
Nov 11, 2009
Messages
21
guys first off, I am abliged to be part of your forum. I have been reading articles and post on this website for years and finally joined. I have been sailing my hole life but am very new to power boats...

I recently traded a small motorcycle to a fellow in south carolina, the boat i got was a 78 ProCraft with 140 hp evinrude. the motor purred but the fuselage, deck or cockpit is in rough shape to put it nicely. this does not scare me to much cuz i deal with composites and painting in my profession.

Ok so the point, there is rotten wood under the seats and under a few of the live wells. I am not much of a fisher and will mostly use this boat to cruise around and pull my old lady on a tube so i was thinking of modifying parts of the deck. What i want to know is how much of those live wells are important to the structure of the boat if at all? I wanted to cut some of them out and build with marine plywood and glass to kind of accomidate my uses of the boat a bit more. I dont care about the value of the boat cuz as is the hull and transom are in good shape but the dell is landfill material. ill see bout gettin some pics up.. let me know what you think..will i have to add stringers if im just gonna remove some of the live wells and fiberglass moldings (not the hull) to add stuctural support... I was gonna remove this before i start re decking so that when i build back up i dont have to worry about gettin back in there. thanks yall :cool:

also i was thinkin of naming my boat Bitter Sweet... what do you think? It Kinda suites the boat in that i finally got one but it needs a lot of love.
 

Knightgang

Lieutenant
Joined
Oct 6, 2003
Messages
1,428
Re: Deck Structure of a bass boat...

Hey there BS (could not resist)...


Welcome to iboats... you will learn alot here...

I think the deck is more important structually in a bass boat than the livewells are... Go ahead and rip it up and build it back the way you like.. You can learn alot from the Restoration forums, and remeber to post pics of your makover....
 

BitterSweet

Cadet
Joined
Nov 11, 2009
Messages
21
Re: Deck Structure of a bass boat...

Hey there BS (could not resist)...


Welcome to iboats... you will learn alot here...

I think the deck is more important structually in a bass boat than the livewells are... Go ahead and rip it up and build it back the way you like.. You can learn alot from the Restoration forums, and remeber to post pics of your makover....

thanks buddy.... yea i tend to do that when i get excited about something...
 
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