dont rock the boat

Project Wow! Don’t rock the boat!
By Jon Neafcy
Going Afloat
A poll on the internet no too long ago by Pike & Predators demonstrated just how popular boat fishing for pike is now, compared with several years ago. Many threads often crop up on the P&P boat fishing forum regarding boat refurbishment, which I thought I would cover in this article.
My own boat fishing experience started as a boy. I often fished on lake Windermere for trout, Eel’s & Char with my uncle from his Orkney spinner type boat. Apart from the Char men we never used to see many other fishing boats, the lake was rarely pike fished & there was hardly a roach in sight, a far cry from the Windermere of today indeed. I loved being out in the boat & learned how to row, use the engine, anchor up, troll artifices, float-fish from a boat using homemade sliding floats etc. It was inevitable I suppose that one day I would want a boat of my own. I will relate the events leading upto & the way that me & my mate went about refurbishing the current boat.
I have now owned several boats over the years in various shapes & sizes & these include an Orkney Spinner with cuddy, a Seasafe 15ft cabin boat, a CJR Dory cabin boat, a 10ft low sided Orkney Dory, a Shetland 498 & one of my favourites a Dejon 14. Engines again have varied from a 2hp Suzuki 2 stroke upto a Mariner 25hp 4 stroke Bigfoot. All of these boats & engines have served me well but I have never found one boat that ideally suited all of my boat fishing needs. Over the last few years I have always owned more than one boat to cater for a range of boat fishing situations.
‘Don’t rock the boat’
Fast forward some 25 years since my first boat fishing session. On a still, crisp, fogy morning, me & my mate ‘Cookey’ were afloat on a very picturesque, scenic, Scottish loch, one we had not fished before, we had received good reports of it’s form for big pike & we were the only ones boat fishing, hopes of a good day were high. Then ‘WOW’ the boat rocked violently & waves of ripples disrupted the flat calm mirror like surface of this tranquil loch. Had the wind got up? Was there other boat activity? No! It was my mate Andy Cooke ‘punching’ his bait out ‘rocking the boat’. ‘WOW’ says I, ‘your going to sink us Cookey’ (the rest of the statement is not printable here, James could never permit that!)! Cookey looks back with the usual big grin on his face. The loch had a no petrol outboard policy & no proper slipway so we used my 10ft boat & electric engine, my other boat at the time a Dejon 14 had a 20hp Mariner on remotes fitted so no chance of using that here. The old 10ft boat had served me well for several years & is a very robust little boat that I have used for fishing alone on places such as Hickling Broad in Norfolk to the mighty Bala in North Wales (electric engines only hence boat size), it has never let me down & being the first boat I owned had a bit of sentimental value too. This boat had also been very useful on a localish council run reservoir where there is limited fishing boat access & I had taken some good pike on it. However it’s just not a two man boat it’s as simple as that & if weather conditions had not been favourable I would not have used it with 2 of us on the loch that day. After a good days piking with 11 pike to my rods & 4 to Cookey’s we retired to the bank. The boat had been on it’s limits that day, we decided that we needed another boat something that we could use on a variety of waters, with a tiller control engine so that we could change engine size easily. Initially the idea was to purchase an additional boat something like my uncle’s old Orkney spinner, but an open top version, however the birth of my daughter restricted my finances, so a re-think was needed. I would sell my other 2 boats & we would just buy one boat between us. We had discounted Aluminium boats or buying a new boat (unless a real bargain came up) due to cost. My Dejon 14ft cabin boat in very good condition, was sold to a mate without even being advertised (cheers Matt). The 10ft boat was also quickly sold to a guy from the Midlands.
Boat Specification
There are pros & cons with both open top & cabin boats, having owned both. Cabin’s restrict fishing room but are good for when the weather gets bad & you can sleep in them. Likewise there are pros & cons with different hull designs & with the materials the boat itself is made from & of the internal design (storage etc.). We decided that we wanted an open top boat, tiller control engine, plenty of deck space, nice & stable & roomy enough for two. I was not too bothered about buying a combined boat, trailer & engine package as past experience has shown it can be difficult to find a package where all three items are exactly what you want or indeed where all three items are all in good condition, especially with older equipment.
There are not too many boats that fit the spec we wanted for sale in Wigan & the surrounding area where we live & that’s not favourable to obtain a good price (Cookey is a real tight wad, tighter infact than two coats of paint). We were planning a fishing trip to Norfolk, from previous trips to the area I know there are a lot more boats (everyone has one?) & hence more boats for sale than in Wigan so we hatched a cunning plan to have a look for a suitable boat there. So the method behind our madness, or so to speak, was that we would have a reasonable choice at a competitive price. Add to this that we were in February when typically boat prices can be low, in my experience if you purchase a second hand boat, motor bike or open top car in summer then, as that’s when people want them inevitably prices go up, supply & demand. We made initial enquiries & initially were going towards an open top Orkney type 14ft boat with a built in floor & bilge keels for added stability. However a high sided 14ft Dory came up. I have had a Dory before although it was a 10ft low sided dory, it had many good features although it was too low for my liking. The high sided Dory sounded the part. Many Dory’s have a tri hull design making them very stable & also often have built in floors with under floor buoyancy, although they can be a little on the heavy side & can slap at anchor. We arranged to view the high sided Dory & met the likely lad in Norfolk. I know what to look for in boats & Cookey knows his stuff with trailers (he used to make them) so between us we took our time to investigate. The boat was structurally sound & very robust, it was on a decent galvanised road worthy trailer, the trailer however had not been set up correctly to suit the boat on the adjustable rollers (easy enough to remedy). The boat needed fully stripping down & a full re-paint it has obviously been several different colours in its time. The boat had potential, 14ft long, about 5 & half feet wide, plenty deck space, built in floor, if we removed the benches it could be a walk through, it had a tackle locker/casting deck at the front & being a tri-hull design it would be very stable, it also had stainless steel bow & side rails which we figured would be useful. We agreed a bargain price & the likely lad guaranteed us the boat was watertight & that the trailer was good however we think that our guarantee ran out once the money exchanged hands!
Test launch
We launched the boat on a river not far from where we bought it & tested it whilst it was tied up, it was very stable & didn’t leak in. It was late afternoon, we locked it up & left it overnight to ensure it really was watertight. After a dry night we arrived the next day to find to our relief that the boat really was watertight & had not sunk. We put the small outboard we had brought with us & off we went. Well we were not going to waste the opportunity to fish in Norfolk. We had a reasonable trip & I christened the boat with 4 doubles to 15.10 (pictured) & a couple of smaller fish. The boat towed the 250+ miles home without any problem & was parked up on my back drive. Now the real fun (Ok hard work) began.

Boat Re-furbishment
Firstly it was obvious that the boat had been painted several times on the hull before (the top of the boat was original gel coat but pitted & faded) so the hull needed fully stripping down. We stripped off the side & bow rails & removed the bench seats & after preparing the top of the boat we turned it upside down & jet washed off the loose paint on the hull, I then applied some paint stripper & removed all the loose stuff before we sanded it down to finish off removing all the paint going from coarse to fine sand paper. The boat needed a little filling here & there, fibreglass kit is readily available from boat shops & car spares shops alike as are the various types of filler, however we later found a fibreglass supplier who sold the stuff much cheaper. Our advice is to read the boxes & ask in the shop for advise if your not sure what to use. Andy’s has done up a few classic cars in his time so this job was easy to him, even me who has not done too much before filling etc. before found it easy enough.
Timings
The key we found was to do a little work on the boat often, an hour or two here & there on a regular basis was better than trying to rush it all in one go. We had all the usual comments that you would expect from passers by including from an old submariner telling us about his experiences ‘during the war’ to comments like ‘they built the QE2 quicker’! At last all the sanding & filling was done & the boat was nice & smooth & beginning to look OK.
Painting
We toyed with the idea of painting the boat green but as it had originally been white with a blue top that’s what we went for, keeping the boat as original as possible. We went for white undercoat & White Gloss top coat for the hull & mid blue undercoat & mid blue gloss for the top. The best value boat paint we found was from the Rylard’s range, having used this & other paint ranges before, Rylard’s represents quality at a sensible price. We decided we did not have the facility available to us to spray the boat so it would be hand painted. We didn’t have anywhere inside to paint the boat so it would be painted outside on my back drive in the open air. We raised the boat up onto drums for painting to avoid excessive bending & to avoid dust. Fortunately we did not have to wait too long for some nice warm, dry weather in April suitable for painting. After some enquiries & advice on the web forum (thanks lads) we opted for long handled rollers with 4 inch foam rollers & foam brushes, which I must say saved time over brushing & gave a very nice finish. We gave the boat a test coat of undercoat & thankfully it looked good enough to continue to the top coat. The next day we applied another coat of undercoat & the day after gave it a very light sanding with fine sand paper. Then it was time to apply the top coat, we applied 3 coats of top coat, with the final coat left for a few days. I have seen the keel of many a boat get damaged & one boat I have owned the Orkney spinner had a strip of metal along the keel to prevent this, ‘keel band strip’ which prevented damage (found out this it’s official name on the P&P forum). After a bit of a tour of the internet I found some places that sold ‘keel band strip’ & although not cheap we figured if a jobs worth doing its worth doing properly so we bought some & it was easy enough to fit to the boat hull, sealing the screws as we went along. After this we turned the boat back upright & onto the trailer to finish off painting the top, which fortunately needed much less work.
Power
This gave us a bit of a challenge, due to the different waters we would be fishing & the various rules & regulations governing them, we decided that we needed the some options, as following –
Main engine - A powerful engine to get the boat on the plane to cope with the big lakes & lochs
Smaller/Auxilary engine - A smaller engine to be used as the main engine for the waters where we go that have a 5hp maximum rule, this could also be used as an auxiliary engine on the bigger waters (good idea face)
Electric - An electric trolling engine for waters where petrol outboards are not permitted such as Bala in North-Wales & for other uses such as float trailing
Main Engine -
We took advise on what it would take go get the boat on the plain & also found the boat to be rated to 40hp (at least). We decided to look for a big lump of an engine in the 20-30hp range, tiller control. As most boat owners probably know there are generally two sizes of engine short shaft & long shaft, this is dependant on the height of the transom(back) of the boat. Typically anything upto 16 ¾ inch is short shaft & anything over this although typically 20-22 inch is long shaft. There are added complications though lifeboats can be 18 inch (medium shaft) & some boats require an extra long shaft engine (transom of around 25 inch I believe). I read somewhere that there is an optimum for the trim plate to be 50mm under the water, it’s always best to check with a reputable supplier or the manufacturer if you are unsure, anyway I digress, our dory is 21 inch at the transom so it’s a long shaft. Our quest for the main engine was a bit of drawn out one, just when we thought we had found one the dealer we went to let us down, the owner constantly telling us to ‘ring him back next week’ it became like a vicious circle. In the end it became clear there was a problem so we didn’t ‘ring him back’ yet again. As 2 stroke engines are being phased out (by 2016 I believe on existing & can no longer be made/imported new) our preference was for a 4 stroke, they are also more economical, less polluting & quieter, on the down side they cost more to buy & are heavier than a 2 stroke. However a second hand 4 stroke matching our requirements can be a rare beast to find. My uncle came up trumps & found us a 25hp, 4 stroke Tohuatsu, 2005 model from a main dealer a trade in at a good price (thanks uncle Ed). It was a long drive down to Aldershot to collect the engine, but well worth it. Tohatsu I believe are made by Nissan & the reports from other anglers are very favourable, they are quite light for their class too. This engine will give us plenty of power when we need it moving long distance from swim to swim on large glacial lakes & when the weather gets bad, however it will slow right down for trolling deep diving lures. For really slow trolling & float trailing we will use an electric engine.
Smaller Engine/Auxilary -
Our old 4hp Yamaha would be no use on the venues we fish where power is restricted to a maximum of 5hp as it is a short shaft & the boat is long shaft, although it would have done for an auxiliary had we wished to fit a variable auxiliary bracket. So the 4HP Yamaha was sold. A smart 2006 model 4hp long shaft Tohatsu came up on the P&P boat fishing web forum at a reasonable price, this sounded just the ticket & as luck would have it was local to us, I nipped down to Southport & looked at the engine it was like brand-new & we bought it off its previous owner a keen Southport piker called Steve (thanks mate) & another good contact was made.


Electric
There are several makes & models available, personally I’ve found the Minn-Kota range to be the best, but with all the money we had already spent this was a luxury that we could not afford so it was back on e bay for a bargain. We needed something with as high a pounds thrust as possible (engines are generally rated in pounds thrust as opposed to horsepower). I have used several types before & the Zebco Rhino & Shakespeare outboards represent good value for money, I have used them before in the lower pounds thrust on smaller boats, so that’s what we were looking for but in the highest pounds thrust rating they do in these makes which is 54lb thrust (equivalent to about 2hp, or so I am told). Initially we drew a blank trying to find a bargain then a 54lb Shakespeare came up at a bargain price & it was less than an hour’s drive away. I went over & checked it out it was in good condition & another purchase was made.
Trailer
The trailer needed a little work re-aligning the rollers which we did before we did any work on the boat. Once the rollers were aligned the bolts were re-tightened & tack welded into place. For the cost of it, its always advisable to replace the wheel bearings on any second hand trailer you buy, so we did this & bought a spare set of bearings just incase. We replaced the trailer tyres with mini wheel tyres as these have a better rating, however with tyres its often better to spend a few extra quid rather than buy the cheapest make (as we found out!).
Extras
We decided to make the dory self draining into the bilge under the fitted floor so we fitted a boat plug to the rear of the boat floor & cut out a square of the fibreglass floor & fitted an electric bilge pump & then replaced the glass adding some matting. When we cut out the fibreglass to fit the bilge pump we found out that under the floor had been filled with buoyant foam so we dug some out to make a gallon or two’s bilge. We put a carpet throughout the floor of the boat, I have previously found gel back (rubber back) carpet very good for boats & use the office style (like carpet tiles but on a roll), a suitable sized piece in dark blue was obtained for £35 from the local carpet roll end place, this was easy enough to cut to shape with a sharp Stanley type knife. We decided not to fit boat seats & would use seat-boxes as this gave us the flexibility to move them around in the boat to suit the methods & venue etc. For rod holders I have used 40mm waste pipe & associated fittings before & this was no exception so the rods could be transported out of the way. I have always found bow & keel rollers to be very hand especially for good sized anchors, so these were also purchased & added. We are looking to add a charging circuit/lead to the engine to charge up a 12v battery for various uses, until then we have fitted a small solar panel to the battery box. We replaced the worn rope cleats with new ones. The boat transom engine mounting plates were taken off, cleaned up & re-fitted.
Fish finder/GPS
I have previously used a mid range Eagle fish finder & found them competitively priced & easy to use. I have also use a hand held GPS in the past, however both of these were sold to Matt with my Dejon boat. I have always liked the look of the combined fish finder/GPS units but it’s only the price that has ever put me off. I though I had found a reasonable priced second hand one but the seller would not budge on price, a price which I thought was a bit too much, then another one came up, a nearly new Eagle Cuda 240 Combined fish finder/GPS was purchased at a price that didn’t break the bank. This was mounted onto of a battery box so that we could move it around in the boat if we needed to.


Maiden Voyage
The time finally came for the boats maiden voyage, the boat was trailered upto a large glacial lake, she towed easily, we were keen to get the rods out at long last as most of our free time over the last three months had been spend doing up the boat. She launched no problem at all & off we went & she was soon christened with a couple of fighting fresh snappers. The weather was quite fine when we launched however as the day went on it deteriorated & the waves got upto over 3ft, with the wind howling & the rain lashing it down, it got to a point where some sailors on the lake had to be taken to safety by the rescue boat but the high sided dory handled it & the lake warden gave us a casual wave as he passed us on another mission. I managed one low double & Andy Cooke took the honours with two good doubles. The project now almost complete & the maiden voyage very much a success. At the end of the trip the boat was easily recovered back onto the trailer for the journey home, another piker came over admiring the boat telling us what a decent looking boat he thought it was, this was the icing on the cake for us.
So there we have it our bespoke high sided tri-hull Dory, long, wide, stable open top with a pull up cuddy & engine options for a reasonable price. So did we save any money doing it this way? Well that depends on how you look at it, you could buy a combined Dory, engine & trailer package for less than what we paid, in the end, however I have not seen any for sale that would have met our exact requirements so to me it’s been money well spent. Having just one boat (or half a boat actually being a co-owner) will certainly reduce my service & maintenance costs & trailering the boat eliminates costly storage fees. Also I feel that I will have an added sense of pride & achievement in the fish we catch from the boat & being able to tell other anglers that we re-furbished the boat our selves. I hope that this article is useful to you if you have a boat to buy or are thinking of refurbishing your existing boat. Since the test launch we have added some boat name & pike stickers to the hull to personalise it (see photos) & we are looking to add a spray screen, we have now had several good trips in the boat & we are both more than happy with its performance & specification, will this boat satisfy my boat requirements all round & long term though, well only time will tell…………….!
Tight Lines Jon Neafcy Wigan Piker