Fishboat Conversion

These boats are from my area I`ve been aboard the White one a bunch of times servicing the electronics. It is originally wood constuction and a number of years later would have been glassed over. The age of these boats have to be taken into consideration but the design of these boats are a from a long evolution of commercial fishing boats. They fish trough the winter here in all conditions. I own a 30 ft 1967 "glass over wood" of the same style and its still fairly solid.

Email me if you have any questions about the boats
Fragmentals@hotmail.com

I'm looking into getting an old bay shrimper and converting it into a stripped-down cruiser, but nothing fancy--just something to mess around in, take into the swamp to hunt ducks, and do some occasional bottom-fishing on. Does anyone know anything about converting shrimp boats or have any idea where I might find books, plans, or any information on the subject? Thanks a lot.

[CDBarry]

These are very like the deadrise boats seen here in the Ches. There are any number of them running as yachts, (many built as yachts originally) and the owners seem to be happy with them.

[mmd]

Just in case anyone is interested in what these conversions look like, a couple of pictures of a 42-ft Northumberland Strait lobster boat converted to a cruiser by a client of mine:

Fred, I have a 1977 50' Uniflight. I could get about 3 MPG at 8.0 knots at 1,300 rpm. I have the navy manel on the engine, and it posts 65 shaft hp at 1250 rpm. Mine is the 1.5:1 Twin Disc with a 24x22 prop. At 1,500 rpm the fuel consumption went to about 2 mpg (or less) and only picked up about a knot. The mechanical governor has two settings, regular and battle. Regular is 165 hp at 1,800 rpm, and battle is 225 hp at 2,100 rpm. I'm currently in Venice, Florida, repowering with a new John Deere Marine 4050 and Twin Disc 2.5:1 transmission. Art