Building a boat for Texas flats.

Hi, I would like to introduce myself as I am new to this forum. My name is Richard, and I am wanting to build a small flat bottom boat for fishing on the flats. I have been looking at a few scooter type boats and think that is the way I want to go. The design looks simple enough so I would like to try and design it myself. I have not built a boat before, but i am very familiar with carpentry and fiberglass work. I also know I can go online and buy the blueprint and instructions for the construction, But that seems to take some of the satisfaction away. I want to draw my own blueprints if at all possible. Does anyone know where i can find online learning material that would teach the basics of hull design?
This is just a quick mock up of what I want to build.

 

Unless you are friendly to paddlewheels (which are well suited to very shallow water and don't much damage things like sea grass which can cause you problems in some jurisdictions) or Archimedes amphibious screws (which can do mud and sand too) a tunnel hull flats boat is definitely the way to go.

But these don't seem like they should be simple hulls to design because of how they need to develop lift.

Here is another thread for this subject:

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/tunnel-design-help-flats-skiff-1615.html

 

These are a few pictures of inspiration.

 

Welcome to the forum.

Not for nothing, but designing one of these tunnels, flats or sea sled types, takes a lot of understanding about the dynamics involved. You'd be best advised to buy a set of plans. For $85 bucks you can have the Bateau.com Texas 18, which is as shoal and shallow running a flats boat as you can get. Considering the cost of a set of plans, where the engineering and hydrodynamic effort is already worked out, a very reasonable investment. You'll spend more than this in just primer, under the paint.

 

I like it, I thought about this design also making something a bit smaller for me, something like the pictured boat with the centered raised storage section and incorporating the seating low and into the top of the storage, narrow the storage a bit so that i can strattel the storage section comfortably and flat footed, kind of like a motor cycle or a PWC seating position, I like low seating, and keeping the weight Low as possible, I like smaller lighter boats. Less is More

 

http://www.boatdesigns.com/18-1_2-Flats-Flyer-Florida-flats-boat/products/821/
I have always loved the looks of this boat.

 

Nothing quite that crazy, really need a v hull for what I do and anything less than 1.5 feet of water I've got no reason to go into anyway, but here's my flatts boat - just a gutted and customized old 17 foot starcraft hull. Is time for a paint job, never really got around to that.

It holds everything under the deck - 3 batteries, 25 gallons of fuel, ~300 lbs of fish, anchor, life jackets, and even enough foam to make it unsinkable - everything. Has a jack plate so you can raise the engine up real high in shallow water at slow speed, plus allows for a closed transom without much of a setback bracket. Is setup specifically for night time commercial striped bass fishing in the northeast US..

I wouldn't build the hull of wood, better to make a mold and build the hull thoughtfully out of solid glass or closed cell foam core IMHO.

Jon

 

Texas flats cat

Take a look at www.specmar.com, catamarans, hull 1845. Click on the pdf and you will see a little cat similar to your sketch.

 

building one really pays off

My father and i built our 20ft flats cat from ground up. everything you see has been built minus the obvious motor, jack plate, wires etc.. I took us about a full year to design and build. The total cost including the tools to do it is about $18,000 not including time and labor. This has been a 100% weekend build in my driveway. Hope you enjoy the photos and please let me know what you guys think.