Scott canoe, tunnel

Hi. New here. I am giving serious consideration to cutting into the hull of my 21' Scott freighter canoe and making a jet tunnel for it. I know it is not a planing hull, but I need to run in shallow water and need a tunnel, if at all feasible. Presently I am running a 23 hp Mud Buddy, surface drive motor and it is doing OK, but I can't run super shallow with it. I have run a 25 hp Yamaha w/ a jet on this canoe before, and it did OK, but w/ no tunnel I had to run the jet down way too deep to run as shallow as I need to. I think a tunnel would be doable. Does anyone have any experience installing a tunnel on a canoe? I am thinking of a tunnel about 3' long, 3" deep, roughly 10" wide toward the bow and 14" wide at the transom. I'd push the canoe with a 30 hp Honda. The back of the canoe is about 32 9/16" wide, plus or minus several inches, and I could easily widen it by adding bulges on each side. Any ideas? Thanks. john

 

You probably ought to try a paddle wheel if you need to be in water that thin.

 

before cutting up the boat, how fast do you need to run and what terrain is under that shallow water?

I'd first try modding the jet outboard with some sort of Water Gathering extension. Not sure what shape exactly but maybe something with wheels on each side that will roll over the bottom (and/or "roll" atop the water in shallow water) and at the same time 'pump' water toward the jet-outboard's intake.

 

I would think a shallow rectangular shaped tunnel terminating at the transom just high enough that the OB jet unit would be above the bottom of most of the canoe. The tunnel would probably only need to be about 6" wide.

Loading the canoe to level would allow operation in shallower water.