My Redneck Project and some questions

Well first off I want to say hello. Im from Georgia, but moved Kenner, La about 8 months ago for a job. So far, so good. Now that I've started finding places to fish and run my boat, I've decided to tear into it to revive the old girl. The boat isn't a yacht nor bass boat, but it needs some attention and it will get me to the redfish when it's time to start sight fishing.

The boat is a 15' RiverHawk. It has 10hp Long tail mud engine that is soon to be upgraded to a 23hp.





I started to tear into it this weekend by removing the water saturated foam in the stern. I removed a total of 52 pounds! The boat (no engine) weighs 250. Needless to say that was a large amount of unneeded weight. Im going to use styrofoam when I go back in to refoam.



Next I removed the rear seat to install a large seat/deck and install a seat pedestal mount like the front.








I also installed some supports for the wood deck. They have since been fiberglassed in to keep moisture out.



That's all I have accomplished as of now, but Im second guessing putting in the wood deck. I had planned on fiberglassing the wood top and bottom but now am thinking about making the rear deck larger and using some other type of material. PVC??? I want to keep this boat as light as possible and try to steer clear of wood if able.

So my question is, do yall have any recomendations on relatively inexpensive deck material??? This is a hunting and fishing boat so its not going to win any awards but it will get used pretty roughly so I need it to be tough.

I can get more pictures if any one would like.
Thanks for any help!

 

MODS, if this is in the wrong forum I appologize.

 

This is the right forum - welcome!

 

For simple light deck material, its hard to beat the price, weight ratio of Okume marine plywood. 120 dollars for a half inch 4x8 sheet that weighs 40 lbs..


Id think your deck would be half inch Okume ply with a bit of light framing then covered with 10oz fiberglass cloth set in epoxy.


Nidacore is also an option, but a sheet would be twice as expesive.

 

I'll look into it.

I thought about looking for a large sheet of .100 Gauge aluminum and putting down HydroTurf. Like I said this is a hunting and fishing boat...

 

Hi chaps

I am probably completely off the mark hear (oh by the way love the hunting boat) but do you have the new plastic shipping crates. We call them pallets, anyway the things that you put Boxes on to load onto trucks.
The distance between the deck and seat looks about right and cut to shape and covered in ally would cost sod all, be light and strong.
Anyway I havnt built a boat yet and know sod all.

Iain

We also have sheets of roofing fiberglass around one meter square and a quater of an inch thick. Even cheaper than ally plate.

 

Shipconstructor experts...

Hi, this is my first post, and I apologize if it's in the wrong forum. I work with a lot of shipyards in the US helping them find ShipConstructor gurus. We have a hard time finding folks with the software. If any of you are looking for work or looking for a new challenge, please send me a private message. We have opportunities all over the United States.

Thanks!

 

Staffing you would have better luck in the employment section of the board.

 

Stumble...can you point me in that direction? Thanks!