Project Boat
- This topic has 202 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated Jul 6, 2020 at 7:56 pm by
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I’ve fished down in Islamorada with B. Hoffman – It’s a cool place. I’d like to spend more time in the backcountry where the fish don’t get as much pressure.
Where your hook ups over on the ocean side?
Yeah, they were on the ocean side. We poled around some of the back country flats for a while, but didn’t have as much activity.
Haha. Pretty funny Steve. Are you looking for fish pictures? If so, I posted a couple on the previous page of this thread.
My bad….I see them now. I love the Islamorada / Marathon area. I try to steer clear of Key Largo and Key West. I fished there off and on since I was a kid. Did you run across any good restaurants or lodging? We typically stay at the Fiesta Key KOA at mm70. They have their own boat ramp, tiki bar, beachside restaurant, bait shop, cabins and tent sites….basically everything you need.
To bring your thread back o track……your Gheenoe would work well on the bayside. Maybe a trip to Flamingo as well!
Nice job on the boat.
Steve,
It is an awesome area. I have only been a few times, but we kind of stick to the same routine as far as places to stay and areas to fish. I was thinking the whole time about how the Gheenoe would do in that area. It might be worth a try sometime. For now though, we need to run some local trials to see how it will perform. I can’t wait to get on the water!Hey guys –
Ok, I said the spectacular stuff was mostly done with, but to me, today was the day when the Gheenoe really came into its own.
First a little background. Andrew and I intended to fish the boat on Saturday. We had completed all but a couple sections of the underlying paint job and we had the engine back from the shop. Alas, boating being boating, it was not to be. Andrew had purchased an “Evinrude” 5/8ths fuel line clip to attach the fuel line to the 8hp Evinrude outboard, but something was wrong. We had to tweak the clip with a file to make it fit, then it wouldn’t run the engine. We ran over to the boat shop which had overhauled Andrew’s engine, and when they clipped on with their fitting, it fired right up. Having primed it, clipping our line on worked fine, but when we got back to the river (total round trip: 1 hr 30 min), the engine died within 2 minutes of us setting out. Apparently the carburetor had enough fuel in it to power the boat for exactly 2 minutes. Although we got a good taste of how easy this boat is to pole upriver (relatively easy under the circumstances), this was not an auspicious start. Clearly we need a different $5 fuel line clip, but the boat shop doesn’t open until tomorrow.
Here’s the boat loaded for the abortive trip:
So, having exhausted our fishing options, we decided to basically finish the interior paint job. I think you’ll agree that it looks pretty remarkable. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves now.
So here we have the whole boat out in the sun so you can appreciate the color.
At this point, we are getting close to total project completion. Andrew has a brother in law with a paint shop setup who he may ask to take a look at the exterior; we could roll it and make it look good but it seems a shame not to use our available resources considering how much meticulous work went into this thing.
And of course we need some accessories, like a poling platform, some padding, etc. But that will all come in time; the point is, we’re now 99% to our fishable boat goal.
A quick word about why we splattered it. First off, the very smooth boat paint we used was highly shiny, making photography in the boat (a primary goal) tricky. We needed to take that down. Secondly, and this doesn’t show up well in the photos, but the texture of our additions, using different fiberglass, varied in several places from the factory texture in a way that was very noticeable. Our best surfaces were our decks, predictably, so we decided to cut those out and save them. But, ultimately, Gheenoe uses a splattered finish in the factory for a reason. Once the splattering was down, it was obvious why: every imperfection in the underlying paint just disappears. Personally, I like it.
For comparison, here’s the original boat again:
Zach
It’s looking great…you guys picked up one of these yet?
We’ll probably be putting an order in for a TFO pushpole soon, but for now we actually have a pretty serviceable piece of river cane.
Zach
Hey guys –
We finally had a full day on the water in the new boat. Andrew’s engine had been cutting out due to a mismatched carburetor housing, but he got that fixed. Unfortunately, Bull Sluice Lake on the Hooch was extremely muddy and off color. While we got plenty of shots at carp, we couldn’t convince any to eat. That’s fine; we were really just out to get used to the boat and get comfortable poling. We still have to paint the exterior and accessorize quite a bit, but we’ve made huge progress and we now have a legitimate skiff to fish out of.
Oh, and some performance notes.
drop that bad little boy in at Paces and head below the 41 bridge just before dark and you might get a big surprise! 😉
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