# My new aluminum skiff!



## marshman (Feb 9, 2007)

nice...i love nice shiny new aluminum...lol ....


whos building it?? all 1/8th??(.125 gauge)


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## justindfish (Dec 5, 2008)

The boat is a Bosco Boat, he's a small builder in Orange, Texas. I see were your from so you know about custom aluminum boats bet that's not your first one to see. And yes the hull is all 5086 alloy .125" thick it will have 7 longitudinal stringers and then 2x2" square cross bracing here's a link to a boat he finished mid 08" in a little futher stage than mine is now.

http://www.microskiff.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1228456532/0#0


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## OSWLD (Apr 20, 2008)

Does this guy make a lot of these kinda boats? When you said step hull i was thinkin it was gonna be like like an stephulled airboat before i looked at the pics. I was curious if this guy builds airboat hulls as well. You'd think he'd have more of a jig built to make these hulls.

Really cool though. After checkin out that link and seein a finished one i can see how you would be pumped on gettin this thing in the water. lookin forward to some after shots.


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## marshman (Feb 9, 2007)

im a fabricator/welder by trade..used to have a little small time fab shob..built and helped build a couple boats over the years...not equipped to do it nowdays, though...ive since crossed over to the dark side of composite building...much lighter construction...im building 2 different hulls right now...one of which will definately stir the pot around the microskiff world if i can ever get moving to get it complete....lol ;D ;D


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## marshman (Feb 9, 2007)

ah..yes.. i just looked at the link...i remember when you posted those pics a while back..im very curious about the performance of that step...we run vented pocket tunnels on our boats around here....

boat looks nice...good luck...

i love that grass camo on the finished pics...you doing the same??

is borel boatbuilders still operating?...i believe they were in the orange, tx area...been a few years...they used to be on the web...not anymore though...


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## justindfish (Dec 5, 2008)

> Does this guy make a lot of these kinda boats? When you said step hull i was thinkin it was gonna be like like an stephulled airboat before i looked at the pics. I was curious if this guy builds airboat hulls as well. You'd think he'd have more of a jig built to make these hulls.
> 
> Really cool though. After checkin out that link and seein a finished one i can see how you would be pumped on gettin this thing in the water. lookin forward to some after shots.


He makes a fair share of them it mainly depends if he has another job or if he is only building boats. No he don't build air boat because that is a whole different thing when it comes to design (I asked the same thing if he had ever built any and thats what he told me). As for a jig every boat he builds is custom if I would have told him that I wanted a boat with a 58 3/8" bottom he would do it. He has a basic design that he uses but each boat is different depending on what exactly the customer wants. 

As for the step in the back he has been doing them for a long time like that with more than a few test designs also if you look at the angle of the transom it is leaned way back, much more than a normal boat. The reason for that is to generate more transom lift with the motor tucked further under and pointing down more to allow for a better hole shot.


Marshman I really looked hard at getting a glass boat for weight reasons, you will notice that my interior layout will look a like a BTX. The reason that I didn't mainly is for maintenance and durability issues. With Three hurricanes in the past 4 years Sabine lake and area marsh are full of debris and not to mention all the things that people have put in the water in the past I feel like aluminum was a better choice unless it is sharp and pointed it most likely isn't going through .125" 5086 alloy and in a glass boat it would definitely make a large gouge in the hull that would need repair verses just a dent. Oh and don't forget the oysters!

Thanks guys for the comments


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## justindfish (Dec 5, 2008)

OK, guys here's the boat with some of the stringers in place, they run from the transom all the way to the very tip of the bow and they are rolled out by hand one at a time using a custom roller press type thing a lot like a English wheel. They follow the curvature of the boat so when they are welded they fit tight to the hull and they don't cause any stress to the hull and welds which would result in cracks down the line. Once these are in place which there will be 7 all together the cross bracing will go in which will be 2"x2" square tubing 1/8" thick and they will be on something like 14" centers.


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## kdhs10 (Jun 16, 2008)

Lookin good.


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## Brett (Jul 16, 2008)

The way that's put together it'll have to be called the "Delta Destroyer"
or maybe the "Bayou Battleship", that's gonna be one tough oyster runner!


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## justindfish (Dec 5, 2008)

OK, guys here's the next set of pics of my boat and two more in there of the builders boat so you can see the way that the float pods will be on the back of my boat the only difference is mine will be wider and longer.

All of the stringers are in and over half of the cross braces are in along with the gunwales on both sides of the boat.


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## justindfish (Dec 5, 2008)

> ah..yes.. i just looked at the link...i remember when you posted those pics a while back..im very curious about the performance of that step...we run vented pocket tunnels on our boats around here....
> 
> boat looks nice...good luck...
> 
> ...


I didn't answer all of you questions before sorry.  

I imagine that the step design does make you wonder.  Well as you probably know we have marsh where I live just like in Louisiana heck half of it is in La and there's a lot of vented pocket tunnels around here. The boat in the pics above was the builders last attempt at a vented tunnel one last design to try only reason for that because he was building the boat in hopes to selling to a guide that was wanting a tunnel from south Texas and you know how they are about tunnels down there. It's know welded up and he wishes he would have went ahead and put the step in it also.  He tells me that the boat will do every thing a pocket tunnel will do just as good and most of the time better and it definitely handles better, runs faster and turns like crazy with the step.  The projected numbers for my boat are running in 3" with a soft bottom and 8-10" hard bottom and getting up in anything that the boat will float in which will be around 5".  He's followed some boys running 18'x42" tunnel boats with one of his boats about the same size and a step hull all were running 3cyl 40 Mercs and he said he could easily go where they can go. If your interested in a boat PM me and I can give you some more information and give you his number to talk to him. There's also some other tricks that are built into the boat that aren't so evident that all ad together to make the boat do what it does. He's been building marsh boats for over 20 years and testing and refining on every boat so he knows what it takes.

Yes, Borel is still building boats but not many anymore from what I hear it is only when he feels like building them.


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## marshman (Feb 9, 2007)

boat looks sweet....bet you cant wait...

thanks for the offer...my boat does fine...if it performed any better/shallower, id be running on dry ground...im floating/running about the same you mention...(3" running --will float in 5...get up on plane if it will float with soft bottom..)   im hoping yours will perform as well as that, if that is what you are expecting, because that is not an easy feat...i run a very light hull(16x42, vented(baffle) tunnel, jack, light outboard(25- 2stroke merc)

im curiously anxious to see if a bigger, heavier hull with a larger/heavier outboard will perform the same because of the step vs a tunnel...

i am in no way trying to discourage or doubt....i am really wondering ...not that i will do anything any different....heck my boat hasnt been wet in prolly a year !!   the last fishing ive done has been  bank, pirogue, trolling motor/jonboat combo...in a few months it wont even have an engine, its going on the new hull if i ever finish it...


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## justindfish (Dec 5, 2008)

> boat looks sweet....bet you cant wait...
> 
> thanks for the offer...my boat does fine...if it performed any better/shallower, id be running on dry ground...im floating/running about the same you mention...(3" running --will float in 5...get up on plane if it will float with soft bottom..)   im hoping yours will perform as well as that, if that is what you are expecting, because that is not an easy feat...i run a very light hull(16x42, vented(baffle) tunnel, jack, light outboard(25- 2stroke merc)
> 
> ...



I don't know how much I'll be using the extreme shallow water capabilities of my boat but your right I sure hope it will do what it's suppose to. My very first post has some pics of a boat by the same builder that is a 16'x56" boat with the step and 40hp Merc and it was running in 3" soft bottom but needed a little more than floating depth to get up. It now has floats on the back of it and supposedly it gets up even faster and shallower.

If I had the money I would get one of those surface drive motors and have the 35hp Briggs hopped up to 75hp and have a boat built with all my builders tricks for speed and shallow water and just mess with those duck guys. I think the care more about how fast there duck boat is than shooting ducks.


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## justindfish (Dec 5, 2008)

Here's a few new pics!  The keel is on now and the spray rails on the sides of the bow and the side of the boat are on.


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## noeettica (Sep 23, 2007)

That's SWEET ! Wonder what Puger would charge me to License a One off copy of an LT 25 in aluminum 

Dave


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## iMacattack (Dec 11, 2006)

any updates?


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## justindfish (Dec 5, 2008)

The last set of pics is the most recent nothing has been done since then. He will be back at it Monday morning and I'm hoping I can get a finished boat over to my shop by the 13th but we will just have to see about that custom things take time.


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## justindfish (Dec 5, 2008)

Well there was some set backs with back ordered material so here's the most recent pics of the boat.  

In the second pic you can see the spray rails that he put they should keep me dry in a chop I hope.
The sponsons are 16"x21" on the bottom side should be stable especially when on the poling platform.


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## Brett (Jul 16, 2008)

That's going to be a beast!
Swamp Thing!


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