# super skinny 13' gheenoe



## ronyates90 (Mar 9, 2014)

before i start this little essay,you need to know this in no way was the fault of geehnoe,i took there little boat and repurposed it to do something it was not meant to do.in fact he helped me with good prices on supplies i needed.it is just a satire of me a 75 year old guy making lite of his self with over 50 years of experience building and racing boats,who should have thought before he pursued.i purchased this gheenoe back in august,after selling my Mitzi,dirty water and the algae bloom forced the boats to stack up in the few areas of clean water.my intent was to have a little skiff that would help me get away from the madding crowd.so without throwing this thing in the water "DUMB MOVE"  i preceded to cut out the 2 forward bench seats,put in a false floor,redo the rear bench to a skiff configuration,grind off the old gel coat,re-gel coat it sand from 120 grit thru 1000 grit compound & wax to a pretty new shine,build a small forward platform for a small gas tank,a cooler for a dry box,put in a grab bar,spend 1200 bucks on an all aluminum trailer,remove the springs and axle,purchase a pair of 250lb torsion axles for another 250 bucks install them,borrow a 8 hp merc that was a pure pain in the butt.i did what i should have done months earlier get it wet.had i done that,none of the presiding steps would have been necessary.(i would have given it to a person who was just plain sick of life,to take his final voyage.) anyhow back to puttin it in the water.i stepped from the dock into the boat,and it almost capsized,i turned to pull start the pain in the butt,and the boat rolled to the side and got me very wet.crazy as this sounds,i took it for a test run.my my! big mistake.to shorten this story,this was the most ridiculous unstable,unsafe vessel i've ever set foot in!.after weeks of deep,deep depression i decided to fix this thing.i came to the conclusion that when gheenoe cut the 15 footer down ,to make the 13,2 things became apparent to me.the weight,and the design of the chine,it was fine for the 15 but not for the13."THE FIX" i ground the surface of the chine to the fiberglass,went to Lowe's and purchased two 3/4 and one 1/2" 4 x 8 sheets of polyiso foam and in Step 1 extended the last step on the bottom out to form a new chine and shaped it to conform to the side of the boat,i than used fiberglass filler (cabosil)to feather the foam into the bow.in step 2  i covered the foam with 3 layers of 1 &1/2 oz fiberglass Matt and used body filler to feather the glass into the boat on the bottom and sides.in STEP 3 i put 3 coats of pettit epoxy paint on the boat.i now have a stable skiff i can stand in and pole from the rear deck.the foam added a total surface to the keel of 8 1/2 square feet and raised the boat 1 1/2" in the water column from 5" to 31/2" and added a very important 62lbs to the boat bringing it to 161lbs.so if you have a 13 high sider,with a little effort it can be a very shallow floating skiff click for photos








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## NoeSmyrnaBch (Aug 19, 2013)

Strange, I cut my 13'er all apart and glassed it back together with front/rear deck and never have had a stability issue. In fact, it's probably one of the more stable boats i've been in, and I can't imagine needing it to float any shallower than it does from the factory. I've poled across things that I would have had to drag my kayak over. 


Yours turned out nice though, and as long as you are happy with it that's all that matters! Thanks for sharing.


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## tomahawk (Mar 9, 2012)

Nice job! That looks great!
Its the first I've heard of any Gheenoe being unstable though.


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## noeettica (Sep 23, 2007)

Nice job 

I have the skinniest 13 foot (factory Stock) in service and find it to be very stable !

But I am glad you were able to meet your needs through the mods you did ;-)


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## ronyates90 (Mar 9, 2014)

believe it,you stood up in this thing and moved 6" left or right this thing wanted to capsize


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