# My New Project Hull/Future Skiff



## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

Here it is a 1959 16' Elgin runabout.  Lucky for me most of the wood is already soft so it will be easier to gut. HA!




























My plan is to gut her and turn her into a flats boat.  Small flush with the gunwale side console with remote steering, 60 hp Yamaha 2 stoke, decks flush at current rub rail height, poling platform, removable gas tank? Plywood and epoxy nothing fancy.  It does have a small keel that stops to 24" or so before transom.  Ask me questions and please give me any advice you've got! This is my first boat project!  
To do list so far:
Adjust trailer
repair keel near bow(see last pic)
get all rotten wood and fiberglass out
repair/reinforce outer fiberglass on stringers and replace stringers probably not in that order
replace and raise transom to 20" it's about 17" currently 

Open to all questions, comments and advice!


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

Forgot the profile shot!


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## Bill_Laminack (Feb 12, 2012)

That is so cool. I am spending most night pouring through old threads just like this. Getting more and more inspired by this sort of vision. I will be checking every post, be sure!


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## cutrunner (Jun 8, 2010)

Sooooooo frickin cool!!!! Alot of people dont believe it but some of those old runabouts were litterally meant to be skiffs! Heck, where do u think an Ankona suv started?


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## Rosco (Nov 6, 2010)

Lots of nice flare on that thing. Looking forward to seeing it come together.


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

I know this has been asked a million times in the past. But, center or side console? The boat is around 5.5' wide. It probably makes more sense to do a side console but you can get wet and boat is out of balance. Center consoles take up a lot of space....I'd prefer the center but I dunno if there's enough room for it. Thoughts?


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## jerm (Sep 12, 2010)

That thing is screaming tiller! But thats just me. Its all about how you want to sit when you're driving and whats more comfortable for you. If you dont mind tiller~ its way lighter and simpler. If draft doesnt matter and the boat has good balance with you sitting behind a side console then go for it. I will say though, once you go hydraulic steering you wont go back!


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

I could do tiller but I already have the engine and its remote steering. I'd prefer a wheel anyway. Will have to see how it balances out for the console.


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

Spent 30 minutes yesterday pulling up the rotten deck.







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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

Forgot to mention there is a keel on it. Pictures aren't too good but you get the idea. It's about 2.5-3" at it deepest. Back







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Amidship







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Towards bow







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## cutrunner (Jun 8, 2010)

U gonna grind that keel off?


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

Don't know. Looking for opinions about that. Obviously it makes sense for draft. What do you think? If I grind it off, should I put some stakes parallel to where is was to help tracking while poling? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

Alright, after neglecting the hull for months, I've gone back to look at it. It's not 16' it's only 13'6" long. Oh and it's LIGHT. Bummer, there goes my center console 60hp dreams. Upside is it'll be cheaper to redo. Double checked it is 66" at it's widest and 63" at the transom. It needs a new transom, stringers and decks. What do you think is the highest hp I can put on it once everything is finished? 30? 40? I think a 25 yamaha 2 stoke would be perfect.


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## cutrunner (Jun 8, 2010)

As far as that boat goes its "big" for a 13'. My friend did the same thing with a very very similar skiff but it was 14'5". Not a whole lot bigger. And he has a 50 hp honda (heavy) and its perfectly fine. Imo a 25 would not be enough hp. Honestly i would still put the 60 on it.


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

Wish I could put the 60 on it. Took it to get checked out the other day and the only thing worth keeping was the powerhead. Will have to look for something else it that range. Thanks for the advice!


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## cutrunner (Jun 8, 2010)

Bummer..


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

Worked on my hull some more cleaning out the old rotten stringers, etc. Let someone borrow my trailer so I flipped the hull. Took a straight edge to it to check for a hook. Found out without most of the stringers and floor, the hull has some flex to it from amidships to the stern. From reading other posts here I think I'll have to add a layer of glass to the inside of the hull before I build new stringers and replace the transom. Question is how do I keep the hull straight while I add the layer of glass?


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## oysterbreath (Jan 13, 2009)

Nice Hull. Like Rosco said, that flair looks great. If it were mine...I'd make it 16 foot! As I read through your thread and saw the first side profile I just KNEW it wasn't 16 foot as stated. Man, But if it were....that thing would be soooo sweet! Good luck with the build. As far as the flex issue goes. I don't know how to resolve that issue from the upright position which is what you would prolly need to do. Me, I'd want to make it a 16 footer. I'd basically use that boat as a male mold once I added the "mold" transom and extra 2 foot to it. Come to think of it. If it's oil caning badly. Maybe you should brace it all up and just use it as a male mold? Just a thought.


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## Sheremeta (Nov 29, 2010)

Kinda looks like a dolphin super skiff. 

What is wrong with your lower unit?


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

Oysterbreath, that's the first thing I thought about doing when I remeasured it. Making it 15.6 would be perfect! ;D Just have to figure out bracing the hull, hull form and transom shape.  No big deal! Might be less than a Dolphin when it's all said and done.  But probably not.
CasaCola the motor came off a pontoon boat that sat in the creek for a year in down position.  We dug out sand and rust from the lower unit.  After that is sat for several more years until we got is checked out.


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## sbinckes (Dec 25, 2012)

I would have thought engine weight would be fairly crucial on the back of a small boat - it was on mine.

Most engines come in two or three block sizes - 25HP/30HP or 40HP/50HP etc... if you're thinking along the lines of a 25HP engine, why not look to see if that engine block is available with a few more horses but without any extra weight?


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## Sheremeta (Nov 29, 2010)

Lower unit issues are the least of your worries. With a working power head I would rebuild or find a used lower unit.


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

Guys, only thing good was the power head on the 60 hp Yamaha we had. We sold the power head. I'm either going to keep it small and look for a 30-40 hp tiller, or lengthen it and look for a 60-70 w/remote steering. Any ideas for lengthening the hull and strengthening it would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!!


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

I'm resurrecting my project from 8 years ago. This site has been a wealth of knowledge and the community is one of the best, supportive and most helpful I've seen. It's given me new motivation to tackle this crazy idea. Seeing how the Chris Morejohn skiffs are being built has been motivating too.

I can't stop staring at the hull. I don't think I can salvage the hull and modify it into a skiff for what I want. 
Issues:
1. It's 13-6 long
2. It's oil canning from the middle to the stern
3. For how weak it is, it's damn heavy
4. It has a keel
5. transom is 17"

What I want:
1. decent draft to fish high or low tides
2. fly fish 2 people
3. lowest hp engine what will move the boat 30 mph
4. good poling characteristics
5. great lines

The new idea is:
1. reinforce the hull where it's oil canning (I need help here)
2. extend it to 16-6
3. grind off keel
4. roughly fair the bottom
5. figure out strakes locations and lengths
6. then pull lines off of it at 1-6 intervals
7. Make a jig and build with foam or cedar( prob foam to keep it light as possible).

Very easy, should have it build and in the water by Christmas 

I'm looking for any advice you guys have on how to tackle this. Thanks in advance!


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## JC Designs (Apr 5, 2020)

Will follow along and assist when I can.
First thing ya need to do is get her gutted and ground out so we can see her bones. As far as stiffening the hull goes, that is gonna be relatively straight forward. The extension is doable but gonna require some effort on your end. I can give guidance to that as well & you’ll need to really consider the effort. Some hulls can be extended 3’ some only 1’, just depends on the lines.


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

JC Designs said:


> Will follow along and assist when I can.
> First thing ya need to do is get her gutted and ground out so we can see her bones. As far as stiffening the hull goes, that is gonna be relatively straight forward. The extension is doable but gonna require some effort on your end. I can give guidance to that as well & you’ll need to really consider the effort. Some hulls can be extended 3’ some only 1’, just depends on the lines.


Thanks JC that’s awesome. I’m going to start demo again and take some pictures of the inside this weekend.


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)




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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)




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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

Ok these are the pictures of the skiff after sitting in a field for 9 years upside down. There is really only a small area of concern that flexes, right about mid ship. The transom is really 16.5". If I built is up to the bottom of the rubrail it would be 20". I'm ok with that. At the transom, the chine is 14.25 " to the rubrail and decreases as you move towards that bow. If I can extend the hull shape back 3 feet, I would like the chine to flatten out right where it is now if possible. The bow needs to have a sharper entry and the keel needs to go. I like the lines of this hull and would like to see what I can get out of it. Even if it's just extending the length and pulling a lot of dimensions off to make a jig.

Questions:
1.The hull rounded a little and where it meets the chine it is curved. See 4th picture in post above. Would it help stability and handling if the bottom/chine location was more squared off? 

2.I'm concerned about the hull stability during and after grinding off the keel, it had a wood stringer that went below the hull bottom into the keel. Griding the keel off will create a long skinny hole down the middle of the hull. Would it make sense to lay some glass inside the hull and over the keel area to keep the hull from opening up? 

3.I have a buddy that can 3d scan the hull whenever I want. Thinking that would cut down on my error when getting dimensions for the jig. I know that is a long way off, if it's even possible. What do you guys think?


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## Fishtex (May 10, 2014)

My two cents,
I wouldn’t grind off that keel -it’s structural which is why there was a stringer on the inside. It will really help with straight line stability when running and poling. It provides a lot of stiffness to the hull. 

If you do extend the hull just extend the keel and taper it off just as is now. You can use some foam core or appropriate wood for the basic shape, mill it, and add several layers of biax and epoxy. 

I kind of like that stepped chine and not sure if trying to fill it in and square it up would be worth it. Depends on how it performs at speed. 

I’ve done a lot of scanning/reverse engineering over the years. In case anyone cares, how useful the scan will be, will depend on the quality of the scanner, the operator, and the point cloud data you get. You’ll then have to bring that “point cloud” data into a software that can create an “intelligent” 3D file that you can import into CAD software. Some CAD platforms can directly handle point cloud data, many can’t. Cleaning up the scan data and the ultimately the CAD file can be tedious and frustrating, it’s not something you can generally pick up in a short period of time. That being said, I don’t think you need to do this. I would only go this route if I was going to CNC a plug for an entire hull mold. 

I’m guessing you’ve thought about this a bit so why not clean up the last 2-3 feet of the outside, sand, fair, primed, and finished like a plug for an entire boat mold and then create an extended stern mold. Since you are using the actual hull as a male pattern it should work out fine from a dimensional standpoint. This hull has parallel chines so it doesn’t appear to have any taper so it will be straight forward. There’s a lot of details to do this but it’s been done quite a bit. I saw a guy recently extend his Bertram several feet. 

Boat has classic lines so I see the desire.....maybe extend the hull, finish the outside for use as a plug, build a mold and layup a few hulls with a few friends....Good Luck

Paging JC Designs......


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

Fishtex you bring up a lot of good points. Thanks!


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

Fishtex I don't want to fill in the chine. I was wondering if it would be an advantage to stability and tracking if I straightened and squared it. The picture below with the blue line is what I'm asking about. It's pretty crude but I think you'll see what I'm asking.


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## Fishtex (May 10, 2014)

That’s what I was thinking about. My thought is you would have to take your vertical line out to the edge
and create a horizontal surface starting right where your blue line begins and take it out to the edge, sort of a wedge shape. In theory you would have a nice chine flat with some surface area that you could even invert a bit for spray deflection, and with a fairly sharp edge for good water separation from the hull. 

I do like your idea as it would be way easier but I can’t say as to what it would or wouldn’t do. It’s kind of hard to anticipate what changes will really do when you don’t have a baseline for performance as she is unaltered.


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

Maybe I'm overthinking this whole thing. What if i just trace out the transom, cut a couple of pieces of plywood or mdf to match, and build a frame to extend the hull with the transom? That would dive the hull a changing bottom for the first 13-6 feet and the last 3 feet or so would be that same. I'm a visual guy, I think that would help. What do you guys think?


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

A quick internet search led me to this free download of a book explaining how to document the lines on a hull. 









Boats: A Manual for Their Documentation FREE e-Book | Schooner Chandlery


A manual for the phases of historic watercraft documentation. Chapters on lines-taking, taking off construction details, photographing & drawing watercraft.




schoonerchandlery.com


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## ET101 (Sep 10, 2020)

I made a mold ofnthe back of my boat to build my sponsons. After releasing the mold, I built a frame to support it and square everything up. Cut the transom where I wanted it and laid glass into the mold tabbing it onto the hull over a foot.


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## ET101 (Sep 10, 2020)

For some reason I can't post pictures right now. I will try again after I take my son to school


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## ET101 (Sep 10, 2020)

By doing it this way, I was able to keep all of the lines without a whole bunch of fancy body work.


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

Alright guys, after a lot of thinking, overthinking, dreaming and researching I'm going to throw in the towel on this project. The time required to extend the hull, pull measurements (most of a day if done correctly), and build a hull is too great. That and the fact that it might not do what I want it to do. This would be a good project when I retire in 30 years or win the lottery. 

Conchfish 16 plans from CM will help me fulfill my dream of building a boat and it's a proven hull design that fits most of my needs. 

This hull is up for grabs- FREE TO A GOOD HOME located on Wadmalaw Island SC. No title, I bought it in Georgia and they only do bill of sale there. 

If I don't get any interest in the next 30 days, I'm going to cut it up and take to the dump.


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## ElLobo (Sep 14, 2020)

hillcharl said:


> Alright guys, after a lot of thinking, overthinking, dreaming and researching I'm going to throw in the towel on this project. The time required to extend the hull, pull measurements (most of a day if done correctly), and build a hull is too great. That and the fact that it might not do what I want it to do. This would be a good project when I retire in 30 years or win the lottery. Plans from CM will help me fulfill my dream of building a boat and it's a proven hull design that fits most of my needs. This hull is up for grabs- FREE TO A GOOD HOME located on Wadmalaw Island SC. No title, I bought it in Georgia and they only do bill of sale there. If I don't get any interest in the next 30 days, I'm going to cut it up and take to the dump.


Please tell me your gonna build CM's Conchfish Glades!?


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

ElLobo said:


> Please tell me your gonna build CM's Conchfish Glades!?


I was thinking the 16 CF with no floor and flush side console. I saw one at the IOP Marina and haven't stopped thinking about it since. Simple and clean


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## ElLobo (Sep 14, 2020)

hillcharl said:


> I was thinking the 16 CF with no floor and flush side console. I saw one at the IOP Marina and haven't stopped thinking about it since. Simple and clean


Nice! Cant wait to see it. I'm considering building the CF Glades 18 version and scaling it down to 16 or so.


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

ElLobo said:


> Nice! Cant wait to see it. I'm considering building the CF Glades 18 version and scaling it down to 16 or so.
> View attachment 185215


If you scale it down to 16 how much difference is there between it and the regular Conchfish 16?


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## ElLobo (Sep 14, 2020)

The CF 16 has beam of 5′-6-7/8″ and the CF Glades a beam of 4'10". Waiting on a response from CM on some other changes that will occur with shrinking it. My thinking is CF 16 = Whipray 16 and the CF Glades 16 is a 16' version of the HB glades skiff. Also I currently have a 18' Gordon Waterman and the CF 16 seems like it would be too similar to that so I want to have a glades style shorty as a small 2 person fly only skiff to add to the fleet.


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

ElLobo said:


> The CF 16 has beam of 5′-6-7/8″ and the CF Glades a beam of 4'10". Waiting on a response from CM on some other changes that will occur with shrinking it. My thinking is CF 16 = Whipray 16 and the CF Glades 16 is a 16' version of the HB glades skiff. Also I currently have a 18' Gordon Waterman and the CF 16 seems like it would be too similar to that so I want to have a glades style shorty as a small 2 person fly only skiff to add to the fleet.


Sounds cool!


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