New One Man Boat

[yoderjac]

I'm preparing for the next step in retirement. Soon our retirement home will be built and I'll have a lot more free time (I hope). When I was young, I was an avid fisherman. When I was 10, I graduated from the spinning rod to a flyrod and began flyfishing for trout with my dad and started tying my own flies. In the western PA, most of the trout fishing was put-and-take in stocked streams. When I went to Penn State, I fell in love with trout fishing. I couldn't drive 25 minutes in any direction without crossing one of the top limestone streams in the east!

When I eventually moved to Northern VA, I tried to take up warm water fishing again. I got a bass boat and fished the Potomac and Lake Anna for bass. There were no limestone streams and even the freestone streams cold enough for trout were several hours drive through traffic. I eventually found Quantico MCB for hunting. I eventually replaced my spring trout fishing with spring gobbler hunting there. Our use of the bass boat became more and more infrequent and I eventually I gave it to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law who had kids of the right age for boating. I kind of gave up fishing after that and focused on hunting and wildlife management.

Well, now that I'm retired, I think I'll take it up again. Cold water trout streams are still a bit of a drive up into the mountains, but there are a lot of small warm water rivers near by with smallmouth bass. My plan is to start with smallmouth nearby and then eventually see if flyfishing is worth the drive.

To that end, some friends invited me on a kayaking float on the Rivanna river nearby. Most of my fishing tackle had been given away over time, so I ran to Walmart and grabbed a $20 ultra-lite rod and reel combo and a handfull of lures. I struggled with the kayak. My back and hips were quite uncomfortable in that position. I struggled paddling against the current. I eventually fell behind the group. I could not fish while trying to control the kayak either. I eventually found eddies where I could beach the end of the kayak and fish. I loved fishing again. I caught a few smallmouth of no size to speak of, but I got the bug again!

So, I just ordered a on man raft with a frame. It is an NRS Approach 100. It is small enough that I should be able to carry it in the bed of my pickup. With a cart, I should be able to handle it myself. I ordered a Minn Kota Edge bow mount foot controlled trolling motor. I'll need to modify the frame to mount the trolling motor bracket. I ordered a Humminbird Helix DI GPS G3 fish finder for it as well. I also ordered a 10lb Tornado Anchor for it. I'll probably build a cart for it myself. I've also ordered a good rod and reel for smallmouth. The reel is a Shimano Vanford FA 2500HG with some flurocarbon line. The rod is a St. Crois Physyx series 6' 3" medium light extra fast. I was lucky and caught a 4th of July sale on the rod and reel and some lures.

It will probably be a couple weeks until all the stuff arrives and I can get it put together. I'll post some pictures once it arrives and update this thread as the new adventure unfolds.

 

[George]

Much like you. Last summer I had 7 years of EQIP contract that I had to finish in one year. I told myself, next summer I'll go fishing. This summer I have 50 tulip poplar logs laying on the ground, next summer, I'll go fishing. I would like your new set up, good luck.

G

 

[weekender21]

Sounds fun! We run a Nucanoe with a 2.5hp Yamaha 4 stroke to get more range. It’s great for inshore fishing in Va.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[yoderjac]

Much like you. Last summer I had 7 years of EQIP contract that I had to finish in one year. I told myself, next summer I'll go fishing. This summer I have 50 tulip poplar logs laying on the ground, next summer, I'll go fishing. I would like your new set up, good luck.

G

I completely understand. I tend to over analyze things, Often by the time I'm ready to pull the trigger on something like this, something else has come up and I end up postponing till next year. This time, I just through caution into the wind, and pulled the trigger. I'm sure it will take a few weeks for me to get things set up.

 

[yoderjac]

Sounds fun! We run a Nucanoe with a 2.5hp Yamaha 4 stroke to get more range. It’s great for inshore fishing in Va.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sounds like you have a nice setup. I thought about a gas motor and opted against it. There are lots of places that are electric motors only around. Also, parts of the Rivanna are pretty shallow at times. With a quick depth adjust on an electric, I could raise it almost out of the water and still operate it. Besides I'm retired and don't need to get anywhere fast...

 

[yoderjac]

The boat was supposed to arrive yesterday according to Fedex, but it was evidently delayed and showed up early this afternoon. It came in 3 boxes, a large rectangular box with the raft in it, a long flat box with the long rails and pump in it, and a smaller rectangular box with the seat. Here are the boxes with the seat and rails:

The electric inflator pump I bought from Amazon was advertised to have the correct connector but it did not. I spent a lot of time trying to adapt it. I finally decided just to hold the connector against the valves in the boat which was good enough for stage 1 of the pump. Once pressure started to build, I switched to the NRS Hand Pump that came with it. Here is the inflated raft:

Once the raft was inflated, I started watching the assembly video and following along with it. Here is the video for anyone interested:

When I got to the seat, I was shocked how heavy it was when I pulled it from the box. No wonder, it was full of hardware:

Things went well until I got to the oarlocks. Rather than slipping the T-nuts in from the ends, they show how to drop them in for the oarlock install. It worked as shown on one rail, but not the other. The rail must be a little out of spec. The rail that works has an opening of 5.8-5.9mm. The one that doesn't is 5.7-5.8mm. Here is a picture of how the t-nuts hangs when inserted from the side:

If I was only interested in assembling the basic boat, I could work around this by changing the installation order, but I plan to add some Yak Attack accessories to the rail, and I don't want to have to disassemble the boat to add them.

I called them and they had me send an email to their service department with the haul number and they would send me a new rail. I did that. My state requires any boat with a motor, even trolling, to be registered. I'll need the certificate of origin for that. It did not come with the boat, so when I called them I asked about it and they said they would send that to me as well.

So, for now, the project is on hold until I get the new rail.

 

[yoderjac]

I started thinking about it and who knows how long it will take them to send me a new rail. So, I decided to loosely continue the assembly and get far enough along that I can start to design a bracket for the bow mount trolling motor.

This is where I stopped my assembly. I then removed the motor from the bracket and removed the cover. I'll need to build some kond of custom bracket, but here is approximately where I plan to install it.

I plan to operate this boat backwards making what is supposed to be the stern the bow and visa versa. This gives me two benefits. First, I can use a foot control for the trolling motor. Second, with the trolling motor stowed, it is out of the way of danger if I put in at a steep bank. A transom mount would need to be removed before launching and I'd prefer not to do that.

P.S. One note, the oar lock bracket on the left side, as viewed in the picture, is just sitting there and not installed. I did install the one on the right side. That rail accepts the t-nuts slid in from the side. That bracket also has the anchor cinch. I don't plan to get oars for the boat, just an emergency collapsible paddle.

 

[yoderjac]

Well, things didn't work out as I had expected. I got a voice mail from NRS yesterday evening asking me to call them back. Since they are in Idaho, I had to wait until last this morning to call. When I did, they told me their design does not include the side insert. They acknowledged that the video was wrong and would be amended. The said that the rails just don't have tight enough tolerances and you may be able to side insert in some rails but not others. So basically, you need to disassemble the entire boat to add anything to o the middle of the rails.

Prior to calling them, I changed my mind about making a metal bracket to install the bow mount trolling motor on. Instead, I decided to build a small "deck" on the anchor railing and transom. I was able to find a 2'x2'x1" panel which is just the right size. In order to get exact measurements, I'll heed to assemble the boat.

So, I disassembled the major components of the boat, enough to get accessories installed where I want them. Fortunately, my order of accessories from Yak Attack came in yesterday. My next step was to plan where each accessory would go relative to each other and the other boat parts that connect to the rail. I then started installing them where I thought I want them. The Omega Pro rod holder was an easy install as was the drink holder. I installed them on my left side (from the direction I plan to sit). I then set out to install the Yak Attack Switchblade sensor holder and mount for the Helix fish finder that I ordered. That is where I ran into a problem.

The Helix mount went fine, but the Switchblade arm has an issue. It will hit the rod holder. Since the rod holders are structural parts of the frame, removing it is not an opton. So, I next set out to build a bracket to raise the height of the switchblade so it can clear the rod holder. Since it has the option of deck mounting or rail mounting, I decided to use a 1/2" thick piece of oak to build the bracket. I can mount it to the oak like it would be mounted to a deck, and then mount that to the rail. Since the oak was only 1/2" thick, I could not find short enough wood screws to use that had enough diameter for the heads to hold in the bracket. So, I ended up using machine screws to attach it to the oak standoff. I used a forstner bit to sink the nuts so they don't hit the rail.

This is going to be a slow process. Since this will be in a wet environment, I need to seal the oak before I move on. So, I'm waiting a couple hours between coats of the polyacrlyic sealer. It is pretty hot and muggy in the afternoons, so it is a nice break!

 

[yoderjac]

The finish on the oak standoff I made for the switchblade dried, so I was able to install it last night.

The pic above is the bottom of the standoff and the one below shows it installed on the rail.

With the switchblade installed on the rail, it completes the accessories I planned to install. So, at this point, I was able to go back and redo the assembly. I got to the point where the installation video tells you to go back and tighten all the nuts and screws. This is far enough along for me to begin building the motor mount deck tomorrow. Here it is with everything tightened up.

 

[yoderjac]

Here is the battery I got for the trolling motor:

It has a bluetooth BMS. Yesterday, I checked it and it said it was at 26% charge. I put in on my 3amp LiFePo4 charger. I checked it this morning and it was only up to 43%. That tells me I'm going to need a bigger charger, so I ordered a 30amp multi-chemistry charger that includes LiFePo4.

Next, I finished the boat assembly adding the straps and some small trim items. I then began working on the deck for the bow mount bracket.

I started with this 2'x2'x1" teak board I found at Lowes. It is a bit heavy and I would like to plan a quarter or half inch off of it, bu my planer is not wide enough.

I figured 1 1/2" outside the silver tubes would be enough to use u-bolts to attach it. I clamped a couple 1 1/2" boards to the bottom to take measurements to cut it. After cutting it down, I marked where the clamps and transom were. I then use a router to remove 1/4" of wood from those areas so it sit flat on the silver tubes.

 

[yoderjac]

Next, I eased the corners on 3 sides. I left the side facing the seat alone. I'll probably need to attach a piece to hold the trolling motor plug to it and I want the full face for glue.

I then placed it on the silver tube so it was fairly stable. I identified the spots for U-bolts to attach it to the tubes. I ordered shorter U-bolts so they don't stick up so much, but these were fine for testing purposes.

Once the deck was firmly attached to the tubes, I played around with the trolling motor positions. I needed to make sure the prop is far enough away from the anchor rope. I'm right handed, so I angled it to my right so I can use my right arm to pull the rope release and deploy it. I angled it enough to keep it out of my way. The seat is the only thing I didn't tighten as I may want to move it back slightly after I position the battery and foot control.

When I had it positioned where I wanted it, I drilled the holes to attach the bracket to the deck. I inserted the screws, but did not add the washers or nuts. I just use a clamp for now. I have sealer coming in on Tuesday. I'll need to tear it all apart to seal the teak.

On another note, I checked the battery about 7pm. It was only up to 51% charge on that 3 amp charger. It would take a week to charge if I kept using it. I needed the charger for one of my camera batteries, so I'm giving the trolling motor battery a rest tonight.

 

[yoderjac]

Things have been moving slowly, but still moving forward. The Danish teak oil came in and I put 3 coats on the deck. I don't like the u-bolts sticking up so far. Lowes didn't have the size I needed in stock, so I order some on-line. They are supposed to arrive on Thursday so I should be able to install the trolling motor then. I also had a seat with a back come in. I was going to install it, but I decided I wanted a quick release, so I ordered one of those. The 30 amp charger came in, but the little 3 amp charger had finally fully charged it after being connected for almost a week. I'll report back on that after I've used the motor and drained the battery and it needs recharged.

In the meantime I have two related projects under way. The first is some kind of mechanism to let me easily load the boat into the back of my pickup truck. I'm still in the design phase for that.

The second is a cart to transport the boat. I've looked into some fishing options online at our DWR web site. They describe the public launches on many of the local rivers and lakes. I noticed that several of them require you to transport the boat for several hundred yards to launch it. I found a company called Maker Pipe that makes fittings for conduit. They had a video on building an axle with a threaded rod and piece of 3/4" EMT.

I grabbed a pair of 13" wheels from Lowes and mostly followed the Maker Pipe video for building the axle. I did make a few mods and I plan to do a video on that when I get a chance. I then used the Maker Pipe fittings to build the cart frame. I covered the top in pipe insulation. This should be plenty strong enough to support the boat which should only be a couple hundred pounds fully loaded.

 

[swat1018]

What a contraption.......

 

[yoderjac]

I made a bit more progress on the boat today. I could not find U-bolts locally the size I wanted. The U-bolts I used for the mockup were too long. I had ordered some the size I wanted. They came in today, but they were the wrong size. The company said they were the correct size. I told them I already had U-bolts that fit and I ordered the same size with shorter shanks. They finally admitted that some companies measure U-bolts differently than others and agreed to take them back and refund me.

So, tonight I decided to try a DIY with them. I took the original U-bolts and marked them at the approximate length I wanted and simply cut them with an angle grinder. I did place 2 hex nuts on both shanks before cutting them. I then took them to the grinder and tapered the ends a bit. I rotated the nuts back and forth to clean the threads when they got tight as I was removing them. It worked great and I had no problems putting on new nuts.

With the proper length U-bolts in hand I permanently mounted the trolling motor:

Here it is in the stowed position. It is well out of my way and does not interfere with any of the accessories on the rail.

This picture shows it deployed. The only thing added to the motor is the quick release depth adjustment knob replacement. It is a cam-lock type that allows me to quickly adjust motor depth. While I'll put the motor 12" below the water when operating on lakes, when operating on rivers, I may need to set it shallower as river depths fluctuate quite a bit.

Next, I'll need to mount the trolling motor plug and setup the battery. Meanwhile, I stopped and picked up the metal for the bed loader I plan to build for the pickup to carry the boat.

 

[yoderjac]

I started the next step this morning. I took an old piece of angle iron and built a bracket to hold the trolling motor plug receptacle.

 

[yoderjac]

I got the bracket installed:

The receptacle for the trolling motor plug is installed in the bracket but not connected to anything. I positioned the battery box and battery. In order to keep the battery box in place, I used an extra 4' strap that came with the boat. I strapped it under the deck to the handle of the boat. I'll never use that handle as it is much easier to grab it from the frame on that end. With the 140 AH LiFePo4 battery and the motor, that end is getting pretty heavy. I noticed the rings on the motor don't fit the battery terminals, so I can't reuse them on the trolling motor plug.

My charger has an Anderson plug and adapters for rings and alligator clamps. I got an extra trolling motor plug and an Anderson connector. I plan to make an adaptor so I can leave the battery in the boat and remove the trolling motor plug and hook up the charger after each trip. I have parts on order for that.

 

[yoderjac]

I made some more progress today, but first, here is a video of the cart build shown above:

More parts came in so on the way home from church, I stopped at an O'Reilly Auto Parts and picked up 3' of red and 3' of black 8 gauge wire. When I got home, I wired the plug receptacle to the battery. I plugged in the motor and gave it a quick test. Everything seems to work fine. My charger came with an Anderson connector on the end and two options for terminals, rings and alligator clamps. I don't see any need for the terminal rings, so I cut off the rings and wired it to another plug. This way, I can simply unplug the motor and plug in the charger when I get home from a fishing trip. I don't need to open the battery box up again.

I did not report on Saturday. The quick release swivel came in for the Pelican seat came in. Here it is installed:

You will notice the archery target in the rear. This is there for ballast. With a 4x4 under the boat, the front is elevated so I can test the motor without contact with the floor.

On another note, some friends with property on the Rivanna invited us over to the river. The banks in this area were steep and the water was high, so I could only wade a small distance. I caught a 16" smallmouth base and a variety of small ones. Evidently talking to some folks that fish the Rivanna regularly, this is a pretty good size smallmouth for that river. This kind of has me psyched for getting the boat in the water.

This week I plan to work on a hand winch setup for loading it into the back of my pickup.

 

[yoderjac]

I started the next related project today, the loading system for the boat. My pickup does not have good places to tie stuff down, so I decided to make this a double duty project. I used 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" x 1/8" rectangular mild steel to make bed stakes. I welded D-rings to the inside of all of the stakes. I used 1"x1"x1/8" mild steel square tube to tie the two front bed stakes together. In the middle of the square tube I welded a hook and then a second hook near the end of the right side. I will hang 2 pulleys from these hooks.

On the right rear bed stake, I welded a top plate with holes so I can bolt a hand crank winch to the top of the plate. Fortunately, the front two bed stake pockets were empty, but some of the others had some stones in them. I was able to square up the front bed stakes and weld the 1" square tubing. I plan to have the winch cable run up along the top of the right bed rail, through the first pulley and then through the second pully and back down the middle of the truck bed. I'll hook the D-ring on the boat to that and should be able to hand crank it into the bed. For now, I can probably lift it and push it in, but my back is bad and I want to avoid making worse. Eventually, I'll need to use the winch, but it will be nice to have and save my back

This is the full view of the loading system. You can see the flat plate on the right rear bed stake that I will mount the winch on.

This zooms in on the front bed stakes and connecting 1"x1" and pulleys.

 

[yoderjac]

Well, it took me most of the day, but I finished the loading system. By this morning, the paint was dry. so I installed it in the truck. I had to use a shop vac to get the stones out of the pockets first. I wanted to have a second tie down on each of the bed stakes. There are openings in the sidewalls to the pockets. I could not attach anything to the stake because it was a nice tight fit into the pocket. My first attempt yesterday before I painted anything, I tried to drill a hole and slot so I could but a quick link, but that did not work out. My next idea did. I simply drilled and tapped a hole and put a 5/16 eyelet into it. I can install the bed stake, I can then screw in the eyelet and remove it if I want to remove the stake.

Once I installed it, I was concerned that the 1/8" mild steel threading may not be strong enough to handle the pressure of a ratchet strap. The eyelet's threading was long enough to go through the stake and there was enough room in the pockets to accommodate them. So, I decided that would provide more support. I used a small bit so I would not gum up the threading and did my best to center the drill bit. I used a drill press and drilled through the threaded hole and out the back side of the stake. I then flipped the stake and drilled out the hole with a 5/16 bit.

It was quickly apparent I was not perfectly straight with my threading. I used larger and larger drill bits until I was able to get the end of the eyelet threading to come out the back. I found the eyelet was much stronger with the second point of contact. Here is a picture of the result:

My next issue was the winch. I assumed the handle was reversable, but not so with this cheap Harbor Freight hand crank winch. I planned to mount the winch on the passenger side of the truck in case I have some issue on the highway and need to adjust things, I'm not on the road side. Unfortunately, I would need to use the winch backwards. After looking at how the winch operates, I decided to run the cable under the front bar and out the back of the winch. That would have put a pretty tight 180 degree turn with the cable on metal. I ended up tearing the winch apart and putting a piece of 3/4" conduit and some washers over the front bar. I coated them all in Vaseline. The conduit can spin on the bar to reduce some of the friction and wear.

So here is the completed project. The yellow rope is simply so I can retrieve the winch hook easily without climbing into the truck. You can see the winch on the right rear stake with the cable running through both pulleys.

This is just a closer view of the bar that ties the front two bed stakes on which the pulleys are mounted.

I'm getting closer to getting the boat wet. The Humminbird Helix 5 Chirp DI GPS arrived to day, but I did not have time to install it or mess with it:

Hopefully. I'll get that installed tomorrow.

 

[yoderjac]

I got the Humminbird up and running this morning. I then tried my first dry-run of loading the boat. TOTAL FAILURE!

The boat has a heavy end (motor, battery...) and a light end. I can't lift the heavy end very far off the ground. I can lift the light end over my head. My first attempt was to lift the light end and slide the cart under the boat. I then strapped it to the boat. I was then able to lift the heavy side and wheel it around, but it was very heavy and awkward. The balance was way off. I need to get the cart further toward the balance point.

I was, albeit awkwardly, wheel the boat to the truck and lift the light end onto the tailgate. I hooked the end of the winch cable to the D-ring and started cranking. First, the angle was not right. Instead of sliding into the truck, the winch just pushed the front of the boat into the tailgate deeper. I tried, inching it in by making one turn of the crank and then sort of lifting the boat up a few inches. Then BANG! I welded screw hooks to attach the pulleys too. It was too much stress for them and the bent and the pulley went flying into the bed of the truck.

So, I scratched my head for a bit. I think I have a new plan to try:

Attaching the cart:

I can easily lift the light end of the boat over my head. I just can't move the cart far enough forward. So, I plan to add a handle to the cart that allows me to push it much further under the boat. I ordered another T connector for that.

Loading into the truck:

My plan here is to raise the position of the center pulley. I plan to weld some 1x1 square tube vertically to the center of the current 1x1 tube and attach the pulley up there using a 3/8" hex bolt. The other thing I plan to do is simple. Not sure why I did not do that on my first try. I'll simply release the cables from the tailgate and let it rest against the rear bumper and act as a dovetail. I think with the higher angle and dovetail gate, the loading should work.