Here's the boat as designed by Evan Gatehouse for Jacques Mertens of www.bateau.com. As designed the boat was to be around 170lbs., a very light-weight, efficient hull. I thought it would make a stable platform for bass fishing and trolling for trout in Massachusetts and ocassionally in Maine.
I was interested in a few modifications and went to work on some drawings to show the designer for his input. Thankfully, the designer, Evan and the supplier, Jacques have created two-way communication with their builders using the online forums at www.bateau2.com - a service feature second to none in the industry. You get top-notch advice from other builders and the designers, and usually within hours, not days.
Back to the design modifications, I was hoping to make the following changes...
- A raised sole. The orginal design was for no sole, just two triangular stringers that would have been enough structure, but would have wreaked havoc with my ankles
- A wrap-around deck for mounting hardware including rod holders, a fishfinder and possibly downriggers
- Two rear quarter seats for storage of battery and possibly built-in tackle boxes
- Storage in the front bow seat
As you can see in the above photo, all of these mods were eventually approved, and I added a couple of others like caned canoe seat backs and a canoe seat back on the front bow seat for comfort. I also sewed my own cushions for all the seat locations. In the end, I was very pleased with the mods and have come to enjoy the boat very much. The weight is somewhere around 300lbs., but she still moves right out and is plenty fast for me, and my wife who can't stand moving at wide open throttle.
The modifications meant that I would have to change the structural elements somewhat. Instead of the two triangular stringers designed by Evan for this boat, I used the more traditional "I" beam construction of a single piece of 3/8" ply filleted and taped to the hull with 1" x 1" cleats on the top edge to support the sole. This system worked fine, and I used four stringers total, instead of the two as designed. I also cut tabs in the frames that they passed through to create an egg crate effect. This worked well. The only real challenge was scribing the shape of the hull bottom to get the outline for my stringers and then cutting the floor to fit the contour of the boat, as the hull lines sweep upward the farther forward you go. Still, it all worked out nicely, and I have a very comfortable flat sole to stand on and move around on. It's quite nice.
As you can see in the above picture, the frame cutouts also had to be modified and I kept the same 3" border of wood around all my holes to make for a pleasent appearance. The order of changes are as follows...
- Wider, flat tabs to support the deck or gunwale which had a final width of about 5.5" tapering to 3.5" forward.
- The seat hights were raised slightly to give a bit more leg to them. I didn't want to feel like I was getting in and out of a Vette.
- Modification of the cuttouts to allow 3" of wood above the sole level to maintain pleasing negative and postive forms
- The stringer locations. I believe I divided the total widest distance into quarters and that's where I placed my stringers. Note that if you're interlocking your stringers with your frames, you cut half the depth into each to get them to interlock.
- A drainage hole was cut on the point of each frame to allow moisture to drain toward the motorwell for pumping out. The center chamber, created by the two inside stringers was left without foam, but the remaining chambers were filled with foam. The other hole is for the PVC that carries the steering cable from the small console to the motorwell.
There is another smaller raised sole, slightly elevated, forward of the console seat. In the picture above, it is shown much smaller than it actually is (the picture is just to show the different sole pieces that go into the boat- between stations). It creates a small standing pad for the person sitting on the bow seat. You'll see better pictures of it on my BUILD page. It's just wide enough to be useful and stable enough to fish. I tried fishing from the bow seat proper, but it was too swishy for me- too much motion.
The picture above, shows how I created the flat decks. A lot of guys go with the slanted decks, but I like the flat decks because I can sit comfortably on them if I need to, and the electronics mount nicely. It's pretty self-explanatory. It's just a build up of moldings, everything gets shaved down flat with the power planer and then the top deck is applied. Inside, to complete it, I added another molding to produce a finished inside edge. It looks nice all done.