jon boat plus

[southpier13]

never had an electric boat. thinking of a winter project, was wondering if anyone put a battery motor on a 12' jon boat, and then built a little cabin on it?

on person, maybe 2 once in a blue moon, for pottering about the pond or a day trip up to the mouth of the river.

what am i missing, or is it just a "do it"?

thanks

(internet picture)

 

[halseyt]

Great idea.

 

[robert]

I think Glen-L offers/used to offer some small "houseboat" plans as well as electric boat conversions and plans for converting outboards to electric.

 

[Deleted member 9101]

Ya know... People have been pushing those for decades with trolling motors.

 

[BritKLR]

Just do it! Just watch your weight and height. Too much weight will kill your battery(dependent on size of motor, etc....) and you can actually overload a jon boat and cause them to bend = sink. And, they can flip if too top heavy so, watch the height/weight of any structure you build.....Post up the build.

 

[RAFoutdoors]

Just a thought but aluminum John boats are flat bottom and have very little floatation in them. In my LE career I investigated a lot of boating accidents and many of them involved John boats.
I would be careful not to change the center of gravity. They are easily swamped with the low gunwales (sides). They are light enough to be propelled easily with a trolling motor. Just be sure battery is well charged or it may be a long row home.
But otherwise it could be a fun project.

 

[1000arms]

never had an electric boat. thinking of a winter project, was wondering if anyone put a battery motor on a 12' jon boat, and then built a little cabin on it?

on person, maybe 2 once in a blue moon, for pottering about the pond or a day trip up to the mouth of the river.

what am i missing, or is it just a "do it"?

thanks

Just do it! Just watch your weight and height. Too much weight will kill your battery(dependent on size of motor, etc....) and you can actually overload a jon boat and cause them to bend = sink. And, they can flip if too top heavy so, watch the height/weight of any structure you build.....Post up the build.

Just a thought but aluminum John boats are flat bottom and have very little floatation in them. In my LE career I investigated a lot of boating accidents and many of them involved John boats.
I would be careful not to change the center of gravity. They are easily swamped with the low gunwales (sides). They are light enough to be propelled easily with a trolling motor. Just be sure battery is well charged or it may be a long row home.
But otherwise it could be a fun project.

You might consider building a small houseboat of Sam Devlin's design:

Millie Hill 20

The Millie Hill 20 is the clever marriage of tiny house and houseboat. It’s an ideal solution to an economical getaway on the water.

devlinboat.com

Millie Hill 20 Plans

The Millie Hill is the clever marriage of tiny house and houseboat. It’s an ideal solution to an economical getaway on the water. Millie Hill 20 information is here.

devlinboat.com

For a bit more about Sam Devlin, the following is from a different thread:

You might like this: The Candle Fish 13 was designed for a Alaskan Local/Hunter to carry two hunters and gear plus Elk. The requirement was light enough to rack solo on a pickup rack. I have seen them in beefy work boat trim at 200lbs. The more fancy boy builds can be in the 180lb range. ... I want one ?

Thanks for posting. I found this article:

The Candlefish 13 - Small Boats Magazine

Sam Devlin’s Candlefish 13 began with a client’s detailed request for the design of an outboard skiff suitable for the lakes of Alaska’s Far North. It had to be light enough to lift up over the cab of a one-ton pickup truck towing a fifth-wheel trailer, narrow and short enough to fit on the roof...

smallboatsmonthly.com

I'd like to see what Sam Devlin would come up with for expedition campers.

His book is a boat-building-bible:

Devlin's Boatbuilding: How to Build Any Boat the Stitch-and-Glue Way: Devlin, Samual: 9780071579902: Amazon.com: Books

Devlin's Boatbuilding: How to Build Any Boat the Stitch-and-Glue Way [Devlin, Samual] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Devlin's Boatbuilding: How to Build Any Boat the Stitch-and-Glue Way

www.amazon.com

The second edition is supposed to be released in March of 2021.

Amazon.com

 

[calicamper]

If you guys like Sam’s stuff
You might like this guy too. Both of them are cut from the same cloth both have extensive competitive sailing and composites background and both like modern stitch and glue design for small boats.

Pt watercraft link

Welcome

 

[1000arms]

If you guys like Sam’s stuff
You might like this guy too. Both of them are cut from the same cloth both have extensive competitive sailing and composites background and both like modern stitch and glue design for small boats.

Pt watercraft link

Welcome

Thanks. I expect I'll spend some more time looking through the website.

I hope the ptwatercraft website is improved, the word atrocious did pass through my head while checking it out. Good looking boats, but that website, and the poor graphic design, make me think of one of the crappy advertisements, for a crappy product, from the back of an old comic book.

I appreciate the suggestion. Port Townsend WA is known for wooden-boat-building, but, without your suggestion, I might not have looked too closely if I had come across the website on my own.

 

[calicamper]

PT water craft spends more time outside fooling with boats vs inside doing computer nonsense ?

 

[1000arms]

If you guys like Sam’s stuff
You might like this guy too. Both of them are cut from the same cloth both have extensive competitive sailing and composites background and both like modern stitch and glue design for small boats.

Pt watercraft link

Welcome

Thanks. I expect I'll spend some more time looking through the website.

I hope the ptwatercraft website is improved, the word atrocious did pass through my head while checking it out. Good looking boats, but that website, and the poor graphic design, make me think of one of the crappy advertisements, for a crappy product, from the back of an old comic book.

I appreciate the suggestion. Port Townsend WA is known for wooden-boat-building, but, without your suggestion, I might not have looked too closely if I had come across the website on my own.

PT water craft spends more time outside fooling with boats vs inside doing computer nonsense ?

Well, if it is computer "nonsense", then why bother to have a website to begin with? ...

If one thinks it is important enough to have a website, one might consider making the effort to "do it right", especially with the ability to easily install the free wordpress.org based software, spend (once) about $100 USD on the Studiopress Genesis Framework and a Studiopress theme and easily have a mobile-responsive website set up for search engine optimization.

If one doesn't have a website to begin with, then one could spend about $50 USD per year, for Hawkhost.com domain name registration and basic website hosting, the $100 USD (once) for Studiopress, and once set up, post as easily as sending an email.

One could always pay for improved website hosting if visitor traffic warrants it.

 

[calicamper]

Well, if it is computer "nonsense", then why bother to have a website to begin with? ...

If one thinks it is important enough to have a website, one might consider making the effort to "do it right", especially with the ability to easily install the free wordpress.org based software, spend (once) about $100 USD on the Studiopress Genesis Framework and a Studiopress theme and easily have a mobile-responsive website set up for search engine optimization.

If one doesn't have a website to begin with, then one could spend about $50 USD per year, for Hawkhost.com domain name registration and basic website hosting, the $100 USD (once) for Studiopress, and once set up, post as easily as sending an email.

One could always pay for improved website hosting if visitor traffic warrants it.

Hint its not important to them. They typically sell every kit they make regardless of the website

 

[southpier13]

appreciate the cautions & Devlin site reference

 

[1000arms]

If you guys like Sam’s stuff
You might like this guy too. Both of them are cut from the same cloth both have extensive competitive sailing and composites background and both like modern stitch and glue design for small boats.

Pt watercraft link

Welcome

Thanks. I expect I'll spend some more time looking through the website.

I hope the ptwatercraft website is improved, the word atrocious did pass through my head while checking it out. Good looking boats, but that website, and the poor graphic design, make me think of one of the crappy advertisements, for a crappy product, from the back of an old comic book.

I appreciate the suggestion. Port Townsend WA is known for wooden-boat-building, but, without your suggestion, I might not have looked too closely if I had come across the website on my own.

PT water craft spends more time outside fooling with boats vs inside doing computer nonsense ?

Well, if it is computer "nonsense", then why bother to have a website to begin with? ...

If one thinks it is important enough to have a website, one might consider making the effort to "do it right", especially with the ability to easily install the free wordpress.org based software, spend (once) about $100 USD on the Studiopress Genesis Framework and a Studiopress theme and easily have a mobile-responsive website set up for search engine optimization.

If one doesn't have a website to begin with, then one could spend about $50 USD per year, for Hawkhost.com domain name registration and basic website hosting, the $100 USD (once) for Studiopress, and once set up, post as easily as sending an email.

One could always pay for improved website hosting if visitor traffic warrants it.

Hint, it's not important to them. They typically sell every kit they make regardless of the website

Well, why didn't you say so in the first place, rather than post about "computer nonsense"? I did chuckle at your post of "computer nonsense" regarding a website, when we are using a website to communicate.

I hope that they continue to sell their kits despite their website, but, I will admit, I wonder if PTWatercraft could better reach an audience that is unaware of them, with a better website.

Interestingly, their blog is Wordpress based, so they did care enough about that. They could have installed Wordpress at http://ptwatercraft.com, rather than at http://ptwatercraft.com/blog/. So close, but so far.

Do you know the folks at PTWatercraft personally? I'm getting the impression you might.

 

[1000arms]

appreciate the cautions & Devlin site reference

You are welcome.

Stay safe!