boat pimping advice

[Ojay Samson]

Hello all, as you may or may not know from my most recent post in the fishing report section, i acquired a 12ft tinny and would like to make it my own. As of now i have plans of redoing the wiring on my tinny having purchased a new 6 gang switch panel and am jsut waiting for an electrical junction box to arrive in the mail to start, however i digress.
Iam here seeking opinions on what a nice fish finder option would be and how to mount the transducer on the transom once acquired.
at the moment the top spot for potential fish finders im looking is the lowrance 4x HDI. are there any others out there who can comment on this fish finder and if there are any others they might recommend. my budget for one is around the 200 mark.

also as this is my first boat iam not too confident about the fact of drilling into the hull to mount the transudcer for the finder, are there any places i can go to get it done by someone who actually knows what theyre doing and how much (ballpark figure) it would cost to get it done if i cant manage to find the confidence to do it myself.

I also bought some aluminium hand rails only about 550mm in length and would like to mount them near the rear part of the boat on the gunwhales, for the purpose of having something to hold when helping pus the boat to the trailer at boat ramps as well as somewher to mount a clamp on rod older and jsut something better to hold onto while driving around; i measured the width of them and they jsut fit perfectly onto the gunwhales, however my question is what is the best easiest way to mount them onto the tinny? i would ideally want them welded on as ive been told thats best however i do not know any welders nor any places that will do it so i was thinking of jsut bolting them up to the gunwhales direct... is that a bad idea as the bolts will introduce electrolysis or something due to the different metals contacting each other?... my boat is painted on the outside so its not bare aluminium that will contact i dont think... are there any other suggestions to mounting these hand rails...will putting a layer of sikaflex between the handrail and the hull be ok to minimise the electrolysis part?

while im here could anyone give me suggestions to rod holders for a tinny, i cant seem to find anything that will suit mine. i recently purchased these nice looking row lock rod holders from a retail store and was excited about using them, however when i brought them home the actual aluminium bit that sticks into the row lock was too short and didnt pop out on the bottom to be able to put the washer or wing nut for tightening... i am pretty stumped with what i should to for rod holders on my tinny as i have to resort to holding onto my rod when im trolling around in 1 hand while steering with the other.

sorry for my long post but any advice and feedback would be greatly appreciated to this new boatie

[locodave]

How about you post up some pics of your boat, that way other member can suggest where to fit things

I've had about 4 boats and have done a lot of fittings myself. Once the pics are up, will have a better idea!

[Ojay Samson]

How about you post up some pics of your boat, that way other member can suggest where to fit things

I've had about 4 boats and have done a lot of fittings myself. Once the pics are up, will have a better idea!

good idea! ok here are some pics of the boat.

the bottom photo is the only one i have that gives a rough idea of where i want to put the hand rails (ciclrcled in yellow) and the circle in red is just the row lock locations where my failed purchase didnt make it al the way through to screw into place.

i can take more pics of the boats areas tomorrow when theres daylight but atm these are the best shots i have to give a rough idea.

pretty what you see in the pics is how it is right now except 2 pvc pipes that ahve been attatched to near the front of the boat for rod holders..therye ok as theyre jsut for my passenger however i would not trust them for trolling or setting a rod with heavy drag set on it....

the rar part of the boat...pretyt much where i sit is baron in terms of places to put a rod while bait fishing... there is a bullbar rod holder on the back left but i only use that for transport when travelling around as they dont quite work when anchored and waiting for a bite.

ps the pic with the fire extinguisher shows the current switchboard,... competley not waterproof and that is where i plan to put my new switchboard once the junction box comes in.

Edited June 24, 2014 by Ojay Samson

[Fab1]

Hi Mate, my boat is similar to yours except it's a run about.

The key in a small boat is having a place for everything at hand and out the way so you don't trip over anything or damage anything.

Here I've cut away my rear thwart for extra dry storage and put a hinged lid.I removed the floatation and put full underfloor floatation under the floor from stern to bow and added home made rod holders to carry my rods underway.

Here I made a baitboard mounted to the siderail that slides and folds on the rail which drains over the side for extra burly and carrys my knifes, pliers, etc.

Works a treat.

Under that I mounted a diy quick release system for my net/yabby pump.

On the port side I mounted rod holders.

Heres the inside of the boat, uncluttered with everything I need at hand.

Note the adjustable rod holders on the rails and in the rear transom corners.

All these things work a treat for me and I hope it's given you some ideas.

Cheers.

Sent from my GT-I8730T using Tapatalk

[Ojay Samson]

Thats an AWESOME setup, this has definitely given me some things to think about, thanks Fab1. its made me wonder if relocating the bullbar rod holders i have in the rear left of the boat to somewhere else like the yours on the rear thwart, only a bit more to the left as i sit on the right side and that space is vacant, freeing up the rear left for a rod holder like yours hmmm.

how did you fasten the hand rails to your hull? did you use some sort of silicone or epoxy or something between the rail and the hull or umm i dont know ?

[Fab1]

Thats an AWESOME setup, this has definitely given me some things to think about, thanks Fab1. its made me wonder if relocating the bullbar rod holders i have in the rear left of the boat to somewhere else like the yours on the rear thwart, only a bit more to the left as i sit on the right side and that space is vacant, freeing up the rear left for a rod holder like yours hmmm.

how did you fasten the hand rails to your hull? did you use some sort of silicone or epoxy or something between the rail and the hull or umm i dont know ?

hi mate, mine are welded on from factory as you can hopefully see in this picture.

As far as im aware I think you can purchase rails then have them fitted.

I know you can get them made up and welded.

The first thing I'd put in that boat of yours is a flat floor built from plywood and carpeted.

There's nothing like a flat floor in a small boat.

Then you can add things like baitboards, rod holders, hatches, live wells etc.

I did some digging for some photo's to give you some ideas what can be done.

Here you go.these are just some of the 100, s of things you can do with an open boat and some funds.

Good luck mate, hopefully others will help you out with their ideas also.

Sent from my GT-I8730T using Tapatalk

[Ojay Samson]

thanks for the suggestions and advice mate, i was looking at doing a false floor and all and i agree they look real nice and all however the rear part of my tinny is so flat its almost like that of a punt and dont actually notice the floor at all as being uncomfortable, dont get me wrong i'd love to do a false floor but im not exactly dying for one either haha. i was entertaining the idea of putting some gym tiles on the rear of the tinny though as a cheap route but im just not to sure on how theyd feel in the long term...just to minimise the vibrations coming up from the hull while the engines powering away haha. also i have 3 thwarts in my tinny and the spacing between them isnt exactly as spacious as your one so having a flat false floor jsut doesnt seem worth it as i wouldnt really have room to make it like a 'casting deck'... i know i can raise the floor to make it flush with the top of the thwarts but i dont think i'd feel comfortable shifting all the weight higher up and all.

Edited June 24, 2014 by Ojay Samson

[Sydneyfisher12]

I used to own a tinny just like that it was me and my dad's first boat we didn't do much with it because every thing was done already but if I had it now I would of decked it out

First thing I would do would be move that 4 rack of rod holders and put a single flush mounted rod holder on either side for trolling and then you can buy a 3 rod holder snapper rack that go into there for bait fishing the 4 rod holder thing I would move and put on the sides of one of the seats in the middle of the boat because if you hook up to something big it can take you around the hole boat and it's not good to have obstacles in the way. Bars will just bolt onto the areas you have circled in yellow I used to have some on my second boat 430 escape and the base of them was pretty small and I recon they'd fit on where you've suggested and then you can get the swivel rod holders and put them on there. If you want to go further you can put two flush mounted rod holders in the bow the in each corner so somebody can fish up the front

The rest of the boat is fine and yes I would swap out the switch panel because it will just cause problems also for a sounder I would go for a lowrance with a gps 4inch or for a bit more a 5inch with a gps so you can mark spots my hummingbird on my old boat was not water proof and didn't work any more after it got a bit we which will happen in a open tinny or any boat the downscan and side scan aren't really important if you bait fishing it's mostly for finding exact snags when fishing lures and the normal 2D image on a lowrance is really good

You've got a great boat and I'm sure you will get some great fish out of it and you will always be adding stuff and also taking stuff away if it doesn't suite you

Good luck with your boat

Cheers sydneyfisher12

[Ojay Samson]

Thank you all for the advice about what to do, im currently in the process of finishing up some mods ive done to the tinny and will report back here with some pics once done. also sydneyfisher i had a look at the rod holder idea in the rear corner parts of the tinny even so much as to buy some to put in (still need to return it) but became hesitant and decided against it as id be drilling into the reinforcement parts of the tinny to fit the flush mount holders.

cheers guys

[spaners]

Mate don't get too caught up on the pimping thing.Think long and hard on the style of fishing you want to do and set up accordingly for that.A mate of mine on the coast is a gun at Flatties,he bags out just about every time he goes out.But he only uses plastics and has a basic tinny,two rod holders,a keeper net and a flat floor[which I broke when I fell over]<br />Again think first.<br />Regards Stu.