Finally Finished, 13 ft Skiff

[HopCar]

My friend Snapper and I have been working on a little Glen-L designed skiff for about two years now. It's finally finished. She is 13 feet long and powered by a 15 hp Lehr Propane engine.

We launched her for a test run today in a canal near the entrance to Everglades National Park.

As expected, her bow climbed for the sky with only one aboard. With two aboard she was a dream. We hit close to 20 mph according to my GPS.

I really like the engine. It is electric start with a small battery under the hood. I can also pull start it. Snapper says it smells like his propane grill. He wants to name the engine Webber.

To single hand it, I'll need a tiller extension, lower unit wings or trim tabs.
I'm thinking fixed trim tabs but will give it some thought.

She's not pretty close up, not enough sand paper and putty, but step back and she looks ok. She rides very nice and we both commented on how rigid the hull felt.

I may name her LEHR Jet.

[Cheechako]

cool!

[HopCar]

Thanks Cheechako. Wish you had been here to do the paint job. I'm so pleased with the boat, I think I might use her for a year and then spend some time repainting.


Here is what she looked like before we folded and stitched her.

[Cheechako]

No... you don't want me painting or varnishing! I just don't have the patience like some people do...

Did you cut the pattern? Is that fir marine ply in full length/no joint?
Laterh... maybe I see a joint....

[a64pilot]

I vote Lehr jet, and you could do manually adjustable tabs with turnbuckles so she isn't too nose down with two aboard.

[HopCar]

The plans came with full size patterns. We used carbon paper to transfer the lines to the 1/4" marine fir plywood. We cut it out with a small battery powered circular saw. Yes it is joined with butt blocks. We thought about scarfing but we went with what the plans said to do.
We were trying to figure out how many hours we have into it. It's less than 200 hours but spread over two years.

[HopCar]

A64, Turnbuckle tabs is exactly what I was thinking.

[CS Cruiser]

Look great, nice job!

[sailorchic34]

Nice!

[Steve Bean]

I vote for tiller extension. It looks like a lot of motor for the size of boat.

[HopCar]

Steve, it is the max engine recommended by Glen-L.
Why do you like a tiller extension?

Thanks Sailorchic and CS.

[Steve Bean]

The tiller extension seems the simplest and easiest to me. You can make a telescoping one that will shrink down to be out of the way when not needed. Nice looking boat.

[a64pilot]

I was guessing the boat was sort of a Demo for the motor, and you wouldn't want to change anything on the motor?

[HopCar]

A tiller extension would be the easiest to try. I may try that, but the middle seat is pretty far forward.

A64, this is my engine but I won't pass up an opportunity to talk about the engine.

[a64pilot]

If you don't mind modding the engine I'd try the Dole-fin thing, I just don't like tiller extensions, how do you shift and turn tight circles if you need to?