BigBendFishing.Net

I love my boat, it is a 2001 Ranger Cayman 184. Nice comfortable, dry ride and gets as skinny as I need to. I co-own a little 2 man aluminum boat (14 footer) and have a duck boat (16) if I want to get real skinny.

I have been toying with the idea and wondered if anyone has had the deck removed from their flats boat. Like pull the whole top to clean out, re-route and clean up the older wiring. Clean out any junk in there and get it back to square one. It may be cost prohibitive, but I have no desire to get a new boat, this one suits my needs just right. Have a 06 motor.

Anyone done this or know someone that has?

I did this to a 1978 Skeeter bass boat when I was a kid. I'd had the boat for about 9 years when the motor wore out and I called my mechanic to get a replacement. He built me one, but when we went to pull the old motor off the boat, water poured out of the bolt holes. Transom and part of the floor were rotten. I rebuilt it all and glassed it back together because I was too poor to get another hull. In the end, the total cost of money, time, materials was not much less than a replacement hull.

You can get a bid from Mike down in St. Marks, but I wouldn't undertake this effort unless you had serious structural problems like rotten stringers or a leaking fuel tank.

- Steve Stinson

Because of expense or hull damage? I certainly don't have those problems. Wonder why they don't make them more easily removable. Well, yeah, I guess I do. Why buy a new one when an old one can be made like new!

Because of expense. I don't think you will end up with hull damage if you take it to somebody reputable.

How is the top fastened to the hull on that boat? Is it screwed down, glasses down, etc?

Depends on the make of the boat. The better builders make them stronger. In my case, back in 1978 Skeeter attached the inner hull to the outer hull with rivets, then a thin layer of fiberglass mesh that was covered by the rub rail around the perimeter of the boat.

- Steve

Don't know leon. It is not obvious to me.

I am going to design my own flats boat. (not really). It will have drop in tubs, instead of the way every one I have seen built, so the all the compartments just sit in the space. Then you could just unlatch them and pull the whole thing out to clean it and to get to stuff underneath.

It will have 2 6" PVC pipes that run from the console and battery compartment - one each forward and rear with a rope that can then be used to pull wires through for the life of the boat.

So many boats have one or two great features, but it seems like none of them have them all.

Sounds like it will just never be cost efficient to do it. Thanks, I figured as much.

If you have a rub rail that is removable then pull it off some and look under it, sometimes the screws are hidden under the rub rail.

There are likely screws under the rub rail but most builders also add a chemical bond like 5200 or similar to seal the shoebox parts together.

Think you're looking at more cost in labor than it would be worth, Doc.