Well, I finally got back to work on these boats. Looking at the date of my last post, it's hard to believe it's been over a year since then. This has been a tough year for us. First I had a pretty serious arm injury, then my wife was involved in a near fatal car wreck. Anyway, I took one boat out and worked on the positions of the seat and batteries to get the best trim I could. The first picture shows the boat carrying me at 225 lbs, two deep cycle batteries at 120 lbs, the ice chest has 9 gallons of water to simulate the weight of the livewell, two gallons of water near the transom to approximate the weight of the trolling motor. With other odd and end items in the boat it was carrying somewhere around 440 to 450 lbs. It handled very well and was extremely stable even with the very high seat position I had. I could not believe how easy it was to paddle, and was tempted to go for a little cruise, but my wife was waiting on the bank. This was actually August of last year, before all the excitement started.
I now have the steering hooked up and it works very well, at least with the boat sitting on the saw horses. I decided to take it out and try it with the motor tomorrow, so I took it to the closest Game and Fish Department office to register it and get it inspected. After a very careful inspection and much deliberation, the official opinion of the Arizona GFD was: 1. It is a boat. 2. It is a homemade boat. 3. It is a fiberglass homemade boat. (That was a split decision. One of them thought it was a wood boat and one thought it was fiberglass. The fiberglass won out.) The problem came in determining the class of boat it is. They read all of the different options and narrowed it down to either a canoe or a personal water craft. They then decided that all personal watercraft were jet skis. In the end they said it was probably a canoe, but it was definately not a jet ski. (That was a relief, I hate those things.) So, in the end I am the owner of a legally registered homemade fiberglass electric canoe. This had to be the most enjoyable visit to any government agency I've had in my life. They had me laughing the whole time I was there.
This picture shows the stick steering I came up with. I relocated the handle and speed control switch from the head of the motor to the steering box. The stick steers it and twists to control the forward and reverse speeds. Everything is just in place temporarily. I want to check the steering and one final check of the trim and balance before I glass the seat and livewell in place. I ran temporary wires to the motor for tomorrow. All permanent wiring will be out of sight and waterproof.
