SHig's Pram Build Thread

[Reno Flytyer]

Get a motor Shig. As for your arms, I've seen better arms on a snake! ;o)

Having some background in mechanical illustration, I appreciate your approach to this pram project.

Buzz me when you get a Frenchman Jones.

RFT

[gene goss]

I brought 8ft.TPL 29 years ago, with a little modifying, i could hang a 7 1/2 hp sears 2 stroke (37lbs) off the back, the TPL would come up on plain (20mph)....i would face the front of the boat and use my body english to turn the boat. The seat board could be removed so i could lay down in the bottom of the boat, and sleep in it. The TPL is a very stable boat, you could walk around in the boat, and not be afraid of turning it over. With out a motor i could row a couple of miles. I still have 7ft. of the TPL (i cut a foot off the back, so it would fit inside my asto van), and it still row's, and has stablitity.

Shig if your going to put a outboard motor or a trolling motor on the back, you need to know how much weight you can hang off the end. If your going to row this boat, you don't need a trolling motor, and a pram with a little bigger outboard motor, you could cover a lot of water. There's a group of guys that fish Davis Lake, and they have small prams with big motors, and they have no problems fishing the whole north end of the lake in a day.

[Scott V]

I wanna put a 225 hp mercury outboard on mine Shig. Oh yeah and wings too so I can fly it.

[wjorg]

I have a Metalhead with a 350 pound rating. I have put both a 42 lb trolling motor and 3.5 outboard on mine with no real issues. Just realize when you open the outboard throttle your pram may do a wheelie. If you hit something floating in the water with the bow up at "higher" speeds its game over. Im thinking about getting a heavy plate to offset that, but it just adds more weight to the boat. Its not really an issue because I never really should be going fast with gunwales that are less than a foot out of the water....

I can stand in the metalhead and cruise at least at 5-10 mph while im running the outboard looking in the water. But Im used to jet boats in shallow streams at higher speeds, so this is a step down. I have the full rocker boat with an "aftermarket" keel and it seems to handle pretty nicely....

The most stable pram Ive been in had a flat bottom, no rocker to the stern. No keel, thin aluminum...and no oil canning.

[SHigSpeed]

Get a motor Shig. As for your arms, I've seen better arms on a snake! ;o)

<lol> You should have seen me back in the day when I was scooping ice cream by night and throwing newspapers before biking to the river before dawn. Can you say "fiddler crab"? I'd've probably rowed in circles!

I wanna put a 225 hp mercury outboard on mine Shig. Oh yeah and wings too so I can fly it.

I'll get right on that!

The most stable pram Ive been in had a flat bottom, no rocker to the stern. No keel, thin aluminum...and no oil canning.

So the front had a kick up, but from 1/3 beam forward it was flat? Like a jonboat?

Hmmm...

_SHig

[OceanSunfish]

I had a 10' (that was stolen) and a 12' Valco jonboat...the primary use was for duck hunting in salt ponds around SF Bay and fishing on Fall River. The Valcos did well in those applications but were heavy (100+ for the 10' and 130 for the 12'). The bottom width of these guys, 44 inches or so, made them stable for casting and shooting...a 33# thrust minKota electric moter would almost get the 10' version up on step but they were pigs to row and acted like big sails in the wind.

Nothing but good with the TPL except that the 8' model I had only provided about 2" of freeboard with me, motor, gear...it found a home when I went to the larger 10" Valco.

My Redwood Welding drifter provides greater freeboard than the TPL, is slightly narrower than both the TPL and the Valcos, and does have the tapered bow (like an El Toro) but there's not angles to the bottom like the El Torro, just the rocker. It rows like a racing shell and the 33# MinKota has more thrust (and speed) than the boat needs.

When I fish in the drifter, I have my 14# anchor on an extended mount on the bow (to my back) and the second, 12# anchor on a cam-cleat mounted on a corner of the stern. I've never had an issue with the stern dipping down when landing fish (Lakes, tidal area on coastal rivers, or flowing rivers (Yuba, Russian, Trinity) or pulling the anchor...bow down first and up last if I use both...usually on lakes. I attach an empty plastic bleach bottle to the end of the bow anchor line when I fish the coastal rivers for steelhead/salmon and rather than pull the anchor to follow a fish downsteam to fight it, I slip the line, and after the fight, return to the floating bottle, re-secure the anchor line. and start over...pram tactics 101.

Paul

I understand the process of using the bleach bottle, but I'm wondering how you attach the bottle to the anchor line and let it slip through the bow anchor pulley ? The bow pulley system on the RWs have a small plastic wheel where only the anchor line fits through....

Just curious...

Thanks.

[SHigSpeed]

I understand the process of using the bleach bottle, but I'm wondering how you attach the bottle to the anchor line and let it slip through the bow anchor pulley ? The bow pulley system on the RWs have a small plastic wheel where only the anchor line fits through....

Just curious...

Thanks.

My guess is that his had a non-captured pulley wheel, otherwise you could put the bleach bottle outside the cage, and run a doubled line through the pulley, though that wouldn't be very easy to use. It'd work though, so if released, the loop would run out, and the whole system would separate.

_SHig

[pgw]

My guess is that his had a non-captured pulley wheel, otherwise you could put the bleach bottle outside the cage, and run a doubled line through the pulley, though that wouldn't be very easy to use. It'd work though, so if released, the loop would run out, and the whole system would separate.

_SHig

That's it, I have the same extended anchor/pocket puller that's on the RW pram for sale in the photo you posted.

Paul

[wjorg]

Youll look like a bum with a bleach bottle and not half as cool as Schaadt, go get some red and white floats from West Marine.

BTW, if you throw the line overboard with a float on a crowded river, and someone else's fish get lost in your floating anchor line, you're in for it. I really only use the float as a backup plan to prevent loosing $150 in quality rope and anchor. Just haul the damn anchor when you go after a fish.

[pgw]

Youll look like a bum with a bleach bottle and not half as cool as Schaadt, go get some red and white floats from West Marine.

BTW, if you throw the line overboard with a float on a crowded river, and someone else's fish get lost in your floating anchor line, you're in for it. I really only use the float as a backup plan to prevent loosing $150 in quality rope and anchor. Just haul the damn anchor when you go after a fish.

a) I'm cheap, the bleach bottle is less expensive than a float from West Marine, and
b) In the crowded rivers I've fish where a majority of the fishermen in prams (either slip the anchor or pull it) leave the line up to drift downstream to fight fish, other fishermen's fish don't seem to get tangled in drifting anchor lines any more than they do in the anchor lines of fishermen who remain the line up and continue to fish.

Paul