Hull thickness

In the process of finding a mid sized older river rig. Want to confirm my worry here that one I looked at this weekend the hull of .080(freeboard .076) simply isn’t enough for the river. It’s a heavy boat at that, which makes whacking something even more frightening.

Alumacraft of this era had double hull at .08 , and Lund double hull of .10, I do believe. My crestliner now has something around .12.

Thoughts? Overthinking? Icebergs in the spring, trees in summer, deadheads all year, ripping apart a hull in middle of night going back home with the kiddos scares the crap out of me.

Deuces wrote:

Overthinking?

Yes you are.

Love to hear your thoughts on why

Dont be running wide open on the river at night and its not as big of concern.

My Navigator was a fantastic river boat. 2XB hull was very tough. Busted more ice with it. Beached it everywhere. Had a few times putting that boat in the ice flows that I shouldn’t have and was worried the hull would get crushed but never did.

Can’t seem to find when they switched over to the 2xb Mike. Most the boats seem to have a decal for it in that mid late nineties. 16.5′ magnum is on my to look at list.

My night runs typically are run just enough to get on plane, 18-22mph.

Wouldn’t be too much concern if thinner hull was on smaller lighter boat, but with a larger weight behind, forces come into play I would think.

Been looking into other comparable boats of the time and most are in that .8-.10 range also.

Deuces wrote:

Wouldn’t be too much concern if thinner hull was on smaller lighter boat, but with a larger weight behind, forces come into play I would think.

Very true. But in my opinion you are over thinking this. Any object that has close to or more mass than your boat will do damage. And of course the faster you are traveling the smaller the object needs to be to cause damage. The steel plates on the Titanic were 3/4 inch thick. It was traveling at 21.5 knots I believe, about 24.745 mph. The ice ripped through that steel plate like a tin can.

Good to know. Thanks for thoughts fellas

Any object that is going to cause significant damage to your hull is going to throw you and your passengers in the water. That’s the bigger concern.

I run through a lot of ice with a 1987 sylvan.

Know your limits.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

I run through a lot of ice with a 1987 sylvan.

Know your limits.

This makes me feel better. Thank you.

biggill wrote:

September 4, 2019 at 8:39 am#1877172
Any object that is going to cause significant damage to your hull is going to throw you and your passengers in the water. That’s the bigger concern.

This ^^^.

Also, the most common hull failure by far is the rivets, not actually cracking or puncturing the hull. Beat a riveted hull enough and it’s death by 1000 drips from rivets.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>biggill wrote:</div>
September 4, 2019 at 8:39 am#1877172
Any object that is going to cause significant damage to your hull is going to throw you and your passengers in the water. That’s the bigger concern.

This ^^^.

Obviously you guys don’t fish Vermilion or Canada very often…or shallow rivers.

I personally would like my hull .10 or thicker. Some of those thinner jon boats can actually flex hoping down a river. For me (and a lot of gals), Thicker is always better

Take my boat for a spin on the river if you want. It’ll give you an idea how little you can get away with if you’re safe and aware. Will probably also confirm a list of things you don’t want- low freeboard being one.

Ive ran into my fair share of $hit in smaller boats. Had a jon 14′ then a 14′ bigger deeper v for years after that. But, when you ran into stuff the boat moved or bounced, big heavy boat will not.

Don’t want to give the impression I’m running out there WOT with blinders on, just my luck is if there is a big chunk of bone in a sausage I’ll get it, if every new part on the shelf works except for one I’m ending up with it, pick the new pair of jeans out with a stain on em, new reels stop working right out of box, and if there is one deadhead on the entire river I’m running into er. Just kinda how life goes for me. No biggie. Just makes a guy start thinking about hull girth