1955, 14’ Alumicraft
Shown is my Jon Boat which I inherited from my grandfather. I know it does not look like much here, but this boat has been under the knife for the better half of a decade. Despite sinking twice, losing a motor off the back, and being an ancient watercraft, this boat has character and serves my needs to be out on the water catching bass, salmon and pan fish.
Lets start at the beginning…
On the 2nd of July, 2014, my father and I made the trip up to Vestal, NY, to pick up the boat. At first, I truly thought the boat was everything I could ever ask for! It got me on the water, and we picked up a fairly new 15-hp outboard motor for it. As time went on, however, it was clear some serious modifications would need to be made to keep it waterworthy.
After the summer was over, I started working on the boat in the garage in my free time. I was only 14, so I did not have much expendable income to throw at it just yet.
A simple deck was made at the front and back which allowed me to not stand in water and also store my gear off the hull of the boat.
In 2023, major upgrades were done to the boat to make it overall more effective. Garmin fishfinders were added for mapping and fish-finding purposes. A 100-ah lithium-ion battery replaced the heavy lead-acid battery. A 30-ah lithium-ion battery was added to run the bildge pump and rear fish finder. The boat was stripped, sealed with epoxy, repainted, and redecked. If you are a savvy reader, at this point, you can see that the boat undergoes a serious refresh about every two to three years.
After the hull had been repaired (to an extent), a new deck was fabricated, new electronics were installed, an older (higher horsepower motor) was restored and installed. A jackplate was also installed. This allows the motor to be raised in the z axis (vertically) without changing the trim of the motor. This means that the motor will drag less and also protrude lower into the water, allowing for a higher top speed as well as being able to run in shallower water. This also proved to be very useful during transportation as it insures the skeg (bottom of the motor) does not scrape on the asphalt when towing the boat. Shown below are two images where the jackplate is raised and when it is lowered. The overall z travel is upwards of 12” and can be easily seen by the distance from the skeg to the asphalt.
Overall, there are so many things I still wish to add to this boat, and I love that. It is the perfect project and I am sure that for years to come I will continue to tinker with the boat and update this page accordingly when I do so. At the moment, the epoxy I used to seal the boat has begun to chip and several rivets have fallen out. I will be replacing the rivets shortly and will post an update showing the process. Thanks for reading, and shown below is a collection of pictures I have taken of the boat over the course of its life.
