Sparky electric boat

For video plans, click here! 


Since my back started bothering me I’d been wanting to make a fluted plastic electric boat, but the shorter non-leaking folds of my other boats kind of restricted the weight limit.

On this boat I added a wood transom adding 9″ in length. This gave me more buoyancy for the extra weight of the deep cycle battery.

It took two tries to keep the boat from leaking around the wood transom, but I eventually added a good quality sealer and haven’t had a problem since.

A separate deck was added to the front and rear of the boat. The seat is actually part of the rear panel. Notice the water bottle holder attached to the seat back.

The seat back lifts up to get to the battery.

This was not shown in the previous picture, but this holds the deep cycle battery. For pilots of different weight you can slide the battery forward or back to balance the boat.

I kept the steering and instrument panel simple. I removed the volt meter because it quit working. There’s the light switch, the horn button and porcelain bathtub speed controller. HOT!

This is a view looking toward the bow. The horn attaches to the end of the tiller steering arm.

You gotta have your red and green navigation light and bungee cords to hold your gear.

I even simplified the steering bar coming off the modified trolling motor. I used PVC plumbing instead of the traditional welded steel ‘V’ bar.

You can travel upright…

or lay prone so you can sneak up on birds or turtles. Or to take a nap. Make sure to turn the power off before snoozing!

For video plans, click here!