Bowmount trolling motor on fiberglass tri-hull

[erikwells]

My father in law has a 17 foot Cimmaron tri-hull. It is more of a cruisin/ski boat. However he uses it for fishing. We go on a week fishing trip up north every year and he is tired of watching me in my Lund catch walleyes while he can't troll down slow enough. He is looking at getting the most basic model that he can that has a long enough shaft, foot pedal and power to push his boat. Keep in mind mounting on the bow might be a little bit of an adventure. I have seen similiar boats with a bow mount but have never really paid attention as to how they did it and what type of motor they used. Any experts out there want to help me help my father in law? I don't think he can take another year of watching me catch walleyes while he speedtrolls the bait over the top of them.

[Guest]

Hey man,
We have the same problem/privelage of helping our inlaws/outlaws rig their runabouts for fishing. My father out-law is thinking hard about a putting add'l motors on their 18'-6" SeaRay. He's thinking a bowmount electric, and a transom mounted 10 hp. 4-stroke. Problems he's encountered/considered are
1) mounting a kicker motor on a swim platform - too far away to tiller
2) how to steer the kicker from the console
3) how to charge the batteries for the bow-mount off of the V6 inboard.

Is theirs I/O or B.A.O.? (big-a$$ outboard)

------------------
<)/////><{
RobertC

[erikwells]

Fisherdave, how much are the Neptune units ballpark? I doubt he will spend much over $300.00 or so. Robertc isn't it remarkable what relatives are willing to do to the recreational boats when they see what fishing can be in a fishing boat?

[fishinphyl]

Oh Erik could I tell you stories about how to do this exept some of them would not be allowed on this site! We went through this last year but we have it down now. First we were going to put the kicker on the big motor until we were clear across the lake one day and the big motor quit and we had to be towed back! So we decided that a trolling motor would be the best idea. So we purchased the large Minnkota with the long shaft and lots of thrust-because our boat is really heavy. We could not put a tiller mount on because we have an I/O so we went with the bow mount. Then when we tried to put it on the walk-on on the front of the boat we realized that there was no way to reach the bolts to screw them on from the bottom and that we would also have to move the light over. So someone on the site suggested that Minnkota makes bolts for this, so I purchased those. But we could not tighten them up right. So back we go to the store and purchased toggle bolts. When we got them home we realized that we did not have the right drill bit. So off we go to the store again! But after moving the bow light over as far as we could without unhooking it (because we had no way to reach the wires) we used the toggle bolts and hooked on the detachable mounting plate (which we had purchased for the motor because we wanted to be able to take it off when we used the boat just for recreation) and this worked great! We just put the batteries on the floor or you could put them in the underseat storage up front if it was not full like ours is. When we fish one of us sits up front and runs the trolling motor and one fishes out the back. If you were fishing alone you could still go up front and run it and then go back to run the regular motor. I realize this is probably more than he wants to spend for a motor, but if he ever has motor problems and has no way to get home he will be very happy he spent the extra money!!!! Besides I think I just saved you about 10 trips to the store.

------------------
Phyl

[Fisher Dave]

Look in Cabelas or Bass Pro catalogs for the neptune .. they have a few different models and price range .. I would guess he could find something that would work decent for him in the $300 range... The $300 range wont get him anything for a new bow mount.

[Fisher Dave]

Erik,

If your dad plans on using the trolling motor strickly for trolling lure type baits he may be better off picking up a Neptune trolling motor. These motors bolt right to the lower unit of the main engine. This would allow your dad to still use the counsel to steer the boat. The motors are designed to come out of the water while motoring.

Depending on what he wants to use the trolling motor for, this could be an easier option, also more thrust for the $$$.

[erikwells]

Thanks guys. Fisherdave the boat I speak of is a outboard 90 hp Johnson. I will have my father in law check out the neptune as an option. Sounds as if mounting it would be a lot easier than a bow mount trolling motor.

[fishinphyl]

Robert - without the walkout this could be tough! Sure am glad ours had one or we would probably still be trying to figure out how to do it! Maybe you could make a platform and mount that someway. I know a guy that did this with a fishing boat. Good luck.

------------------
Phyl

[Guest]

Phyl - That's the situation my inlaws have - but with no walk-out.
Erik - I'm starting to realize there is no single perfect boat.

------------------
<)/////><{
RobertC