Im taking a chance on building this ultra small Flounder fan boat. It will either be dangerous or a sweet machine.

Boat is 14' deep and wide, this is still tiny for a fan boat.
Kicker is a 5hp 4-stroke Merc.
The fan motor is a chinese copy of a Honda 13hp GX390. This is to best of my knowledge the biggest industrial, single cylinder engine of its type.
Has a 36" composite prop.

The stands and bow rails are rock solid and the electrics came out real nice with master for the battery and 2 slave switches for various functions, manual bilge, navigation lights and main lights.

All thats left to do is figure and fab up the steering and throttle.

Anyone thas has info on the steering and cable, I'll listen to because I want this to come out right the first time.

A few pix.
This is what I started with...

This is the almost completed rig...

Now that is sweet!

I wanted to set a Gar Boat up like that later next year..

Very cool.


-Z-

Cool!!!

Shouldn't there be some sort of guard around the fan? I really don't have a clue about a "fan" boat but even a small oscillating fan for a room in a house has a guard around it.

definantly needs a fan gaurd of some sort just to keep from a bad situation or injury. looks good though.

frekin love the boat mayn..love the tacoma too..got one meself

Job well done!! Keep us posted on how it all works.

Question: I'm assuming you are going to use the fan and/or the kicker to get you to where you want to fish.....are you going to then pole along as you are fishing?

I'm asking because when I was floundering in my home waters in Florida, being stealthy was important. Or at least I thought it was.

In any case, I sure like the setup!

BB...Flounder are of coarse, abush hunters. They camo themselves to the surroundings and sometimes cover themselves with sand.
For the most part, they think they are hidden, they think you can't see them. Thats why sometimes you can touch one before he'll take off or some people step on them by accident.

The fan, although noisey, does not shoo them away any more than a stealthy wader, they are going to stay in bed until dinner is served. I'd say about 1 out of every 5 flounder I encounter will take off and usually they are the larger ones so when a see a big one or one that is lifting out of its bed, I don't waste time trying to make a perfect head shot.

The outboard will be used to get me from point a to point b, once I found a area I want to hunt the outboard will come up and the fan will come on. No more freakin push polling around all night for me, noo-sir-re Bob!!

If I had a bigger hull I would have a shroud but as this is a one man rig and the hull is small, weight saving has become a critical factor in safe operation, I would love to have had a shroud on the boat but it is to much weight up high for this rig.

Thanks all for the compliments.
I will post more pictures as it becomes compleated.

Boat looks sweet!

Looks like the fan has a shroud in the first pic but not in the second. Should be easy to modify and install.

Did you do all the welding on the frame yourself? Looks good and clean...

I don't much experience with boat steering, I have a few thoughts on this.

As far as steering, I'd recommend against directional vanes seen on larger air boats. With a fan that size, turning the entire fan may be more effective for steering the boat. You'll need to use a system of pulleys and (I would recommend) coated stainless steel wire/rope. Since you would be turning the entire fan, you'll need some sort of outrigger or guide that will allow the wiring to pull on a plate and mount the fan motor to that plate. Perhaps you could use a spring to pull slightly in one direction so you'd only need to run one control wire. The plate on which the motor sits would need some sort of rotational limiter to keep it from turning too far in either direction.

Have you attempted to navigate using the fan before? I'd be curious to know how effective it is...

Lots of good questions.
I got the fan, cage and stand used from a man in Louisiana.
The stand was way to big for my hull so it was hacked up and re-welded to fit my application. The welds came out great. After all the metal was fabbed, it was striped to white metal, primed and painted black. Yes, I did the welds but my friend did the fabbing and tacking of the engine stand, the rest was all me.

There is no way I can run a cage on this boat, they are just to heavy...the stand and motor combine a weight of approx 110 lbs and that is a elevated weight that will make manuevers that much more dangerous so the shroud had to be left off. That cage weighed and easy 30 lbs.!!

To help with weight distribution, batterys and gas tank are going to be moved, just forward of mid-ship.

The fan works pretty much the way you guessed. It sits on a steel plate that is welded to a stand pipe. The stand pipe is supported by to collar bearings and set screws. Rotation of the fan will be limited to 180 degres.

Steering will be a push-pull affair with a system of cable, bellcrank, linkage, cleavis and clevis pin.

Throttle will be with a Teliflex cable. It will also have remote ignition controls mounted on the hand rail along with steering and throttle.

Although I have never operated a fan boat before I have been a rider with gig in hand on a friends boat and can say they are very cool and is the ultimate way to go real shallow.

For now I am going to run a 12v dc system but is the future I am planning to suppliment this with a small honda eu2000i and a high pressure sodium or a metal halide lighting system.

This is all a first for me so I do appreciate everyones input and concerns. I am fully aware of the dangers of running without the cage but for such a small hull, there is no other way around the issue.

Boat looks great! The only concern I would have would be with the lights. Its a good idea having them under the boat like that but get cought by wind or busy taking a flounder off you could run up onto something and break them off.

rkersh, you have a valid point. It seems that the lights are mounted on PVC which is held on by 2x4s inside the gunnels. A good alternative would be to replace the PVC with angle-iron (or aluminum) and caulk the backside of the lamps unless they have a waterproof screw-down connector (Woodhead, Amphenol, etc.). Then, mount the angle-iron to the 2x4 ~or~ have a bolt-in welded fitting to receive the angle-iron...

I doubt that the boat would be transported with the lamp assembly installed - you'd do that just before or just after launching by my guess. There is no easy way to recess them into the hull and if one of the lamps ever broke, it would be messy to say the least...

For the last 2 posters, thanks for the compliments.

I built this lighting system back when I was push polling the boat. They work great and the mounting and PVC frame is solid.
The light frame has the capability to swing up and be secured out of the way but I have learned that it is not at all nessacery.

The lights clear the trailer on launch and retrieve. When I am standing in the bow the top of the lights are submerged just below the waters surface. If I happen to run aground on a reef or flat,the lights are still safely away from the bottom. The PVC frame, though ridgid, will also tend to flex instead of break so there is some measure of forgivness in the event of ruff handling. When underway, the bow rises enough that the lights clear the water but if I am caught in chop, then the lights do have to be raised and secured.

I know the 2X4 blocks look hookey but theywhere built as a temporary mount to scratch my gigging itch but have worked out so nice I haven't had the need to up grade to a more polished look.

In the near future, as a suppliment to the DC12v lights I am going to install 6-150w HPS light fixtures mounted to the bow railing with the capcitors and ignightors in a seperate box all powered by a Honda eu2000i genny. This little sub compact boat is going to have almost every option.

Man I am ready to give that a try!!!
My fishing/hunting buddy has a 1860 Seaark with a fan mounted on top of his outboard for bowfishing. He has the a 7200 Honda but his lights are mounted up ontop of the deck.
We have access to west bay/sanlouis pass area via another buddy's house in Terramar beach. I am ready to try it down there but I am going to need some help locating a spot in that area to get started!
Cool rig man. you've got my mind going for my 1650 xpress. I may have to do the push pole/trolling motor for now.

Sweet job Bert. It will feel so good when you throw those push poles away. LOL
Wayne

Thanks waynne...hows you rig and are you comming down this summer?

Not going to make it this summer. Grandkids mostly live with us and one is going to summer school. I will be there Oct. 19 thru the 1st of Dec.
I've still got the 14 footer, but I got another rig too. 18 ft. Alum Craft with a tunnel hull. Wife wasn't too comfortable in the 14 footer. Not going to rig this on out to gig. We are just going to rod and reel. I'm already counting the days until October.
Wayne

Nice Lab.

Gotta love the refineries in the backgroung, only in Texas!

Fan boat was a complete failure. Boat was to narrow
and fan set up to heavy. Boat has been striped and will be up for sale soon as a normal jon boat.

Sorry to get that report Bert. I know you put a lot of time and money in setting it up. I think a boat no less than 16 ft. by 72 in. is a good starting size for a flounder rig. You better get started in a hurry though, before they outlaw gigging.
Wayne

damn that horrible, sorry to hear that