How could I fasten a piece of plywood over my open bow?

I’ve spent lots of time on Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. The worst wave I ever took over my bow was on the St Croix River.
 
The quote from Metals Supermarket in Everett is $500 plus tax for 1/8" 6061 aluminum in the full coverage 5'x7' sheet. Probably want to make a template by laying a softer material like plywood over the snaps and whacking it to make indentations to drill and use to layout the aluminum. Midway Plywood in Lynwood recommends MDO 3/8" plywood (sign painter's) over marine and sells a 4x8 sheet for $55. The splice can be lapped or joined with a perforated metal strap from Ace. Lowes has a 1/2" holesaw and I could drill the plywood to fit over the .4" diameter snaps with a few fender washers for retention. Prototype or template or aluminum? I just can't understand how Musk or Kim Chi can build a working finished product without going through a learning curve. I don't want to buy and maintain a 2nd boat but recognize and respect the power of water. Any temporary modification has to be strong, competent and not half-ass.
 
Arminius said:
I have a nice canvas snap on cover now. Suppose I removed the screws holding in the snaps, drilled holes, and inserted well nuts. The snaps could go back in, retained by machine screws. Longer machine screws could hold the painted piece of plywood on in the unlikely event I decided to put this lake boat into salt water. Be great to hear from someone who has actually done it.
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Why would you want to go out into water where a wave could come over the bow and take your tonneau cover out and your solution is to use plywood ?...
if you could stop the water from taking the plywood out it’s coming over the windshield...now what ?
 
My little bowrider is a great boat - for running around on inland lakes and rivers - not the ocean or any big water except on an very calm day. I have taken plenty of waves over the bow on Lake Norman - not in bad weather, just from other boat wakes - I can tell you it does not handle it very well. As far as weather there are plenty of windy days I just would not venture out, and this is a lake. The ride on these small boats gets rough and wet real quick. You take a couple of waves over the bow in a situation where you have waves one after the other, not a one time passing boat wake, your going to get into big trouble real quick. Not to mention all the carpet and other things in this boat that just aren't made to get wet. If you are looking for a project that's great and completely your business, I just don't think this will end well. If you are looking for a small boat that you can take out in the ocean or sound, take some waves and have fun, get a good center console that is made for it. Years ago a friend had a 18' center console, with proper scuppers etc, we would take it out in the ocean and just bury the bow (we were kids) time after time, up to our knees in water and it would drain and just keep going. You do that that in your bowrider once and it is sunk.

Want to see how your boat is going to handle some big waves checkout the Haulover Inlet videos on youtube. On a calm day people cruise in out no problems, other days I've seen 50' boats get it handed to them.
 
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Why don't you make a template out of luan or something else easy to work with and then use it to make a fiberglass cover for it. You can do it yourself in your basement.

I'm not sure that it would work but if you are going to experiment...
 
Woody said:
My first boat was a new 200 Select bowrider. I tried running that boat around on Lake Superior a few times. I had purchased it in August '03, I ordered a different boat in September of '03.

If you just gotta....how about adding more snaps to help keep your current bow canvas on. Also modify your bow canvas if need be to accommodate a couple more canvas support poles to help hold the convex shape and shed water. With my second boat, 270 Sundeck, I found repetitive waves crashing over the bow would collapse the support pole. The canvas then became a concave surface that funneled a lot of water through the walkthru and into the boat. I learned that in a bad storm, actually opened the transom door to let the water out faster. That was the last trip with that boat.
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Blueone said:
Why would you want to go out into water where a wave could come over the bow and take your tonneau cover out and your solution is to use plywood ?...
if you could stop the water from taking the plywood out it’s coming over the windshield...now what ?
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Just thinking....what if the plywood comes loose and breaks the windshield glass...big bucks then:eek:...maybe a totaled out boat.
 
Woody has answered the rhetorical question posed, "Why would I want to substitute structurally reinforced aluminum or plywood for the canvas snap cover before venturing into blue water?" The destination would be Sucia Island which is a small U-shaped rock at the north of the San Juans. The U forms a protected harbor capturing warm shallow tidal water calm enough to ski on. It is a State Park and has sandy to pebble beaches. I used to take my beachable 18' cuddy with the 150 hp outboard up there but it is a ways into the Strait of Juan de Fuco and one must keep a weather eye out. It is fog prone and there are no ferries to duck behind while crossing the shipping lanes. This year was so successful with the hemi pulling the lake boat across the mountains, I wondered what new or old adventures might be considered for next year. I will prep the plywood cover but don't know if I will ever use it. The I/O has proven itself to be very reliable and doesn't need to be in the garage for maintenance (well, plugs) and the plywood could be left under the tonneau to keep the rain out.
e1a17a98-sucia-island.jpg
 
I think you are going to do this, you need to go full tilt with it - not just halfway. I'm thinking along the same lines of what Woody mentioned -- plus, there's a possibility that if not's 100% secured that it rips off and hits someone inside the boat. The problem with this, then, is that you have to secure it so well, that it means you are likely "re-modeling" the bow area of the boat to the point where it could make the boat hard to sell.

And, of course, logically speaking, this brings us back to the points above of just buying the proper boat for your needs rather than hacking up a perfectly good bowrider. Take a look at the 215/225 models from Sea Ray from the late 90's to the mid-2000's. That should work much better for you.
 
Creekwood said:
Its just not suited for big water / waves without risking sinking. Calm day and forecast maybe, but then you don't need the plywood. The plywood won't help much. It will just give a bow stuff wave faster track to the stern of the boat that might actually sink you faster. A small bowrider has no scuppers to get that water out. That huge weight will be on the deck until it drains to the bilge and then that little itty bitty bilge pump will have to pump it out. The problem with many lake bowriders is that the bow is too low, not that it is open. That is why the new larger bowriders coming out that are more suited for open water don't have those low bows.
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Yep, happened to me on my first outing in the intercoastal waterway north of Clearwater, Fl with an 18ft bow rider.... Calm day, weather moved in quickly, rain, wind, three waves over the bow, within seconds three people up to our knees in water, engine shut off and both bilge pumps shut down because the battery was underwater; my son who was with me, did two tours in infantry battle and survived a Humvee that was destroyed by an IED, said that boat day scared him more than anything else. Sold the boat within weeks, much happier and safer now with a more capable boat.
 
@2016FLD just think... if you only had a sheet of plywood you could have avoided the entire catastrophe :D
 
Put your money into a high flow second bilge pump and additional snaps and reinforce the canvas under the tent pole.

If you are going to build a solid cover to close the bow, take a look at how stingray boats did it. They have built a removable fiberglass bow cover that is solid enough to walk on and seals around the edges. It is held in place with thumb screws fastened under the cover.

It’s pretty expensive but I would build a template and make the cover from fiberglass.

Or not at all! See my first comment.
 
Lazy Daze said:
I think you are going to do this, you need to go full tilt with it - not just halfway. I'm thinking along the same lines of what Woody mentioned -- plus, there's a possibility that if not's 100% secured that it rips off and hits someone inside the boat. The problem with this, then, is that you have to secure it so well, that it means you are likely "re-modeling" the bow area of the boat to the point where it could make the boat hard to sell.

And, of course, logically speaking, this brings us back to the points above of just buying the proper boat for your needs rather than hacking up a perfectly good bowrider. Take a look at the 215/225 models from Sea Ray from the late 90's to the mid-2000's. That should work much better for you.
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+1
Find a 215 EC or WE if this is what you are planning to do.....or not
 
In light of the various bad experiences recounted, I think I will use two sheets with the junction at the top, secured by a 6" plywood strap. Stingrayaxe is welcome to the leftover 2 & 1/2' x 4' piece of wood to mount bindings on for a matching gargantuan ski. Other comments regarding flotation are also welcome at http://www.clubsearay.com/index.php?threads/will-my-holed-boat-float.101747/
You can search or Google my name to see photos of my many controversial but successful marine projects like the FM-200 extinguisher, the blower and engine fire shutdown box, the low voltage circuit warning and shutdown switch instead of 2nd battery, the dashboard impeller pressure gauge, the keel rollers, the added trailer brakes, the power trailer winch, the ski mirror (worked well w/o getting dislodged), the ladder rung cushions and stowing strap, and others. The AM antenna solution-no coax. Removed the idiotic helper spring from the throttle linkage for much smoother operation. Became comfortable with running at WOT just trimming down slightly to silence the overrev (5100 rpm) horn and maintaining 50+ mph. Put in a cupholder mount for my Android phone and display the GPS speedo app for sensitive skiier speed control although the various nav apps eliminate the need for most expensive equipment-there will be no need for anti-collision radar once all are equipped with AIS. Come to think of it, those big boys in the foggy shipping lanes will now show up w/o radar although I'd need an add on AIS receiver. I think the biggest controversy was solder vs crimp.. The piss hole in the swim platform was never used so I replaced the prop inspection & cleaning plate. OBD2 does not work on this Chev based engine. Any comments regarding any of these dead issues belong on those old strings. Anyway, the winter is long and dreary.
 
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