Boat building

April 22, 2026 - Reading time: 3 minutes

We bought a $400 Alumacraft fishing boat without a motor off the side of the road last summer. It has a trailer (no lights), a live-well, pole storage, beat-up carpet, a tangle of electrical wires, and a bent transom that is dotted with screw and bolt holes.

We already have way too much going on, but I put some air in the trailer tires and pulled the boat out from behind the sheep barn and put it in plain view of the house. No longer out of sight, out of mind!

A couple weeks ago I used my birthday money to pay for at least a portion of the cost of marine plywood. We used the back of the boat as a template to trace onto the expensive boards and glued pieces together with marine adhesive in a caulk gun. Getting the new transom boards tucked under the aluminum in the back was as tricky as I thought, but a come-along ratcheting cable and two pipe clamps were persuasive.

Now I’m trying to replace or supplement the stainless steel hardware that was attached to the back in multiple trips to Menards. I’ll be using 3M 4200 Marine Adhesive Sealant to keep the steel hardware from coming in contact with the aluminum boat (avoid oxidation) and to seal the holes, protect the wood, and keep the boat afloat.

My stepson has experience with low-voltage electrical so when I get the back of the boat sealed up, I’d like him to come make sense of the rat’s nest of wires going to the pumps, lighting, battery, etc. (Maybe in return I’ll fix the transom on his boat that’s also behind the sheep barn.) I think the trolling motor bolted loosely to the bow might be toast, but we’ll see.

Fishing usually isn’t my thing, but we live near enough to a lake with a boat landing that I feel it makes sense to expand our horizons. Will be fun to float around and I know my children and grandchildren will like being out on the water. I think when we finally push off, I’ll probably throw in a line, too.