14ft Aluminum choices

I’m running a brand new Versatile Marine out of Chemainus. 14’er / 30 HP Yamy / mounted 8” rails to increase the freeboard…..fishing daily NW chop+ out of Comox. Boat runs fantastic in all sloppy conditions. Great builder to work with
whats a ball park number on one of those out the door powered up....
 
I slightly modified a 12'11" by 6'8" Conrad design. ( Coming from someone who normally fished our of fiberglass 20+ft boats this was going to be a compromise or so I thought...
Ended up very pleased overall. This boat had to be light at 1/8". Very dry and super stable. Handles chop well, and In bigger stuff it doesn't submarine or do anything funny it almost feels easier to drive in rough stuff because it can plane at 14mph. Overall it feels very strong.

Could easily make it self bailing, this one is not.

Elec downriggers, 9inch touch screen im lazy and a poor fisherman so i need every edge i can get.

A 40hp would be fun. But it will do 27mph 1 person with the 30hp. 40 or 50hp next yr once someone buys the 2019 suzuki off me it's too light.

Would be expensive to build this hull, I don't know what someone would charge but over 15-20k I bet rigged out. Ways to make it cheaper, this was a 1st kick at the can. Aluminum alone was 5k to have cut and formed (including plate).

I imagine a 16ft version would be a very capable boat. I'd always recommend tiller hard to beat the control over the vessel.
 

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Great deal, especially with the newer power. Fish all day for $25 in fuel. Only downside is lack of a walk-thru floor. That can be changed though
yup once you have the walk through open floor , no going back to middle benches........
 
I slightly modified a 12'11" by 6'8" Conrad design. ( Coming from someone who normally fished our of fiberglass 20+ft boats this was going to be a compromise or so I thought...
Ended up very pleased overall. This boat had to be light at 1/8". Very dry and super stable. Handles chop well, and In bigger stuff it doesn't submarine or do anything funny it almost feels easier to drive in rough stuff because it can plane at 14mph. Overall it feels very strong.

Could easily make it self bailing, this one is not.

Elec downriggers, 9inch touch screen im lazy and a poor fisherman so i need every edge i can get.

A 40hp would be fun. But it will do 27mph 1 person with the 30hp. 40 or 50hp next yr once someone buys the 2019 suzuki off me it's too light.

Would be expensive to build this hull, I don't know what someone would charge but over 15-20k I bet rigged out. Ways to make it cheaper, this was a 1st kick at the can. Aluminum alone was 5k to have cut and formed (including plate).

I imagine a 16ft version would be a very capable boat. I'd always recommend tiller hard to beat the control over the vessel.
Wow, I gotta say that hull looks amazing.

My first boat was a custom commissioned Lifetimer 14ft with a centre console and 40hp Suzuki. I love the centre console setup, but your tiller setup looks amazing, and I really like the side bench seating for storage and floatation - really cleans everything up and keeps it open.

The hull design looks really sophisticated. I appreciate that there are a lot of nice touches that most builders wouldn't bother with (or think of) in a smaller hull: the delta pad, the small reverse chine, and I really like the bottom strakes. Every builder should incorporate at least a pair of bottom strakes - this was something I really liked on my Lifetimer as well. When the water gets a bit snotty, the side/bottom strakes provide some bite if you are going at a diagonal to the wave direction - they bite into the wave to minimize roll and help you maintain heading. The reverse chine is also nice to keep the spray down - my Lifetimer tended to throw up a lot of spray in rougher water.

This looks like a slick ride.

Curious - how was the 30 Evinrude vs the Suzuki? The 40 Suzuki is a nice upgrade - tons of torque, as they use the same displacement powerhead for the 50hp and 60hp model.

Self bailing is nice, but it means that the floor needs to be raised up, which means the gunnels need to go up quite a bit as well. The big thing you want is the aluminum floor (rather than no floor, or a wood floor - which is most common on a 14ft boat). Nice if you can incorporate a small sump at the back to collect all the water, and locate a bilge pump.
 
We have a 2013 14ft Lund WC. 2024 Merc 25hp fuel injection, electric start with power tilt. Boat has 2 GPS/sonar units, 2 Scotty electric downriggers and NAV lights. We use it all the time in Oak Bay and the waterfront. Very stable boat. It is rivited and we have had it for 11 years and it does not leak a drop. 20 inch transome and deep vee hull. We put approximately 150hrs a year on the motor and countless more hours jigging so the boat is well used. Contact LA Marine in Port Alberni, they gave us the best deal on the original boat, motor, trailer package and then again the best deal on the new motor. Highly recommend them.
 
I was running a 15 foot smoker craft it was a good boat but the rivets always leaked you had to run the bilge every few hours and it pounded hard so I bite the bullet and got my self and 1400 Lifetimer last year and I love it!!! it was well worth the money and the new owner of Lifetimer was really good to work with as well as his staff, they made the boat exactly how I wanted it and I’ll have it forever so well with it. That’s my 2 cents
 
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