FS14LS or DS15 or PH15 or somthing else?

[RedfishMark]

I need some advice/help,

I have been looking at these boat plans for many months now (more consistent and serious over the last month) and can't seem to decide which to go with. I'm hoping you guys can help me decide which boat will suit my needs best.

Let me start by give a little background on the type of fishing I do. I live near Houston, TX and frequently go down to West Galveston Bay and Christmas Bay. I primarily fish the wind protected south shorelines and salt water lakes. Generally I fish in less than 6 feet of water, but will traverse across deeper if the weather suits it. When I get to the fishing grounds I plan on poling across grass flats and into channels that are less than 2 feet deep and shallow as 8 inches or so.

The constraints for this build are as follow:
-- Length must be 15' 6" or less. I'm building in my garage and don't have room for anything bigger
-- Most of the time I fish with either my girlfriend or a buddy (2 people capacity minimum). I don't have enough friends to justify a boat that will hold more than 2 or 3 people
-- I'm trying to keep the cost low (less than $10,000 all in), so I have been leaning toward a tiller steer, but I like the looks and idea of remote steer better
-- I'm looking at wider beam boats since I want the stability while poling and having another person onboard
-- Not concerned with going fast, mid 20's at 3/4 throttle would exceed my expectations
-- A boat that won't make my teeth fillings fall out going across light chop would be nice

I was leaning towards the DS15, but I keep reading people say how tippy it gets, so I'm not sure if that is conducive to poling. I like the FS14LS, but it is just a touch smaller than I would like. I like the PH15, however, the study plans say this boat is NOT for a first time builder. I would like to think I am competent enough to handle the PH15 as a kit, but I'm not sure if I would be biting off more than I can chew. I also see people talk about the Garvey 13 and 15 fairly frequently. Should I be considering these more? Would they be good candidates for poling the flats?

I plan on buying a kit and starting before the end of the month. I have many other questions wrote down that I will likely ask later; for now I need to decide which boat.

Thank you for your time,
Mark

[Fuzz]

Welcome to the group Mark.
Trying to get a good poleing skiff and keep it less than 15.5 foot might be tough but I know nothing about poleing. There are guys who do it a lot and maybe one of them will chime in.

[OrangeQuest]

I like the FS-14 and not the low sheer version. I fish a lot in Christmas Bay, Cold Pass West Bay and San Luis Pass. The wind kick the chop up and you will like the higher freeboard of the higher sides. You can do it with a tiller or a small console.

[seaslug]

Hi Mark, and welcome to the group, I just took a look at the study plans for a few boats including the Phantoms, the FS17 LS, and the FS14 LS. I've built the FS18 LS, FS14 LS, and SK14, and am currently building the GF16. From my observations the Phantoms are too wide and heavy for poling, and also require a lot more materials than you'd want to purchase. A scaled down FS17 is a possibility, but my choice would be the FS14 LS scaled up 10% with a few other modifications. With my FS14 I raised the low sheer 1" above the plans because it's a very low sheer hull, and scaling up 10% I'd even raise the sheer 2". My boats finished dimensions were 13' 10" by 60" beam, so a scaled up version would be very close to what you need, between 15' and 15' 6" by about 66" beam. Very close to the Hell's Bay Whipray dimensions. Plenty wide enough to be stable and a good 2 person platform. There is a little deadrise, so not a total flat bottom aft, but draft should only be around 5", and a 20-25 hp would be perfect. The FS14 also has very nice lines, and would make a sharp looking flats boat with a nice poling platform. You would need a little more plywood and epoxy etc. than the study plans show, but no problem staying within your budget with a new motor, and new trailer. If you haven't seen my build look in the gallery under album title, mike's FS14 LS build. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. Good luck with your build. Mike

[Capt UB]

Hi Mark, and welcome to the group, I just took a look at the study plans for a few boats including the Phantoms, the FS17 LS, and the FS14 LS. I've built the FS18 LS, FS14 LS, and SK14, and am currently building the GF16. From my observations the Phantoms are too wide and heavy for poling, and also require a lot more materials than you'd want to purchase. A scaled down FS17 is a possibility, but my choice would be the FS14 LS scaled up 10% with a few other modifications. With my FS14 I raised the low sheer 1" above the plans because it's a very low sheer hull, and scaling up 10% I'd even raise the sheer 2". My boats finished dimensions were 13' 10" by 60" beam, so a scaled up version would be very close to what you need, between 15' and 15' 6" by about 66" beam. Very close to the Hell's Bay Whipray dimensions. Plenty wide enough to be stable and a good 2 person platform. There is a little deadrise, so not a total flat bottom aft, but draft should only be around 5", and a 20-25 hp would be perfect. The FS14 also has very nice lines, and would make a sharp looking flats boat with a nice poling platform. You would need a little more plywood and epoxy etc. than the study plans show, but no problem staying within your budget with a new motor, and new trailer. If you haven't seen my build look in the gallery under album title, mike's FS14 LS build. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. Good luck with your build. Mike

I'm with the Mike. I built the FS14 without the center bench, with a sole and lowered the front deck to fish from, works great! Maybe a FS14 with sides between the FS14 and FS14LS? JM (designer) will have to say if that could be done.

.

file-4.jpg (62.82 KiB) Viewed 568 times

[BB Sig]

I'm with the Mike. I built the FS14 without the center bench, with a sole and lowered the front deck to fish from, works great! Maybe a FS14 with sides between the FS14 and FS14LS? JM (designer) will have to say if that could be done.

That’s one of the many pros of Jacques/BBC’s methods of boat building; you can do just about anything as long as you leave the frames where they were designed. Build the FS14 and pick your height later.

[RedfishMark]

Thank you guys for the input!
I like the idea of making the FS14LS but making it 10% larger. The FS14LS is my favorite design, I was turned off by how short it was. How simple is it to make a boat 10% larger? Could a person simply multiply every measurement by 1.10 and everything will fit right? Will I need any extra supports? Is making the sides 2" taller (to increase freeboard a little) as easy as cutting the side pieces and transom a little taller? Or would I need to start 2" higher at the bow and taper down towards the stern so it didn't impact the transom height? Or would the process of making the boat 10% larger give me the extra freeboard I'm looking for?

Sorry to throw out so many questions in such a dysfunctional manner.

[jacquesmm]

Scale by 10% and the sides will increase by 10%. It is very easy if you use the metric version.
It can be done with the US version too since I give the dimensions in inches fractional like 37-1/8 not 3' 1-1/8".
Just change the fraction to a decimal like 1/8 = 0.125, 1/4" = 0.25 etc. then multiply by your 1.1 factor.
Print an extra copy and write down the scaled dimensions.
And see this:
http://bateau2.com/howto/scaling.php

[BB Sig]

Jacques beat me!

If you are going to scale, you might want the metric version of the plans. Repton did scale in SAE by using a spreadsheet and was highly successful. Metric would be better if I was to do it but then you have to buy metric tape measures...

Here’s a how to on scaling:

http://bateau2.com/howto/scaling.php

[OrangeQuest]

My FS-14 plans came with both standard and metric as downloadable files. I thought I read you was going with the CNC kit? What are the chances of getting the kit cut at the 10% increase?