After a little eyeballing, it became obvious that the bottom was not flat from the stern forward. It had a slight cup beginning a couple of feet ahead of midship running aft to a point a couple of feet ahead of the transom. I had originally intended to build this boat as a center console but as the basic boat developed, I decided to follow the plans. After seeing the cupped bottom, I changed my mind yet again and decided to move the center seat aft and build a center console centered on the original position of the seat. The new position of the seat would be centered over the cup in the bottom and I thought a seat post cut to the necessary length might help straighten the bottom. After a few extra layers of fiberglass to build up the chines and a few more itchy days of grinding them to a nice sharp edge, work began on the console and new seat position. All said and done, the console came out great and the new seat position along with the slightly longer post greatly improved the performance of the boat. I believe the new position of the driver helped as much as a straight bottom but the two combined made this boat a pleasure to operate. The sharp chines are much better but my boat could still use spray rails. I think this boat looks very handsome as a center console. It does take some imagination to rig a tiny console, but where there's a will, there's a way. Of course no one knows this better than boat builders.
The extra work has added about two years to this project but only because I ran out of free time after finishing the original kit. If I had to do it all over again, I wood, I wood, I wood! I would make sure the bottom was flat EVERY time I walked by the thing! I would also not be scared to venture off the beaten path if the original was not exactly what I wanted to end up with. After all, isn't that why we build our own boats?
As for the name, my father is the son of a son of a sailor (from Jimmy Buffet's song) and any boat that burns our natural resources, especially if it goes faster than the length of the hull (displacement of coarse) will allow, disgusts him. Every time we go fishing or sailing and big fast boats pass with that awesome cloud of burnt gas and oil following them, he always snorts... "STINK POT".
This is obviously a condensed account of this project but if you have any questions about my experiences along the way, feel free to contact me at: williamelewis@bellsouth.net.
Happy building,
Billy Lewis
