DIY Mini Wake Boat
 

Hey everyone, I've been working on this project for a few weekends now and thought some of you might find it amusing so thought I'd share my progress...

5 months ago I had ACL surgery and I'm not quite able to wakeboard yet so I've found other ways to entertain myself during recovery. This time I've decided something crazy...to build a mini wake boat lol! Since it's summer now, and I have a couple nephews visiting me next month I thought it would be so cool to build them a mini boat they can drive around our lake. They are 2-3 years old and drive power wheels and 4-wheels on their own so I'm hoping they can learn to drive a boat too.

The boat is far from finished but I'll share what I have so far and if anyone has interest they can follow my progress and maybe give me some suggestions along the way!



First thing I did was design a hull shape in CAD. I chose to have a fairly flat bottom instead of a V because it will provide more stability and push less water. Since I don't care about the wake, and I doubt it will even go fast enough to make one, I thought this would be a good design and push less water and hopefully making it slightly faster.

The second picture is the hull prices "unwrapped". This will give me the shapes to cut that will bend to form the hull.

The CAD drawings also show me stats about the hull shape, such as how much water it will displace. This lets me calculate how much weight the boat can hold to float. It was over 350 lbs so we're good. It will hold battery, motor, and even an adult no problem.

I took my unwrapped CAD file to a local printer and had them print it out actual size for me so I would have something to trace.

I bought sheets of 1/4" plywood from Home Depot and taped my drawings to the wood and traced the shape with a jigsaw. Some pieces I did 2 sheets at once to cut both the port and starboard sides at the same time.

Here are all of the pieces cut out.

This seems like a very interesting project, but before you get too far, have you considered that 3-4 year olds are not legally permitted to drive boats (and for good reason)? This seems very unsafe should something go wrong.

Once the pieces were cut out I stitched them together by drilling small holes along the edge and using zip ties. Right now the boat is only held together by these zip ties, so there are a lot of them. Bending the plywood into shape wasn't too difficult when you start at the transom and work your way toward the bow little by little.

The second picture shows the finished hull stitching. It is about 5 feet long and almost 3 feet wide. only 1 inch off my CAD drawing. Not sure how it got off but hey I'm not a boat builder so I'll take it.

Chexi, thanks for the concern :) We have a private lake that is only a few feet deep so we will be standing in the water right next to them. Maybe they will be too young and it's better suited for an older child, we'll see. We wouldn't put any kids into danger.

Next I use epoxy resin mixed with wood flour to fillet the seams between the zip ties. Once cured the zip ties can be removed.

After zip ties are removed I used more epoxy resin + wood flour mixture to fill the remaining parts where the zip ties were and laid strips of fiberglass cloth into the seams and painted pure epoxy over the fiberglass.

I used 6oz 4" wide strips. Once cured I was surprised how strong the boat was already with so little fiberglassing done so far.

To power the boat, I plan to use this electric trolling motor. I don't want to just clamp it on like it's meant to be used, so I need to make a way for it to fit inside the boat like an inboard. I'll have to cut it and hook it up to a steering wheel with some cables.

I sanded the inside of the hull using a random orbital sander and started building out a spot where the trolling motor shaft can drop down through the hull, and also a nice spot for the battery to sit where it wont slide around. The battery box fits into that frame nicely and can get strapped down.

I used a string to mark the centerline of the hull, and hung a medal weight from it so I would know where center was to align the motor shaft hole.

Again, I used more epoxy resin with woodflour to thicken the epoxy and glue all the pieces in place. Then more fiberglass strips and pure epoxy.

For now I haven't cut a hole in the actual hull yet, I plan on doing that later.

I added a divider to separate the battery and motor compartment, and added the framing for the bench driver seat. I am thinking that I'll cover the back compartment with 2 folding seat cushions like a real wake boat.

Under the seat is empty space so I cut some foam to fill it with. This will create more flotation should water ever get in the boat.

Another frame going in for the dash / steering column. Your legs can go through the middle.

Time to flip it over and start smoothing out the outside seams. I used a block plane on the edges to smooth them out.

Once smooth I used more epoxy/woodflour to fill any holes or seams

Cool Project I like what your doing. I personally think you should ditch the Idea of a inboard. For these reasons. A inboard is going to take up floor space, Your going to have to deal with Threw Hull issues and come up with a Shaft. I could go on and on.

If it was Me I would go with a Lenco Trim tab transom mounted motors with remote wheel. This way you don't have to do steering wheel and cables ect. And the Only thing you now would need to mount in the boat is a Battery and a charger! These trim tab motors would mount to your transom and they would be your only below the water line mounting. IMO just less to go wrong and deal with. I like how you can trim the motors Up and not have to deal with rudders and other things dragging. I can see when its all rigged a nice bed liner inside

here is a example of the system Im talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZXgDX8Wrw8

And a Nice lithium Battery to power the system. I'm pretty sure you could get this in a 24 sytem

BTW why do you have Ryobie Drills and a Festool Sander!!!!

Nice work! You obviously do wood work from more then just a hobby :)

This is a funny one... when I was doing all of this work I had this concern in the back of my mind "what if this thing doesn't float!?". I wanted to make sure that my hull design worked before I spent any more time on the boat, but the hull wasn't waterproof yet so I couldn't water test it.

I had a tarp, painters plastic, and some spare plywood from another project all laying around so I build a small frame, filled it with water, and wrapped the boat in the painters plastic to prevent the bare wood hull from getting wet.

All of my concerns went away when the boat floated perfectly! I even added the battery into the back and a 40lb weight to the seat. It worked really well but slightly back heavy. I added 10lbs to the bow to even it out.

When the boat is done if it's still back heavy I figure I can always put a small sandbag in the bow as needed.

I even got in the boat. No pictures of me in the boat, I wish I would have taken one. Even with my weight in the boat the draft was still only 3-4 inches

Just a hobby, I make video games for a living haha. I love my festool tools, but unfortunately all of my tools are not festool.

Your ideas about the motor are good. I will look into that. My concern is that those look really expensive?

Best... Uncle... Ever...
Nice work man looks good

Sanded the crap out of the bottom of the hull to make it as smooth as possible to prep it for fiberglass. I put a large sheet of fiberglass over the hull and poured epoxy resin at the top and used a bondo spreader to spread the epoxy across and down the hull.

The epoxy starts setting in about 10-15 minutes so this part was the most difficult so far. I had to make the epoxy in small batches, spread it out smooth making sure to get penetration through the glass, then race back and make more epoxy and continue where I left off before the epoxy on the boat got too hard.

I should have used a helper for this part. If someone could continually be making epoxy batches for me it would have been a lot better. Should have volunteered my wife but I thought I could do it alone. I think it turned out good enough though. Needs lots of sanding and another coat of pure epoxy.

As you can see I've made a mess and used lots of cups and brushes. The cups clean well and I have reused them some, but the brushes I just throw away.

Also, a picture of the epoxy I'm using. I'm using the "fast hardener" and for the most part has been great to work with and cures quickly.

Those motors are $1200! Wow. Yeah I'm gonna have to stick with the $90 trolling motor I have haha. That would have been pretty cool though.

I see you are using the West System. Try using the slowest kicker, Do it during the coolest part of the day like early morning. Mix your resin in large mixing tub 1 gallon or more use a mixing tip and a drill that way you can mix it real fast & pour. Then pour into a flat paint tray.

The flat paint tray will help the resin "slower to cure" because in the bucket the resin will gain heat faster. In the tray the resin has a harder time condensing or gathering the heat. this will give you 5 more min's no problem

Min Kota has a duel motor set up as well. You can use the motors in counter rotation to turn the boat as well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jgaE0dY1d0

I'd go with a weed eater motor, but that's just me! Looking awesome!

Thanks for the tips G on slowing the epoxy down. The fast hardener has worked well for everything else but it a bit too quick doing the bottom hull. Didn't want to spend the extra $$$ for slow hardener so I just went for it. Didn't realize it would slow by just spreading it thinner though!

For now this is all I have done so far. I hope to sand the fiberglassed hull tonight and put a second layer of epoxy on it.

I'm still trying to figure out in my head how I will make a windshield for this thing. I could bend some plexi with a heat gun but without a large oven I'll be limited to a very small radius bend. If anyone has any ideas that would be great!

You might use a tightly packed bag of sand that you can oven heat to form the inside curve of the plexiglass. You still need a heat gun for the outside but it could give more even heat and time to bend. Don't get to hot with the gun as the plexi can get milky or brittle..

I am impressed. I've always thought a 'pod drive' would be great for an inboard.
Don't worry about the comments you are sure to get about not enough freeboard to surf with.

As the resin drys it blushes. Or Waxes. Depending on the conditions it may take 24-48 hrs for the resin to do this. If you apply a 2nd or 3 coat b4 the coat below drys you will have air bubbles or pin holes in your finish. Make sure b4 you apply your next coat of resin you clean the surface with a dish soap like dawn. For that matter make sure all of your cups and mixers are very clean and void of oils. I clean all of my mixing cups Ect with dish soap as well. These extra steps just give you a better finish. Every time I used the west system I was depending on a 100% clear finish on my carbon fiber projects this may not be important in your project if your going to gell coat it. Just some advice, keep it very clean and your finish comes out with less air bubbles and smooth.

As far as the window. Depending on how think and how crazy you want shape it. You would simply make a mold of the shape your looking for and then heat and bend and clamp the plastic around the mold.

See if you and find a local plastic shop to do the heat and cool process for you. They have large ovens to do this and they can control the heat and bend and cool the plastic the correct way so the plastic doesn't become brittle. If you simply heat up the plastic and bend it, it will become brittle and crack very easy. It needs to be cooled down very slowly in order for it to be as strong as it was b4 you bent it. All the stuff I have heated and bent works great untill it gets a little wear and tear.
And then it's no Bueno

Dont care as much about the coloring as I plan to paint the entire thing, but do want a smooth finish. It's been 3 days now. Would you recommend gel coat when I get to the finish? I was just going to prime, paint with outdoor paint, and clear coat, sanding between each coat to make it smooth and glossy. What's the process for gel coat?

This project is awesome. My cousin was asking me to build something similar for her son because he loves boats so much. How much money do you have into it so far minus the trolling motor and would you be willing to share the Template files? I have zero skills with cad etc which seems to be the best way of going about this. I wouldn't get too into the motor part. The kid driving it could care less about that part they'll just be excited it's moving!

So far $60 on 3 sheets plywood (1/4"), $40 on fiberglass, and $120 on resin and woodflour but I think I could have bought about half what I did.

I've attached the plans if you want to use them. You'll need to cut 2x the sides, bottom, deck combing, and transom. The bottom and frame pieces you only need 1. The frames indicate how far from the transom they fit. The second transom piece goes 12" from the back. The rest use the indicated distance, but you can do it however you want. I ended up making some slight changes to where the frames go, but used the hull pieces unchanged.

I had the printer use 36" wide roll of paper in their printer and it came out to something like 36" wide by about 14 feet long, but you can print it any size to modify how large the final boat will be.

If you want more detailed info just let me know, I'd be happy to share.

I'm sure you've seen this...https://youtu.be/BfztF1lqGNQ

Also, for the plans I did not put the top deck on there because I plan to just trace the boat onto the final sheet of plywood so it fits.

I have seen that! It's awesome! That was what put the idea into my head a couple months ago.

Wow this is incredible. Great work.

It should be pretty easy to modify that trolling motor. The only thing running through the shaft is wiring. The actual electric motor is on the bottom. So you can chop it down and connect the shaft to some steering mechanism, then run the wiring to the power head elsewhere. They you need to rig something for throttle though.

AWESOME PROJECT !!!! cant wait to see more ..I would have went nuts for a boat like that when i was a kid .. All my school work had drawings of little boats and dirtbikes hahaha

Great project! Fun watching it all come together.

This has to the the frontrunner for best post of 2016

This is awesome. Keep the pics coming!

Fantastic! love it.

Love it

love it!

Here is my "plan" for the motor going through the bottom of the hull.

Because it would be very hard to put the trolling motor shaft right through the bottom of the hull and have a water tight seal while allowing the motor to turn left/right I have thought up a different approach. I'm not certain it will work as it does in my head so maybe someone can chime in.

My plan:

Get a PVC pipe with an inner diameter slightly larger than the outer diameter of the trolling motor. Install this PVC pipe through the bottom of the hull and have it extend almost all the way to the top of the boat.

Seal this pipe where it touches the hull to prevent water from entering the boat outside of the pipe. Water will enter the inside of the pipe through the bottom of the boat, this is ok.

Put the trolling motor through this PVC pipe so the motor is under the hull and extends a couple inches above the PVC.

The part I'm unsure of: I'm thinking the water will only rise through the PVC as high as the water level on the outside of the hull, meaning if the boat is 12" tall, and draft is 4" then I would have only 4" water in the pipe and the top 8" of PVC would be dry. Is this correct or is there some kind of pressure or siphoning that will happen and cause the water to rise all the way up?

What about making the motor "fixed" and installing a rudder instead? Might make it easier to turn the boat than just relying on the motor pod along, plus will still give control when the motor is not on.

That should work. Same theory as a centerboard trunk in a sail boat. Huge hole in the bottom of the boat, but the top of the hole extends higher than the waterline so no water enters the boat.

So cool.
What if you did it like a mullet skiff? Build a well inside the boat higher than the water line and stick the trolling motor up through that. No shaft log to worry about and no steering linkage. Cut off the shaft top and stick a wheel right on the shaft. The prop is right under the middle of the boat now and you can drive the thing sideways. Crazy fun redneck mullet skiff designed to chase schools of fish in shallow water while throwing or trolling a net. I figure Y'all have never seen one so here is a pic of a basic model. The wheel will be right on top of the little deck house your gonna build and the well can be as small as 2 or 3 inches to clear the shaft so their little legs will straddle it with ease. Hell you can also build the well big enough to hold the motor assembly so all you have to do is lift up on the wheel and the motor tucks inside the bottom then you could drag it across the lawn or throw it in your truck.

Hey if you just do the glued in pipe deal thats great. It will work fine. I think I have a chunk of fiberglass exhaust tube kicking around. Like maybe 1.25" OD. Give me the OD of your motor shaft and if it works out Ill paste a stamp on it and send it your way. At least you can tab it in nice and tight.

I think you will be able to find a plastic screw fitting that will seal with a washer to a hole in the hull and allow you to glue the vertical shaft to it. Like what you might find on a plastic rain barrel.

The motor shaft is 1 1/8" OD and I was thinking about a 8 or 9 inch rise

I can't wait to see you add a tower and some tower speakers!

Oh, and filling the locker under the rear seat with foam? Don't you know that's where the ballast bag goes?!?!?

Keep up the good work. (and I seriously want to see a tower on this thing). Make some cans out of PVC pipe for some 4" or 6.5" speakers. Get a tiny amp and one of the ebay USB/FM/SD units ($10) or just a cheap head unit. Gotta have tunes yo!

If it motor shaft is 1 1/8'' why not use a standard 1 1/8'' shaft seal with flax packing??

Sorry man, the tube is 1" OD so ID isn't even worth measuring. You can get cut lengths for cheap at Jerrys marine or defender though. Shouldn't be more than a few bucks a foot. Much less than a packing gland. I still you you drop it straight down under the dash though.

Thanks for trying! I ended up just ordering a shaft seal and flax. I'll just do it the right way, plus the seal has a flange on the bottom so it should seal nicely to the bottom of the boat with some silicone instead of butt joint with a tube.

Just got my steering parts in the mail. Thanks Amazon Prime!

-1x 10" steering wheel made for a go kart
-1x steering wheel mount to weld to the shaft to connect the wheel
-2x pillow blocks to hold the steering shaft
-12mm shaft (will need to cut to length once I know what the length is)
-4x shaft collar to hold the steering shaft from moving forward and back (only need 2 of these but sold in 4s)
-1x shaft support. I plan to use this to hold the table rod at the bottom of the steering instead of welding. This will allow me to pull the steering column out of the boat if I never need to.

I love the thread so much!

Got the steering column in. The cables will attach to the end of the swing arm. This is the longest the swing arm can be without hitting the bow that will eventually be covered up. I'm not sure how long or short it needs to be just yet so I may leave it this long or cut it shorter if it needs to be. Steering wheel mount still needs to get welded to the shaft and the extra shaft length cut off.

Unfortunately I'm really busy this weekend so won't get to work on it much, if at all.

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So cool. Nice work.. This reminds me of posts from the old wake world circa 2004... Cool to see.

What? Cancel whatever else you are doing!!! This is the best thread in a long while.

Looking forward to the water trials, and then we can all argue about the best way to sack it out, and whether it is better listed.

That's awesome any chance you would sell the plans?

I've posted my plans for free in an earlier post. It's a PDF. If you print it at a printer 36" wide it will come out about 14 feet long and have your cut templates.

Awesome! I can imagine how fun as a kid it would be to take it for a ride.

He posted plans and it's awesome I'm not as good lol mines looking rough so far but figured it was rainy weekend worth the shot

That's awesome Derek. Lol. I think yours looks off because maybe you have the sides upside down? The top of the boat should be flat not curving down at the bow.

That's just the SUPRA version...I don't think it would have a problem being to close to the water.

Yep totally fine if he wants to keep it that way. There is plenty of clearance.

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Float tested the fiberglassed hull and checked for any leaks. Let it sit in the water with a weight in the boat for about 30 mins and also rocked it around a bit and no water leaks. Nice!

Next I'm going to add a small strip to reinforce the transom and also put a lip inside where the steering mounts to the bow so I will have a little cubby to throw a sandbag into for nose weight.

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Added the transom support piece and also the bow shelf thing. Easy to throw a sandbag up in the nose now since there's a strip there that will hold it in place. Also prevents kids with long legs from hitting their feet on the steering components. Going to let this cure today while I go to a wine and food festival charity event.

It would be cool if you could laminate some of the newer flexible solar panels into or onto the Bow of the boat. Don't know how much surface Aera is up there or what kind of charge/range it could provide?

This is too cool!

Cut out the deck piece. Will attempt to epoxy and glass the inner seams somehow. Probably put the boat upside down on sawhorses and get up in there. Going to be a pain! Will flush trim the inside of this piece when it's in place, right now just a rough cut so I can get inside of it.
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Awesome build! Keep up the good work!

Reminds me of the cocktail racers. I have always wanted to build one of these...
http://www.clcboats.com/shop/boats/p...ass-racer.html

Whoever said boat building is 95% sanding is 100% correct lol.

I epoxy filleted the bow/deck piece in place and while the boat was upside down curing I sanded the hull once again and added 4" strips to the bottom seams again. I've read many places that you want to double up the seams for a strong hull. The first was the full sheet, the strips are the second layer. Once this cures...another sanding. Hopefully the last sanding before primer.

Plan is to flip it over tomorrow and fiberglass the top. If I can get it done in time that will allow 3-4 days curing before the weekend so I can water test it with the motor.
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Man this post just gets better and better.

Great job.

And as a older supra owner I even like Derek's mess up. As soon as I saw your pick I was like "that looks just like my boat"!!!!

now this is way too cool!!!

Ran out of wood flour epoxy thickener so wasn't able to finish filleting the bow and deck piece onto the hull. I have more arriving tomorrow in the mail.

While I wait for that I started putting down some carpet. Cheap outdoor carpet from Home Depot. Came in a 6' x 8' roll for like 19 bucks.

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Such a cool project! I can't believe the extents you are going to, so impressive!

Have you figured out how to get water out once it gets in? Rain or splash will add some weight that you might not want to flip to drain.

First off I wanna reiterate that your little boat build is BAD A$$ !! But I wanted to mention that I think your supposed to use a grooved trowel to trowel that glue on .. I just helped a buddy do an old Malibu Skier and we used the trowel with the bigger grooves then what the glue recommended and it worked well but I took a long time to completely dry . Im sure yours will dry as well but it might take a quite a while . The only other concern I have is the glue coming through the carpet .

Amazing and Inspirational. While I have the skills and tools to do this, I would never have the time. Keep up the great posts.

Awesome build, making me consider building one, but already have a project list a mile long.

How are you planning to do the throttle? It seems like it'd be pretty easy to just remotely mount the pod after you cut the motor shaft. Trim down the handle and clamp on a vertical arm and you'd have a throttle control just like an inboard and still have the separate speeds and reverse. It's just hard to tell if that thing would be too wide mounted like that.

Yeah I was supposed to use one but I didn't have one and didn't feel like going back to the store. It's been 24 hours now and the glue is pretty dry. If this wasn't just a kid toy I would have done it with a grooved trowel but I made it work. A tiny bit of glue came through in one spot but it is not too noticeable. Lesson learned.