It’s literally just a mud boat.
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We bought a Go Devil about 40 years ago over in La and ran it on an old Jon Boat. My dad loved that boat more than any other boat we ever owned. We used to let that motor rip….it was a LOT of fun. I’ve seen the one posted running around in the upper Keys a few times….you can hear em a mile away. Always wondered who’s it was.
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Everyone has been sending me that video on the mud motor like it’s competition or something. Not impressed!
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A skiff properly set up with a tunnel, jack plate, LWP system, and one of those trick 6 blade wheels (I have not had the pleasure of trying one of those yet disclaimer) or a heavily cupped prop and minus a lot of extras that add a bunch of weight, will work just fine.
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It’s literally just a fiberglass mud boat …….. everyone is like “O.M.G. It’s a skiff!!!” I ran stuff dryer than that in our boat with a gay Subaru engine in it. But I guess mud boats are a new invention or something…….
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I guess folks are easily impressed nowadays.
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Coonass golf cart!
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Got out solo last Friday. Was poling along and glided to a stop, so I figured I’d snap a pic of how much water I was in. The glue ring above the joint of the push pole foot is a little under 6 inches. With 100 lbs of sandbags on the front, I wasn’t quite balanced out. With another 50 lbs up front, easily a 5 1/2 inch skiff.
I’m like my @Chris_Morejohn skiff more and more every time I take it out.
Four 25 lb sand bags. EZPZ. No hull slap and when I’m ready to move, I put them on the floor on the port side to balance me out and use less trim tab.
Had a little bit of action, but nothing like some of my friends that were about 15 miles away.
On the way back to the ramp. 30 horse Tohatsu. 11.3 mpg at 26 mph. I was in the sweet spot and just kept it there, but I have hit 30 mph before at the WOT rpm at 6,500 rpms.
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Your Conchfish is the stretch Limo of flats skiffs.
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I feel I should add a plug for Simple Skiffs here. IMHO, of all the skiff walk-through videos bragging on shallow draft, this one is honest without any of the familiar tricks (keel resting on the bottom, motor tilted down pushing into the sand, etc.). 4 1/2" draft with two guys, 30 hp motor.
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Pretty awesome little skiff. If I didn’t have a 35min run in open water that would def be an option for me.
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You are correct. We are building skiffs with 2.75”-3.25” of static draft WITH motor and gear and of course anglers in them. Long road to make it happen and one I’m excited to share. Including the set ups and configurations that will come off it too! Average static draft WITH everything including humans will be mostly 4”-5”.
As for the system we got from you “in exchange to cover your expenses” it is still on my prototype and we have been running it. I sent you a text and we spoke on August 13th as well explaining the path moving forward. I’m sure our customers like other skiff customers will call you if they wish to put your system on as well…
Lastly, the new offering we’ve been working on is called the SWITCH. You can do a lot with it and a name we feel fits the use. Have a good thanksgiving as well! We all have a lot to be thankful for…
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Welcome @EastCapeBoats and Thanks for your participation!!
Welcome. Those are impressive numbers, what kind of humans are you using? There are 300 lbrs and 100 lbrs, so you could be anywhere from 600 lbs to 200 lbs, 
. On a serious note, maybe 180lbs x 2 for average humans?
I am really looking forward to seeing that Switch, maybe an overhead and closer up pics? Really nice project!
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There is a thread on the SWITCH that may benefit from more first-hand details.
Kevin happy family day.
Hope these images help show the folks here how displacement numbers work to get shallowerdraft.
Please excuse my crude drawing and explanation guys but I am guesstimating numbers here because East Cape does not show hull lines drawings to show and explain they’re displacements at each inch of draft as I do sharing all my designs.
I am showing the real numbers here of my Conchfish design that is evolved over 29 years of proven draft numbers of what everyone is looking for….the Holy Grail …4” -+. Happy to see your quest is nearing its end.
I don’t know your true waterline beam but my rough numbers with your possible waterline length I will say you have anywhere from 200+ more lbs of displacement over the Conchfish, Whipray hulls. Your cut down Evos added waterline beam gives way more stability over these two designs for sure.
As everyone knows I am not a fan of conventional lower chines for not being the driest running but I feel they do add to a slight speed edge. You don’t lose any bit of displacement like my inset chines design details do. So that’s a plus in the getting to the 4” number.
This all being said to stay at 3.6”+ draft number everyone has to realize you all will have to lose weight personally, and in your skiff to stay at those numbers.
Above photos of myself building the Original Whipray molds in St. Augustine Florida in 1997. It took me under 4 months to build the plugs, molds and hull #1 under that tarp shed. Ha youth
Remember everyone that’s looking for the Grail….the skiffs that are still the benchmark to beat were all built by hand using resin buckets, rollers, basic polyester resin and eglass cloth hand installing the core into the laid up skin in the molds. Old school all the way back then.
The industry has come a long way in refining hull lamination, but the hard fact is you can’t mess with math.
You want to carry 1000 lbs of skiff, people, fuel, tackle, do dads you have to still figure out how to put that all into a 3-1/2”- 4” displacement draft shape, that works. You still have to be able to run from Islamorada to Flamingo back and forth for the next 29 years in your new breakthrough design.
Decembers coming happy spending season…..
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I see skiff design and draft going the way stereo equipment did 50 years ago. The big deal in stereo was the total harmonic distortion across the spectrum of hearing frequencies. Which initially was a sound approach (see what I did there….lol). The problem was that they started touting numbers of x% distortion at frequency bands below 60 and over 20000…beyond the capability of the human ear.
Well now skiff manufacturers are touting drafts sub 4^. I freaking could care less. No place I am going to fish holds fish in 4” of water. Yeah I get maybe you have to get across a super skinny spot to get to a deeper spot where the fish are. Good for you. My 7” draft boat gets me where I need to go 90+% of the time and its a hell of a lot more comfortable getting there and fishing.
So when you build a 4” draft skiff that doesn’t beat me up to get there. Is stable and has all the extras I need I’ll watch the xxxx measuring contest from the sidelines…..LOL
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Chris,
Same to you and hope you’re having a good day/weekend as well. There’s so many ways to reply to you but I’ll keep it short and say thank you for sharing your opinions and how you gather your data as well. Internet is awesome isn’t it? Cause 29yrs ago I would’ve had to mail, fax, or ring you up in a pay phone to reply…but as all things, advancements and progression keep all things moving forward and here we are connecting in a place for those that love shallow water boats and all related to it.
As for not showing line drawings I think you need to remember we are a business / company. I don’t remember you doing that on any flyers, handouts, or shows when you were with HB in the early days? I will offer a true give back later when I’m no longer being compensated in the boat world. Do it for free and share designs I’ve thought of over the years as some may like it. But I do have plenty of line drawings etc as we use RHINO / SolidWorks etc. and then on top of that we do COG load calculations, CFD surface running…and of course prototyping as well. I share all that when customers come to the shop.
Lastly, with today’s tech in design and materials you are quite capable of running from Islamorada to Flamingo in all our designs. Even 29yrs from now. But I’m sure by then more will be improved upon and if a customer came to me with that requirement and said thats 80% of what they do then I would suggest they also wet test the 17’ EVO v as with a 14 degree dead-rise it drafts the same or others 5 degree all while offering more stability, better cruise or top end all while keeping you dry.
Choices are good…and yes Christmas is coming and I’m trying hard to keep my oldest believing in the spirit of Santa. Life moves fast and today is only tomorrow’s memory. 
~ Kevin
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I fished all day today. I fished the deep backcountry in the north of Charlotte Harbor in my friend’s Glide. His is no liner, tiller Tohatsu 20 with a jackplate and cav plate.
It was blowing 25 out of the NE and the low was supposed to be about 0’ at 1:15. I fish there often and knew what I was getting in to. It was about -1’ today.
We had a long run around the Harbor to get into the only route passable in these conditions. It was nasty for a little boat. We were safe and drier than we should have been.
Even at 10am 100% of the mounds were exposed and there was a whole lot of dry land. We pushed through less than 4” of water to get into a giant whole, and pushed easily and quietly all day, into, across and with the wind to do what we showed up to do.
The water came in super late because of the wind. My buddy took the bow (he’s probably 250) and I poled us out (I’m 200) and we were able to get through 3.5”, into the wind to get out of the hole and into a zone where we could get up and out. We didn’t see a single boat in the entire preserve we fished today
The point is, there are more than a few boats that float in under 4” with a load. My Towee did it. My Glide did it a lot more comfortably. My buddy’s Glide floats skinnier than mine did.
Some of you may not care about that. I’m glad. I much prefer to be the only guy out there on days like today.
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I have nothing to add to this thread other than I appreciate this forum and the willingness of actual industry experts to get on here and openly share/discuss thoughts and ideas for all the world to see, really cool stuff and I appreciate it.
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