How to turn a 242 into a fishing boat, add handrails and 9.9hp kicker to the swim platform

prgrod01

I figured it was my turn to contribute to the forum, I have found a lot of useful information on here but have found a niche that I thought I could contribute too.I moved from the interior of BC to the West Coast of Vancouver Island some time ago and traded my ski boat for an ocean cruiser. It took many months to determine what size, style etc of a boat to purchase and settled on a used 242 Rinker. We chose to buy a cruiser for overnights and comfort for entertaining friends for daily outings but we also knew we wanted to set it up for some serious salmon fishing but there was not a ton of examples to go from.It took a couple of years to design, build and of course save to get to the final product. The swim grid was essential to make this into a decent dual purpose cruise/fishing boat. A lot of time looking, searching, talking to people and this is what I came up with, all custom built by a local fab shop.

reneechris14

I like the way it doesn't get it the way of the normal use of the 242. Can still hang on the swim platform and use the ladder. The down riggers came out awesome really look like they belong there. Some people might not now how much time and work go in to fabrication like that. Great jod!!

YYZRC

Those rigger mounts are epic!  Well done!

PickleRick

Everything looks impressive but i gotta ask...wheres the yeti?  You can't catch fish without the yeti

raybo3

Very creative and great workmanship. 

Willhound

Nice for sure. Reminds me of a pic (maybe it was on here) of a 270 without radar arch that someone had custom fabbed an entire upper structure with semi hardtop, rocket launcher rod holders etc.

aero3113

WoW, very nice. 

prgrod01

Thanks. I can tell you there were many hours planning and mocking things up to make sure it was money well spent. My talents ended at the wood mock ups, the local fabricator did an great job making things look great. But I stressed to them I needed to keep the back platform functioning and keep the trip hazards to a minimum.

Dream_Inn

Very impressive!  More than one way to skin a cat!  & that is definitely a great way to make a cruiser work fantastic for fishing!  Thanks for the great pictures.  Sure took a lot of time and thought to get it as nice as that.

Handymans342

Great job. What fish do you catch?

LaRea

That's some innovative thinking.  Thanks for sharing.

rasbury

I kind of like the railing even if not to fish from- my wife is always nervous about tripping or falling at the docking getting on and off the platform and would make me less nervous with kids hanging out back there and for me after a couple of cocktails! What is that first picture, don'e understand what that is? Very nice job done for sure! If you had a dingy with a motor and your boat crapped out, you could always mount the dingy motor there and keep on truckin which would be another use even not as a fishing boat....great job!

reneechris14

@rasbury the in 1st pic the black square is the base to a down rigger, in just slips on the base.

rasbury

I know zip about that type of fishing...

Willhound

@rasbury very similar to ocean trolling with jet divers but with a downrigger you're usually much deeper, easily 60 to 100 feet +
I've installed a downrigger mount on my 270 for Lake Trout fishing.

rasbury

Most of our lakes and rivers average probably about 6 ft deep unless maintained and then they could be maybe 14 feet. Most places I go with my boat if it sinks I can stand on top of it.even offshore in Central Florida on the west coast you probably have to go out 100 miles  get into 50 feet of water and on the East coast it's about 50 to get to the gulf stream which gets closer to the coast as you go south. Probably not exact numbers but you get the point!

prgrod01

We fish for salmon, targeting the prized Chinook salmon with a good mix of Coho. We fish up and down the coast, trailering our boat to the local marina's, and depending on what area of the coast, and time of year we use the Scotty down riggers to go down 30-90ft, but have to go down to 200ft at times.

The hand rails were the first thing we added and would recommend them to anyone, fishing or not, they just give you so much more comfort at the dock boarding, but particularly while on the water.