Lighten up your boat for hunting

[Dand]

I'm so excited by the results I had to share it. I reduced the weight of my 18 foot Hewes Sea Runner by 113 pounds by replacing the wood deck with 1/8 aluminum diamond plate.  You might want to consider it before moose season.  I posted more details on Graybeard's Boating section.

[Stringer]

I did the same to my 16' smoker craft. It was coupled with new rivets, rehamering leaky ones, and scraping off the old Gluvit & replacing. Picked up a few mph and 3 inches on the water line. I painted the diamond plate to prevent sun burn under my chin   .

[Daveinthebush]

I find that once a year I have to take the boat out of the water and pressure wash it.  I can usually gain 5-8 mph with with a good washing.  If you don't have a pressure washer use 1/2 bleach and water and spray the slime.  In about half an hour much of the slime will was off.

If my floor starts to rot out the diamond plate sounds like a good idea.