Double XX Boats

[netboy]

1 minute ago, fishinwrench said:

If the goal is to navigate shallower then making them WIDER would be a good move.    Why are all of the "White river boats" so rediculously narrow ?

The Supreme L60 is 60" wide per their specs.

Supreme Boats L60 | River Boats | Supreme & Shawnee Boats

[JamiePatterson]

I had a 60” bottom Topwater with a 60/40 merc jet. It had a tunnel... ran like a champ. Sold it and built my 2072 because I wanted to run from ranchettes to norfork every so often. The 150 is way faster. And hungrier....

[JamiePatterson]

Listen, on a jet boat I will concede that the advantage of having a tunnel is pretty slight. With a prop it’s a game changer. I’ve owned 5 prop tunnels, 4 of I built myself. A flat bottom boat over around 60 hp has to have one as far as I’m concerned, at least for the areas where I hunt and fish around the Arkansas River. I don’t like a tunnel with a 25, you can jack those lightweight little dudes way up on the tea some and cheat. When you get into a big motor with a big prop, skeg, and heavy load the tunnel keeps you from having to get out and push the boat.  I’ve ramped more beaverdams with a 150efi and 200 carbed Merc than I can count. Only thing that runs the shallows with a load (mud motors don’t handle them well) is an airboat. I’ve owned 3 of them as well -2 of which I built. They are fun -and absolutely obnoxious... 

[JamiePatterson]

All that being said, I don’t want to run a prop on the white river ever again. Jet drives for me from now on.

[jdmidwest]

Having been on rivers with boats since a kid and over 50 years of experience, things have changed.

The only game back then was a prop.  But they were all short shaft.  You had to be selective of the channel and run the river smartly.  Jon boats or flat stern canoes.  Props sheared a pin, pull over and put another in.  Never run anything bigger than a 15 hp.  Never really jacked up a motor or skeg, going too slow.

20 years ago, along came a Johnson 2 stroke 25 jet and a 16' jon.  We did not run any shallower, but we did not have to replace the shear pins.  We began to beat the boat up more.  But we could push a boat faster and mow over stuff that we were plowing before.

Boats on plane run shallow draft and motors don't go much further down below the water line if set up right on a river boat.  Thats how it works, in a nutshell.