Well well well… You want to buy a budget boat?

It’s what I did and it’s a great project, and it takes a fair bit of time / money / love – but I think it’s worth it.

Let’s get into the story.

About 12 months ago, I bought this 3.4m Stacer tinny with a 15HP Johnson outboard. I paid $1200 bucks for the lot and it included a trailer!

I was pretty stoked with the result.

However, this tinny was pretty basic. The boat was bare aluminium and had no creature comforts or modifications.

I’ll attach some photos here for you to have a look.

The Plan & Budget

Now that I had this boat sitting in my driveway, I needed to make a plan to figure out how I was going to modify it.

This is the list of modifications I wanted to do:

• Bimini – to protect me from the sun
• Boat floor – to make it easier to get around the boat
• Rod holders – to trawl and keep rods out of the way
• Carpeted seats – for comfort
• Carpeted casting deck – for maximum fishability
• Storage box up the front – to maximise space

I gave myself a budget of $400 – $500 to make it work. I knew the biggest expenses were going to be the bimini and wood / carpet for the decking.

So I jumped in and got to work… Here are some photos of the build process.

The Final Result

Now check out the final results after a few months of work…

I am pretty stoked with the results, time to catch some fish!