I am so pleased with new decks I just had to share it here. Last fall my 18 foot Hewescraft Sea Runner was performing poorly, especially with hunting pal, camping gear and a moose in it. I started looking for a fix. I had noticed the wooden decks were mighty heavy when I had replaced the water logged floatation a couple years ago.
So I pulled out some deck pieces and weighed them. A 12 x 28 inch piece weighed 13 pounds and was dripping water. A 26 x 63 inch piece was over 40 pounds, a 63 x 48 piece weighed 72 pounds - also dripping water . That did it. I decided to spend the $ and replace the wood decks with 1/8 aluminum diamond plate. The replacement piece for that small deck weighed 5 pounds, the 48 x63 weighed 36 or 37 pounds. All told, I've reduced deck weight by 113 pounds - weighed. The boat trims out much better, floats higher, and handles with much more agility. I gained 3 to 6 mhp on smooth water, and I can haul a lot more gear, gas, or meat than before. At $14.83 +tax / square foot it was expensive but at $3.52 / gal for gas in Dillingham AK and a rumored $3.90/ gal in Ekwok (if they'll sell it to you) I figure I'll recover my costs fairly quickly - and the deck will never get water soaked again. Another advantage, fish slime, game blood and other stuff can't soak in to the deck to stink and attract bears.
I checked, my replaced floatation was still dry and light. I got rid of the old urethane roofing sheets. Cut 1 and 2 inch pink foam blocks, then painted each piece with 2 coats of gloss Latex enamel. It seems to work much better.
'Course it helped to tune the jet impeller too.
