Good thing it is mud. We run aluminum jetboats in rivers with rocks and
boulders. The true river sled, mine is a deeper version and draws 6-8" at
speed, vs the true sled at about 2" can ride a self cause wave over a dry
gravel bar. 0.190" aluminum bottom is nice.
Bill

"RG" wrote in message
...
"CCred68046" wrote in message
...
You want to do hole shots in 18" of water or less? You should choose
the
motor
with the cheapest prop and lower unit.

Actually, 18 inches is at the "deep" end of my scale around here. I can
get
the CSkiff up in 12 inches easily with the right setback and raised motor
on
my little boat.

Today, on a beautiful 65 degree day.... my little 14 ft. Carolina Skiff
and
I skimmed into about -9-" inches....yes, that is NINE inches..... of
water
today. When I shut her down, however, I had so little water under the hull
that I had to pull the "big " ( 25 hp ) engine up and keep the trolling
motor in its holster. Luckily the wind was blowing the right way, and I
floated out in no time. Not smart, necessarily, but its mostly a sand;
mud
( and occasional oyster reef ) bottom. Keeps my prop polished, too! The
tricky North Winds blew a foot or two of water out of our bays. Go Away
Northers!!!!!

That's the interesting thing with this newsgroup. A lot of people think 4
feet is shallow. Ha...the entire area of Galveston (TX ) Bay ( 525 square
miles-Third largest bay system in the U.S. ) averages less than 10 feet in
depth. Ask me how I know this.... ( I used to have a 27 foot Catalina
sailboat with a fixed keel).

Last summer, when I bought the new 25 hp Merc. for the CSkiff, the guy (
in
Illinois) simply could NOT believe that I wanted the motor set back and up
so high over the bottom of the hull. When I returned home to Houston, I
had
to take it to North Shore Marine here to have it set up and back
correctly.

Thanks for all of your comments, some of which are understanding and wise
and some simply incredulous.
I'm incredulous when someone asks about a depth finder that can read at
200
feet!!

Keep 'em coming. Ain't boating grand???

RichG