Mike,

I used to have a 1972 Eastside wooden boat that was half driftboat and half jet sled. Yeah, the concept works, but as others mention, it isn't a good drift boat and it isn't a good sled. The design was to basically widen the stern, but not quite to the 48" width at the chines amidships, to accommodate the motor. It didn't handle all that bad on the oars, but it was pretty slow and inefficient on gas consumption.

I took the motor off it, and some friends now use it as a drift boat, and it works much better. I put the old engine on my 16' Lund, and it goes half again as fast and uses about half as much gas as before.

The upshot is to get a boat designed to do one thing well. A lot of sleds have seen service on the Skagit, and boondoggin used to be done only with oars. Kicker motors were a rarity on the Skagit until the mid to late 1980s. Heck prop driven outboards were common through the 1970s and early 80s on the Skagit. If you want to eliminate the shuttle on the Skagit, a jet drive and a set of oars will provide a lot of boondogging and even plug pulling if you get a light sled.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.