Tonight I started working on a way to mount my electric trolling motor to our canoe.

A long time ago when I had my sailboat, I had also gotten a 12v trolling motor to go along with it. Ever since I sold the sailboat, I’ve wanted to see about mounting it to the canoe. Well, I’ve finally come around to it, and after doing some quick research online I found a number of different ready-made mounts that you can buy, but seeing as how simple they seem in design, I figured I can build my own.

I did a really quick and dirty mockup of how I might be able to mount it:

It’s going to need a long piece of wood that runs the width of the canoe right behind where I sit, extending out about a foot, so that the motor’s mounting bracket can be attached to another piece that forms an L shape. I’m going to try and attach the mount to the gunwale with some sort of system that will allow me to easily put it on and take it off… maybe something like mini C-clamps.

I also realized that the motor is pretty substantial in weight. Originally I was going to mount the battery box in the stern where I sit. But because of the total weight of the motor, me and the battery, I’ll probably have to mount it toward the bow and possibly even shifted over to the left a bit, to counter the weight of the motor. Putting the battery up front will also help trim the canoe a little better, although I still may need to add some additional weight up there.