To the OP.
They are not welded, but I have found the little Lund to be durable as hell. My 16 footer never leaked a drop and it is an 1986 model.
You can find the oar type hull like you are talking about fairly reasonable on the used market. This one is rated for a forty horse, I had a Merc 18 on it. It topped out at 14 mph with just me at 3000 ft altitude. With Momma and three grandkids with fishing gear it would do 11 or 12 mph.
I owned a flat bottom Shasta earlier. It was a POS. The aluminum was soft and thin. Pounding of hitting small waves on a lake actually broke the bottom out of it.
The Lund was a deeper V. It tossed the spray to the side instead of up and onto the passengers. It cut the waves better.Mostly, the Lund is built of high quality Aluminum. You can really tell the difference when you hit it with a drill.
Like you speak of, I put in a wood floor to keep the kids feet off of the aluminum. I installed an 18 gallon onboard fuel tank, a console and dash with remote steering and gauges.
The little red Lund was a hell of a good boat, and I was not into it too awful deep. If I had it to do again, I would have put a 35 to 40 horse on it and built the console from Aluminum I stead of plywood.
