Going Back At it - Seacraft #2

[Doggydaddy]

Mike you make it look so easy, I'd love to get my old McKee fixed up but really reluctant to start messing with it.
Keep the progress coming & thanks for posting.

[mrobertson]

Mike - rather than shooting the whole inside, why not just shoot the floor from gutter to gutter (will hide your paint line)? You will still have to blend a little forward and aft, but will safe you a ton of time and if the majority of the inside gunwale, foredeck and topsides are more than serviceable, will have you on the water in no time. Just a thought. Floor gets so dirty, no one will ever tell that you did just the floor.

Matt

2 problems

1 - i've already ordered paint and non-skid to do the whole inside.
2 - there's a couple of spots that have runs or scratches that would just drive me crazy over time

i love punishment so i'm going to sand her down and give her a couple coats of fresh paint.

[mrobertson]

SO -

Yesterday was a grueling day. I spend a majority of it with a grinder in my hand and it was terrible. I was however, thoroughly impressed with the hardness of awlgrip paint. When it is stuck, its there for good.

I started off the day with my fuel tank hatch. Pulled of the weights, flipped it over and cut some cloth to seal it up.

I gave it a layer of light, 4oz cloth to start




I wet that out and give it a 2nd layer of 1708 for some strength






It only took about an hour to cure, so i flipped it over and glassed over the old pie plate. I am moving my tank forward so i'll need to cut another hole. I had to do a little build up so this was a couple of layers of alternating 4oz, 1708, and chopped strand mat





This part seperates the men from the boys. I had to grind out the seams, level them up a bit, in preparation to glass them over with fiberglass tape.






Both sides done - i ground out alot to give myself plenty of room to sort of "feather" it





I used a 4" cloth tape and wet it out to completely cover the seams all the way around





Both sides wet out and seams sealed up





That grinder work is strenuous. I was impressed with the thickness of the original gelcoat on the boat. I had to work hard to grind it down to bare glass. Really - the only glasswork i have left to do is to make a couple of bulkheads and some slats for my new tank to sit on. Then it's on to the hard work of sanding and prepping for paint. I'm glad that part of the job is done and i'm ready to move forward!!!!

[mrobertson]

I didn't get a whole lot done this weekend due to St Patty's day. However, i did get some work done.

I wanted to lay up some solid fiberglass slats for my new tank to sit on. It's a pretty easy process but does require alot of material, i.e. cloth and resin depending on how thick you want them to be.



Start off with a piece of inexpensive tile board from home depot. It's just sitting on a piece of particle board across a couple of saw horses. i basically figured out that i wanted 6 slats, 4 inches wide, 28 inches long. SO i measured out a 26 x 30 rectangle (give yourself a little room for error) on the tile board.





What you want to do next is WAX the tile board. Not sure whether or not any old wax will work, but this is a mold release wax we bought from US composites. It looks just like regular wax. It's cheap enough so oh well. Lay on a good thick coat so the resin wont stick to the tile board.






I precut my cloth because the resin working time is slow little that you want to have it all ready to go





Then all you do is wet out a layer, add a layer, wet, add, wet, add, etc until you have the desired thickness. I did 7 layers alternating 1708 biax, mat, and some leftover 4oz cloth.





No picture, but when it hardens slide a screw driver underneath and the whole sheet will pop up in 1 piece. I trimmed the slats to the desired length and width.





With 7 layers mine came out to be just about 1/4" thick, solid fiberglass







On a more exciting note - i slipped off to a dealer to pick up this :





Unfortunately - it's not something overly exciting. However, it is a new in box 2005 Yamaha 115 2 Stroke.





I asked alot of questions to other seacraft owners about the engine/boat combination. This hull is rated for 225HP, which is overkill and anyone who has one will agree. One owner actually has a 225 on this hull and reported 62 mph top end. That's a little extreme for me. A 130 - 150 would have been nice, but i paid about 50% of the price on this 115 so i'm going to see how it runs. There are plenty of owners out there running 115's on 20 Seacrafts. My WOT is going to be in the 35 - 38 mph range with a cruise of 25 - 27 mph. For my purposes the engine should be adequate and give good fuel economy for a 2 stroke carb'd engine. I'm actually looking forward to seeing how it does perform.

I hope that re-doing the deck, cutting the fuel tank down and moving it forward will help reduce the overall weight of the boat. Likewise i'm not going to put a T-Top on. This will be a pretty simple rig, so i hope that the 115 will perform well. If i can cruise at 25 and WOT 35 i will be 100% happy. My intended purpose for the boat is really summer time fishing the upper/mid bay and spring fishing for flounder in the skinny water.


Tight Lines

-Mike

[TerpHeels]

Keep up the nice work Mike...Hillbilly and I along w/my buddy George drug the cat down to Wachacantspellit yester...picked at em. hooked 12...boxed 3 and I lost a biggun side the boat cuz Jack 4got the net...tuff slingin em over my high gunnels. Sat there was a mild bite at Chinco w/a couple boats boxing 3 (no throwbacks).

[mrobertson]

Keep up the nice work Mike...Hillbilly and I along w/my buddy George drug the cat down to Wachacantspellit yester...picked at em. hooked 12...boxed 3 and I lost a biggun side the boat cuz Jack 4got the net...tuff slingin em over my high gunnels. Sat there was a mild bite at Chinco w/a couple boats boxing 3 (no throwbacks).

oh my gawd - i'm off all next week for spring break. i can't be lucky enough to get weather like we've been having, but if we do i'm going down at least for a couple of days!!!!

[drewzim]

oh my gawd - i'm off all next week for spring break. i can't be lucky enough to get weather like we've been having, but if we do i'm going down at least for a couple of days!!!!

Thought I heard we're supposed to get 2' of snow next week?

[Hillbilly Boater]

I lost a biggun side the boat cuz Jack 4got the net....

Lier, Lier pants on fire. It was a good fun day.

Mike very nice job but you need to take a break and hit some flatted thangs. Are you going to make it to flounderfest this year?

[mrobertson]

I made up some ground this week while i was off for spring break. I started off the week concentrating on my tank coffin. First, i measured and cut out a couple of bulkheads for the front and rear of the tank.





Then i glassed them over with a layer of 1708 and poly resin





Once everything cured, i trimmed the fiberglass slats to size and gave everything a test fit






i painted the bottom of the bilge, then tabbed the slats and the bulkheads into place






Once everything had cured, i finished painting the bilge







I laid out all my hatches and sanded down to 320






Mid-week i got a call from Andy Bloodsworth that my fuel tank was ready to be picked up. I can't speak highly enough of his work. I will post a few pics of the tank so you can see the quality of the welds. This tank is 3/16" and will hold 50 gallons of fuel.









Back to work in the shop i setup a small poor mans paint both so that i could spray all of my hatches





The paint im using on this project is made by EPIFANES. It's a single part monourethane paint.





I sprayed the edges of all the hatches with 2 coats sanding in between with a 320 grit paper





I taped off the hatches to prepare for non skid. I am using a product called KIWIGRIP, in white





The Kiwigrip gives a nice even texture. you have to pull the tape off while its wet







i moved the boat outside and did 3 rounds of sanding (many hours) with a DA sander. I started with an 80 grit, then a 180, finally a 320





I moved the boat back inside and created a much bigger poor mans paint booth





Eveyrthing got taped off





I shot on a couple of coats of paint. Everything was done except the floor. I need a little more sanding and fairing before putting down non skid









I ordered my console, should be here this week. Next weekend i hope to set the tank for good and close up the main hatch. I still need to buy controls for my engine. I hope to cast a line from this boat by June. Stay tuned i hope to move quick on this project.


-Mike

[mrobertson]

I would like to give a plug for Andy Bloodsworth at Punch Island Marine on Taylors Island. He does not advertise, but works with alot of high end builders to fabricate any and all things marine made of aluminum and stainless. He builds anything from T-Tops to Fuel Tanks and anything in between. He's a heck of a nice guy, offers a fair price, and really knows his stuff. I am very satisfied with my tank.


I also want to make a couple of notes for anyone looking to do some topside painting. The EPIFANES paint is really incredible stuff. NO - it's not a 2 part paint like awlgrip, alexseal, signature finish, etc...........but i firmly believe it is the best single part topside paint made, period. It is VERY easy to work with. It's a hard paint with a nice shine. This is my first time using it, but i am thrilled with the outcome. I sprayed with an HVLP gun with a 1.4 mm tip and thinned the paint out about 10%

Finally - i want to make one last note about KIWIGRIP. Absolutely amazing stuff. Again, very easy to work with. It's covers very well and looks very nice. It's a bit expensive at $140/gallon but for my 20' CC i think i will use about 1/2 gallon. I highly recommend this stuff for any DIY non skid project. What's cool is, you can get a gallon of white and take it to Home Depot to get it tinted any color you want. It's really good stuff.