Getting back to fishing..

This is a fishing boat and I am fisherman and I want to get back to fishing.. But I will be customizing her a bit more, like upholstery, covers, heavy weather curtains, electronics.



Here is a sneak peak, a seat cushion I made for the cooler seat.

This deck is done.

Well this deck is pretty much done. If you are going to attempt a project like this on your own boat please read this blog from the beginning or you will more than likely miss a lot of details.



 
 
 

 

 

Seating and center console.

Put the center console back on and the flip back cooler seat.








Make sure we use waterproof sealant on every screw you put into the deck. Don't want this deck to ever rot.

finishing up the battery box.

Went ahead and cut out the excess fiberglass, gel coated the box and installed the hatch and boot. Not 100% finished but it has gotten to cold to do anymore fiber glassing so I just need to weather proof it for now. In the spring I will sand the box down and put some matting over it to smooth it all out.





 

Cold front.

 

The next 3-4 days will be to cold to use polyester resin or gel coat so I will concentrate on some prep work to finish the battery box and get the center console back in and all controls connected and also install the seating.

Back to the battery box.

 

 

With the deck done and gel coated I went back to working on the battery box. The two sided box is actually a fair amount of work.


Started off with making a template once again, for the top and cutting the wood from the card board template.






With the wood top cut and fitted I made a tracing of the cut out for the hatch that will be installed in the top of the box for access to the battery and under deck cables.









Here is the wood top, all cut out and screwed down with 1″ stainless steel screws. I sealed all seams with Loctite PL glue. I then went ahead and fiberglass taped all the seams from the inside of the box, the tape is also what supports the wood top to the gunwale and transom since this box only has two outer plywood sides. I also used a sander to round off all the outer edges, fiberglass doesn’t like real sharp corners.









I then cut out the 1708 fiberglass to fit the plywood top. Normally I would just use mat on most of this box but the transom on these boats have a bit of flex. There is a bolt on raised rear deck these boats come with but I am eliminating mine. I don’t want to give up the space the raised deck takes up. I would rather have more fishing room on the deck AND my bay is very rough at times and I really do not like standing on a deck in a boat with low freeboard.


In order to get some of the strength back that the bolt on raised deck offered I used 1708 bi axle fiberglass on the entire box. Making the box strong causes it to act as a torque box or a brace since its mounted to the floor and the transom. If I find there is flex from the outboard’s weight while under way I will build another box on the port side.








All glassed up, with the sun going down and the temps dropping I pulled the tarp back over the boat and plugged in the heater there is no way the resin will cure fast enough for me to apply gel coat.














 

Materials and thank you Browns Point Marina.

 

As for material, that came from Browns point marina in Keyport NJ, please check these guys out if you need a boat, slip, storage, boat rentals, boat repairs, all kinds of boating products they are awesome. Thank you Sam and Brown’s Point Marina.


Click here to visit www.brownspointmarina.net


Don’t underestimate how much it will cost and what you will need to do your deck, stingers, bulkheads over.


It will add up fast and not be cheap.


I have enough resin and gel coat left to finish the boat off.  So I will use 7 gallons of resin and 1 gallon of gel coat.


Tons of mixing cups

8 cheap plastic measuring cups

10 4″ rollers

12 4″ brushes

4 4’x8′ 1/2″ marine grade plywood

1 4’x8′ 3/4″ marine grade plywood

12 yards of 1708 bi axle fiberglass cloth

150 stainless screws 1″ and 2″

1 10ft section of drainage pipe

1 motor well boot

1 17″ x 12″ boat hatch

30 2″ spring clamps

5  Loctite brand premium PL construction adhesive caulk gun cartridges

2  Loctite marine PL adhesive (this stuff is new, its like 3M 5200) (used for sealing any and all screws that went into the finished deck)

1 pint of MEKP ( I need more than came with the resin, I almost double the amount since I was always working in sub 70F temps.)


I will keep adding to the list as the project progresses.




 

Thank you for all the help Mark!

 

 

I would like to thank Mark for all the help he gave me. Mark is a retiree and pretty much came and helped on demand whenever I called him, after I got out of work. I would have been only half done and ran out of favorable resin weather if it were not for Mark and probably would have had to climb in and out of the boat 100 times with out him there. By the way at this point Mark has mixed 7 gallons of resin and 1 gallon of gel coat, one pint at a time!



Thanks Mark!




He cant wait for a ride in the boat and some fishing in the spring!





 

Gel coating the deck.

I gel coated the deck in record time before it got dark and worse cold. I started by double checking for bad areas of glass that might cause a problem, like rouge fiber hairs, bumps, divets, sharp edges, dribbles and drabbles. Found a good amount of things to clean up and took care of them. Blew the deck off with compressed air. Setup my gel coating tools and started rolling on the gel coat.



I had my resin mixer Mark mix one pint at a time and feed it to me slowly so I could go at a easy pace and not to worry about my gel coat gelling to fast. I ended up using gel coat WITH wax 1 coat only. The wax makes the surface of the gelcoat harden without it will never cure on the surface and remain sticky, the waxed gel coat would always be your last coat.



Now I had to match the webbing or veil pattern that are on the inner gunwales, So I stopped halfway,mixed regular polyester resin with black pigment and threw the webbing pattern black gel coat at the deck. Not the work of Picaso but for me its fine, a boat to me to me is a utility fishing tool not a fashion show. Anyway the best technique to throw the webbing at the hull was either very little paint on the brush with a hard swing and abrupt stop or just use a heavy stick and just bang the brush into the stick and let the stuff fly. Incase your wondering the boat manufactures use an additive to make the gel coat stringy and shoot it out of a special air paint gun.



I then continued rolling the gelcoat on the rest of the deck and made one last batch of black gel coat and webbed the rest of the deck. The new gelcoat is a lot brighter than the old gelcoat, in time it will fade and turn a bit off-white and match the original better.



I again tented the entire boat and placed the heater inside the tent.

Deck glassing

Time to glass the hull. I started at the transom and worked towards the bow. Using 50″ wide 1708 bi axle fiberglass. Very easy if you take you take your time and plan. Oh and have someone mixing resin, I do 1 pint at a time and have my mixer feed me freshly mixed resin as I go along. Mixing the polyester resin in small amounts in this way my resin doesn’t kick over and harden faster than I can use it.



Layout your glass fabric and place it where it needs to go. Then just fold the first part of fabric towards you exposing the wood underneath. Wet out the wood where you just folded the fabric away from then fold the fabric back over the wood and onto the freshly laid resin. Now your fabric is stuck down in place and you were able to keep it in position. Next wet out that same section of fabric from the top. Moving back towards the bow of the boat mark the deck at the end of the fabric so you know where to stop laying resin, then fold the other half of the fabric away from you exposing the wood and apply resin up to your mark, fold back the fabric then just wet out the fabric till opaque or clearish. Its best to use a bubble busting roller to remove the air pockets and bubbles that have formed under all the fabric you just wet out. Repeat until the whole deck is done.



Tip * You can choose to either go up the gunwale again like you did with the tape fabric or just end your fabric somewhere over the tape on the deck. I knew I had just about enough resin to complete this entire job so I opted to stop on top of the tape on the deck. But the other way would have been a stronger deck to sidewall connection.





Here is the deck completely glassed over and dry the next day. I had tented in the hull with a 30ft tarp and set a small electric heater inside to make sure I had enough heat to cure the polyester resin, The daytime temps were 65F this day and the night got to about 55F. I used 1.5% – 2% MEKP also to help the cure along.


I used a oscillating multi tool to cut out any hairs or bumps created by the fiberglass and a plain old 6″ wide spackling knife to scrap the surface and look for bumps to clean up the surface to prep for the gel coat.

Taping the deck perimeter.

Today I taped the deck perimeter. Was a pretty quick job, Just cut a bunch of 17 Oz. 1708 Bi axle fiberglass fabric about 6-8″ wide. Enough for the whole perimeter of the deck. Wet the areas place the fiberglass mat side out. and wet the fabric sufficiently so the glass becomes almost clear to very opaque. Rinse repeat till you have the whole deck done.



I forgot to take a picture of the deck with only tape so I colored in the areas, I colored in the area that doesn’t get the tape. Just 3″ up the wall and 3″ on the deck is plenty The purpose is to mechanically tie the deck to the hull walls. It will make the gunwales very ridged.







Here is a picture of a taped deck I found on the internet I am sure you get the idea what is suppose to be done here.


 

Building the battery box.

 

I didn’t want a below deck battery setup, worse thing is for your battery to be submerged when you need your pumps or your marine radio the most. So I built a box to house the battery, it also doubles as a water tight bulkhead for all the control cables and wiring.



The box is just two pieces of plywood, the transom and starboard gunwale make up the other two sides. Its dimensions are approximately 20″ x 14″ and 14″ high at the top. The bottom dimensions are less due to the transom and gunwale being tapered. The cable hole will eventually get a 4″ motor well boot. The top will have 17″ x 12″ water tight hatch.



The two pieces of plywood are Loctite PL glued and screwed together. The plywood is also PL glued to the deck, transom and gunwale making it water tight. I stopped here because I had to get the deck glassed and gel coated, in two days the temperature forecast high will be 55F that’s to cold to use polyester resin and may never come back up again. So I was forced to move along to fiber glassing the deck.


The box will be fully glassed and tabbed to the transom, walls and deck once I am done. More on this in a future post.




 

Filleting the deck.

Filleted the deck, its pretty easy work, just mix your polyester resin same as you always do. The only difference is then adding a thickening agent to make your resin the consistency of peanut butter and fill in any gaps in between the deck and the hull.




I rounded off the end of a paint mixing stick and used that as a tool to spread and force the mixture into the crevices. I used west system 406 as my thickener. There is lots of stuff that could be used, chop strand, saw dust, fumed silica or a combination of them. I mix my resin and hardener first then add the thickening agent, be prepared to use a lot of it don’t buy a small amount, buy a gallon.

Installing the deck.

Getting closer to being done. We have a deck on now!



As you can see by the leaves falling in the pictures I am running out of time. The temperature must be above 60F to be able to use polyester resin. Its been in the 60F-70F range all week, barely warm enough, so much so I am using 1.5% -2% MEKP hardener to quicken the cure in colder temps.


I installed the deck wood starting at the transom working forward, using Loctite PL glue and 1″ stainless steel screws.


Control cables through the box and the rest is straight forward. A bead of PL glue around the whole perimeter edge that was once the old deck that the new deck now rests on at the edges and also PL glue on all the cross beams. There is no need for screws around the perimeter since the deck will be fiber glassed to the inner walls of the hull. Screws every foot or so on the crossbeams



 

 


Locktite PL glue is very water and weather resistant is exterior rated, very strong and cheap. Only $4 bucks a cartridge.






Don’t forget to mark the side walls to show where the beams are under the deck for the purpose of being able to locate the beams to put screws in.







I cant stress this part enough, install the bulk heads and cross beams at 48″ on center to be sure the edge of each piece of plywood has a place to rest on and be screwed to.

 

 

 

Boxing the cable controls cutout.

I built a box around the cable control cutout in the deck before installing the deck so I could have access to the underside of the plywood to put screws into the box. I used left over 1/2″ plywood I had from cutting out the deck. For fasteners I used 1″ stainless steel screws for the sides and 2″ stainless screws for the bottom to attach the box to the deck plywood.  I also used Loctite brand premium 3X PL construction adhesive on all the seams to water proof the box. So no water can get in to the hull. The box's dimensions are 6 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ x 24″. It is all sealed inside and out with polyester resin. I will eventually install a metal screen to keep the critters from making a home in the hull and cut the box's height down to something closer to the height of the gunwales.



Sorry just the one picture I forgot to take them while I was building the box.

Priming and sealing all the deck wood.

 

 

 

 

The 1/2″ marine plywood I used for the deck needed to be sealed with resin on all sides and at least two coats on the edges.

 

 

I put two coats on the bottom and sides and 1 coat on the top. The top just needs and thin primer coat because the entire top of the deck will be fiberglassed. (all bare wood needs a cured coat of primer resin before fiber glassing).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The decking 1/2 marine plywood and the 3/4 bulk head plywood came from an unknown cheap source (Indonesia). Before using any of this plywood I cut pieces and boiled them in a pot for 1 hour to make sure the wood could withstand serious moisture and not delaminate or fall apart. It all passed the boiling test with flying colors.

 

 

 

 

 

Cutting out the deck wood.

I cut the wood before I did the grinding of the deck plywood. So you wont see the sanded hull in these pictures. But all the grinding is now done.







I used cardboard boxes to make templates for each piece of plywood. I cut 4 – 4’x8′ sheets of marine 1/2″ plywood out to cover the entire deck. I used a jig saw to cut the plywood and the sheets are laid from port to starboard, the long way across the plywood. The plywood is stronger in this direction you don’t want a seam running down the center of the deck.




 




In this last picture you will see a cutout for the cable controls under the center console. This cutout will be boxed and all seams water proofed to keep water from entering the hull, if water were ever to come over the sides or for torrential rains while the boat is docked.

Preping the hull for the deck installation.

Before I install the deck plywood. The hull needs to be ground about 3 inches above the the deck so the fiberglass and resin has good mechanical adhesion to the hull surface when the glass is tabbed to the deck and hull. This means removing the gel coat and getting down to fresh fiberglass. Messy, itchy business, also very dangerous to inhale.


Prepare yourself for safety, dusk masks, full suits, head and eye wear. Cover every inch of your body or be itchy, this will not go away for a couple of days. The fiberglass turns into microscopic needles and get stuck in your skin.




I used a 7 inch buffer\grinder, and 24 grit sanding discs for grinding off the gel coat. These discs remove a lot of material and do not clog. Be careful the disc can eat right through the hull in seconds so keep the grinder moving back and forth at all times.

 

The finished result as you can see in the pictures the dust is everywhere.





This picture is of the sanded area after I cleaned all the dust off, using a power washer. Then some denatured alcohol and clean rags to make sure I got it all.