I love the "circle of death". Great idea!!

Awesome idea. Necessity is the mother of invention. :D

Very innovative.... Like the boat rotisserie!

Redneck ingenuity at its finest! Amazing what you can get done in the back yard

Anybody know how to change the title of this thread?

I started it out as a question and it became a build thread.

Does anyone know of a hard top build for a 23 seacraft? I did not like the one I had and want to make one out of divinycell.

What dimensions, build schedule etc.

Thanks

I think only moderators can change titles of threads, as them to do it for you

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None of you 23 center console boys have a hardtop that you could measure for me?
I found some help on the layup.

Chris

Well, I guess I get no respect here. No reply, so we went to some other boats and measured.

If anyone is out there, here is progress.

After getting it flipped and back in we did the following.

Ground out any bubbles, irrregularities, etc. and filled with cabo/epoxy. ground and then filled with fairing compound (epoxy based, a couple of kinds). We decided that we wanted a single substrate to go forward with and put a layer of 8 oz glass and epoxy on. We figured it would stabilize and minimize difference ezpansion coefficients of the underlying materials.

We puttied, faired, sprayed, superbuild, faired, superbuild and faired. We also did the hull sides with some putty and two superbulld. At the end we used a new tool, a Hutchins air to finish sanding at 80 grit.

The green is some food coloring in alcohol sprayed on as a guide coat to see low spots.

This was done with the boat on four dollys. We could wheel it in and out of the boathouse as needed to spray, wash etc. Used the golf cart for that and a block and tackle.

First two picts show extensive sanding of superbuild on bottom.
Probably was overkill as getting bottom paint.

First pic I have started long boarding near stern. Note some green colored guidecoat (food coloring in alcohol) still there in some low spots.

Can see dollies in this pic.

Three Coats of gray Interlux 2000 barrier coat..
Then one coat of white Interlux (not shown)
We are going to follow with white bottom paint.

So at this stage, we have 8 oz glass
Two layers of highly sanded (mostly sanded off) Superbuild
4 layers of barrier coat
3 layers of Petit Vivid White bottom Coat

The first picture you can see the result.

Time to flip back over. Pictures:

How to flip a 23 seacraft easily
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY-ojUoQ73o

Here is an action You tube of how we turned it back over.

Lots of tires under the cardboard. Used cardboard to keep new bottom paint white.

Buddy helped get the boat on trailer.

Hard Top Construction
 

We used 3/4 inch Divinycell foam epoxy/cabosiled together. It wanted to curve a little, so we let it and could eye ball it was close on its own. Not shown are the one hundred screws and fender washers that we glued the overlapping panels together with for 4 hours and then we removed them and put batteries on top.

We then put one layer of 17 oz on the bottom just so we could move it around safely. Then drilled quarter inch holes from the other side down to glass to act as "bolts" which later will be filled with slightly thickened epoxy. This will connect the two outer layers of glass.

Last two show the top, no glass yet, just sitting on t top as dry fit.

Holes in top for coosa inserts for riggers, antennae.

Also, we are going to make corners more rounded than shown. You can see lines to indicate where Richard drilled holes for "epoxy Bolts"

Any updates on this build?

Continuation of hard top
 

Richard has continued to make progress on hard top. Very labor intensive as one off parts are.

Here is a picture of him glassing. It now has maybe 5 days of puttying and superbuild Halfway done and I saw a perfect used hardtop and metal t top for a lot less than this will cost.

Oh well.

Glueing down Deck.
 

We finally got the guts to glue things down. Kept thinking we forgot something. The following picts are the boat pre glueing and after glueing. We are using Bosch FS as the adhesive. I had lined up a bunch of weights to put on top. But the damn fit was to flat we decided we did not need them. The entire perimeter was screwed down. We took flashlights and mirrors and went all around and it was tight. We were afraid if we used those weights the beautiful camber of the rear deck might be impacted. Leaving the screws in 5 days.

Since we are using 1.5 inch corecell for the deck, the gutters needed to be built up a little. We cut strips of 3/4 inch divinycell. The edges including gutters will all be glassed in.

The first picture is an upside down of the deck. Richard got a little artistic with his Coosa reinforcement. If you recall, the deck has to span the fuel tank. I would have done it differently, but the deck is very solid with two 17 oz biaxial on the bottom and one on top. We will put another layer on top going up the sides about 4 inches. Somethings to note. The dark gray inserts are coosa inserts where the t top and leaning posts attach. The t top has SS T nuts inserted as you can see. To make sure of alignment, we actually screwed thru the nuts to maintain alignment with T top. Second the stern quarters. The square cut outs are for access to the drains (more later) and cable wires to come up. We are using a GEM system which I will take close ups of later. Those 1.5 inch holes in the corners are where the deck drains exit.

The other pictures are a couple of the boat pre dropping the deck. Which by the way is so light and stiff two of us can handle it easily to drop it into place. 12 tubes of glue used.

the fourth pic is the deck screwed down.

The fifth is a landing net I made for a CCA NC fundraiser. Teak, mahogany,cherry, white cedar and juniper laminated. I have made about 10 of these over the years. I think I am the only one that uses it-I have left mine in the sun for about 10 years, varnishing every three. Still not broken, although several nets have been ripped netting redfish.

Great work! Keep the progress reports coming!

Lookin good! Love the supports under the deck, defiantly will be solid under your feet at the helm. She is coming together nicely. Curious, what did you use to glue the deck down? The net looks cool too by the way...

deck glue down
 

FF,
we used the Bosch tubes, similar to 5200. I think it is the FS, fast set stuff. We left the deck screwed down 5 days before unscrewing. It took 12 tubes. Richard who is doing most of the work really did a very good job on the stringers so far as the meeting of the the stringers and the deck. Unlike the old sea crafts where there were inch gaps between, I dont think we even had a quarter inch where we could see using a flashlight and mirror. We glassed the deck to the liner where they meet on the sides. Been fairing that joint last two days, but I tore my shoulder few months ago and its tough for me now.

Fantastic thread! What a boat this will be! Can't wait to see the finished product.

top of the line,we appreciate the time and material involved..go get some fish.soon.....
great Job guys.
.

okay I went fishing
 

Four specs and a gray trout (weakfish)

deck pics
 

Not much visually, but a lot of work. We put the second layer of glass on the deck, faired, and faired the gutters. After sanding the superbuild we took the first picture.

The second picture is after some more fairing. Nothing spectacular.

Note the Cap. It has a bunch of holes in it. We are going to remove it and make it pretty. There are some places that have some rotten balsa which have to go.

Work on Cap
 

We removed the cap and flipped it over.

The cap had a huge cleat at the bow with a teak block backing. Most of the balsa had rotted in the bow and the rot on the sides was localized by the holes in the cap-naturally. We ground everything out. See first picture-I had a 24 grit disc from the big grinder disintegrate at speed and it went into my knee. I should have bought the variable speed grinder-thats too fast for a disc.

That meant removal of all of the balsa in the second half (stern) of the cap and several areas forward.

To rebuild the cap, we put half inch Coosa 20 in the bow area. We put glass and cabo under then glassed on top (17 oz always). We reinforced the bow areas since we are putting a windless up there. We used foam for small areas of rot that were isolated in the middle of a field of balsa. In the stern areas we used coosa and we filled all holes save on rod holder on each side since I liked that position and wanted to save it. Now we have coosa whereever we want to put a rod holder or cleat. For rod holder backing plates we are using some pieces of 3/16 glass from Parker boats (scrap they give away-useful in some places for backing). I apologize for not getting finished pictures of the upside down position of the cap. Basically we roughed it in, glass, faired and put topcoat on it. Looks very good for underside of a cap. Yes we are anal retentive sometimes.

I crawled under the cap and shot a couple of pictures to show the finished product. Not great pics sorry.

The first picture is forward. You can see we finished this before we put the cap back on. Who wants to sand upside down?

The second picture is a recent reinforcement of the corners of the transom under the cap. If you recall, we cut the cap just forward and we wanted to beef that area up. Plus a cleat and a rod holder go in the corners. We put in a piece of coosa to level out the previous coosa and to bring it to the corner (about a foot, 4 inches wide). Now that it was flush, we glued in a 20 inch piece of coosa to overlap and to tie it all together-this is the long gray board seen in the picture. We have not glassed it yet. We are not looking forward to glassing upside down, but it has to be done.

Transom and live well
 

We are dry fitting the transom fascia. This is a very hard part of the build, since so much is going on behind that front wall. Much of which must be done before final glue up of that panel.

Shown in the first three pics are dry fits early on in the construction (before we faired the deck). It should be noted that the liner has a right angle where the old transom made that turn. We saved an inch of that to guide our front panel. It should be noted if anyone is going this in the future, that it is not square to the floor. We made our panel square to the floor. That right angle is a good attachment point so we did save it.
The fourth pic is the port corner showing four holes for thru hulls in the side of the boat. One large baitwell overflow, two aft bilge pumps and a lower one for baitwell draining.

Also note the corners of the transom have access openings (those square holes) where the wiring, fuel lines and saltwater washdown come up. On the starboard side, will be housed the fuel filter and probably the washdown hose.

The fifth and sixth pics show that area. Note the nice Gemlux scupper system. There is a drain cover that is not installed yet. Really slick system-has a duck bill inside to prevent backwash.

The last picture shows where the read of the deck meets the transom. We had to leave little devits where the bracket washers and bolts fit.

I will get additional detail of the panel construction shortly.

Here are some more shots .

Some details of the corners and scuppers.

Forward bulkhead
 

We were very diligent in this construction due to the windlass going forward-we wanted it strong. Richard made a perfect fit bulkhead using coosa. See picture, it says a lot about his abilities.

It was glassed in of course all 'round.

Front Bulkhead installed

super nice job !

looking real nice, like the large accesses in the rear. Oh yea, nice trout by the way. I have been wanting to get down that way and do some trout fishing. May head down there after Christmas and wet a line maybe if I can find time.

As you know, some manufacturers close the dang boats up. Cant get to the bilge pumps, or even see the bilge. I think that a lot of the issue with sinking Seacrafts were that it was impossible to do a good job wiring and plumbing replacemen pumps and switches. On my old 18, I think there was only an 8 x 14 inch or so access panel in the splash well. It was screwed down so you could not look in the bilge anywhere. Now how do you put in a new pump with one hand in that tiny access? I just took out the in deck live well ( saws all, grinder-there was a a huge blob of potter putty holding the dang thing in-it came out in pieces and the had to grind/chisel the potter putty). I then was able to put in 2 bilge setups properly.

In the boat in this thread, the rear most hole serves as the access to pumps, thru hulls, and some wiring and other stuff at the gunnels (coming from the console, fuel tank). The more forward hull is an insulated icebox, so there is no access to the hull. That is to say the divnycell is above the hull, with bilge water running under it.

As for the trout, those are from October. The large trout are gone somewhere and we have spikes now.

Leaning post
 

I forgot to take pictures of the jig when we made the leaning post. The only hard part was the curvature we made on the jig. We cut 5 curved pieces for the jig from 3/4 inch ply. We took the 40 inch long divinycell h 80 panel and cut longitudinal grooves about a 1/4 inch apart to allow bendage. We bent it over the jig putting screws into the 5 curved areas. we went from behind and put cabo in the slots we made to help it stay that way. We let it dry. We took the screws out from the three center jigs and the foam stayed there. We then glassed the outside curved area with 17 oz, leaving about 2 inches on the ends of the two outer curved pieces of the jig. After drying we removed the piece and it was solid. We have done this a lot lately, putting screws on the outside and not glassing over them. Later we will tape that raw foam since its on the end. Or cut it off. We then did he straightforward box assembly and put two layers of 17 oz all over. We put some reinforcements of coosa (the gray pieces inside).

More Leaning Post
 

So we wanted to make an insert under the leaning post seat. (later pic).
So we used the curvature of the leaning post as a jig for the seat. In about the only place we used wood, we glued up some "wiggle" wood. It was massively heavy. So I cut out inserts and replaced with divinycell, before glassing in. Pictures show the initial glue up (the white stuff is peel ply before removal). Then the piece on the console down and then tilted. We did glue in a strip of white oak 1 x1 inch to screw the piano hinge into when we get there. Last picture is the storage tray that goes under the seat. I had made it from another project and it fit perfectly with a little cutting and glassing. More picts to follow.

We glassed in the box, did some fairing and sprayed a little superbuild. Then I made a rod and cup holder from some recycled teak from an old yacht. It just dry fitted and only have a couple of coats of epoxy on the teak. The 15 degree rod holders were slightly tricky. I made a jig of 15 degrees and made the holes on the drill press. Then used the hole in the 1 inch teak to guide the hole saw cut through the foam. Worked out well.

Glassing in Transom facia
 

Finally glassed in transom baitwell and front. Shown here is after a single skim coat of putty to fill the weave and sanding.

There will be a removable foot kick about 2 inches behind. This is to allow access to mount the engine bracket. The access on starboard will be for the fuel filter and other wiring etc. Not sure on the right yet.

The teak looks great, but the epoxy will turn white from UV exposure, unless you put some varnish over it to protect it. I understand that can happen virtually overnight, so probably a good idea to add another coat of varnish annually to avoid surprises!

We always put several coats of varnish or in this case Alexseal clear coat. Waiting for several other pieces of brightwork to get caught up before we spray it. Got a bunch of pics to post shortly. Been negligent.


Here's a cooler I made for a CCA NC raffle. Made a bunch of these over the year-very popular. Used Divinycell for foam. I made the box first marine ply, using a little tape inside. Then glued in the foam. One layer of biaxial 17 oz (no matt) and finish glass for the inside. The top is cedar. Corners are reclaimed teak. Epoxied, then alexseal clear coat.