1986 Tournament 27 projects
 

As some of you know, I bought a 1986 27' last fall from the original owner on Cape Cod. My wife also gave birth to our first child (yeah!) so between work and family, my free time has been limited.

However, I have been able to get the following projects done:

1) The twin Mercury 250's only had 128 hours on them, but years of sitting in the sun took their toll on them. So, I decided I would repaint the cowlings and chaps and in doing so, I took Shine from Gulfstream Composites up on his 50% off discount to try the new line of Quantum paints from EMC.

Below are some pics from before, during and after. I must say that following EMC's directions were pretty easy Since this was my first time spraying paint, I had a lot of questions and both Shine and the folks at EMC were always available to answer my questions. After spraying the topcoat, I did have a problem with way too much dust in the paint. After asking a lot of questions, I realized the problem was mostly the result of my equipment. I was spraying with a small EMGLO compressor which did not have the volume to keep up with the Devilbiss Starting Line HVLP gun that I was using. In order to compensate and atomize the paint, I had to turn the pressure way, way up which created way too much overspray and dust. So, I sanded down the dusty paint with 400 grit and borrowed an 80 gallon, 12CFM compressor. The second application came out pretty well, some orange peel that I had to wetsand and buff out, but I was very happy with the finish.

2) Also, the engines needed a complete tuneup. First thing I did was pump out a 140 gallons of fuel from the two tanks that was putrid and looked like ice tea. Next, I sent out the 12 fuel injectors to be cleaned and I am glad I did. 2 were bad and the other 10 were filthy. I also installed new waterpumps, thermostats, poppet valves, plugs, filters and replaced a leaky lower unit seal.

The boat finally hit the water about a week ago and I am must say I am impressed. Not only does she cut through the chop very well, but this boat is fast. 53 mph at 5700 rpm against the current and 55 mph at 5700 rpm with the current. God only knows what the fuel burn is!

I have done some other projects on the boat that I will update at another time.

Ed

"God only knows what the fuel burn is!"

As the owner of one of those 3.0 liter Mercs.......you don't want to know what it is at WOT!

Very nice results on the paint job!!!

Like to see some up dated pic's of the boat, always liked that one

Frizzle-

Attached are some more pictures.

During the late spring, I cut a hole in the foredeck and installed a BOMAR hatch. You would be amazed at the thickness of the fiberglass - it was a solid 1/2 inch thick, without any coring.

I also had new interior cushions made with 4 inch foam and an interior Sunbrella fabric.

Lastly, I buffed the hull 4x, installed a custom tapered boot stripe, sanded the bottom and applied 2 coats of Pettit Vivid paint and installed new Seacraft decals that I had fabricated at a local sign shop.

Next winter, I plan on building a new fiberglass cabin door cored with Coosa and this fall I am scheduled to have a brand new hardtop fabricated. I will also be on the hunt for new electronics.

Very nice!

nice ride, looks great !

She hits her lines nicely in that last Pic, she looks better than ever- nice job. Cant wait to see it with the new tower. Keep after it, you will have one of the nicest 27 TE's out there


If I pick up another sc hull it will defiantly be a 27' or that 21 mosely I have been wanting forever. Kick my self in the back side every time I see one for loosing the one I went after (with a deposit on) and the one I kept low balling offers on.

Beautiful boat Ed. Nice work!!

Very nice!!! It sit "just right" in the water.

How did you like the paint?

Pretty lines on her.

I liked the paint a lot. Easy to mix, the shine is great and the paint is very tough. However, I have zero prior experience shooting paint, so I don't have a lot of comparisons.

I have wetsanded and buffed another brand of paint a bunch of times and I found that a lot easier than the Quantum. I think perhaps because Quantum is a much harder paint and I probably should have gotten after it sooner in its cure cycle than I did (waited a week)

I am looking forward to using it on some other projects I have planned.

Thanks for the feedback. Waiting may be a mistake with any paint.

Very nice boat! Do you know much of. The history on it.. I have always loved the 27. There was a burgundy center console for sale a long time ago up by you. I always wish I would have bought it.

Yes, I know the entire history of the boat as I bought it from the original owner last September.

The burgundy 27 you are referring to "Fin Fighter" went from an owner in Cape Cod, to a new owner in NJ and then it was sold to a charter guy on the Cape, where it is now.

More projects
 

With the boat on the hard for the winter, I decided to remove all of the in-deck floor hatches and bring them home so I could cut the undersides open and recore them.

The aft fishbox hatch was the worst and in dire need of repair. It was completely soaked and weighed 40lbs. IThe reason why is that someone at the factory, in their infinite wisdow, decided to trim off the aft lip (to make the hatch fit) and in doing so, exposed the plywood core.

The other in deck hatches appeared to be okay. However, after cutting them open I found damp plywood and was glad that I went ahead and opened them up.

The plan is to recore them with 3/8" Coosa, epoxy and 1708. Divinycell H-80 would be somewhat lighter, but I have a full sheet of Coosa in my garage, so that it was what I will be using. The epoxy and 1708 were ordered from Joel at Gulfstream Composites. While I could easily get this stuff from suppliers where I work, I appreciate Joel's personal service, expertise and willingness to answer questions.

I also picked up a "new to me" console. The existing console was too short and in my opinion, the boxy shape did not complement the lines of the boat. So, I started hunting around and I found this used console which is exactly what I was looking for.

Lastly, I also picked up a Garmin 7215 with an enormous 15 inch screen, which will be a huge upgrade from the Furuno 1650 that is on the boat now.

Will post more pictures in a few weeks after hatches have been recored.

Nice work Ed!

Thanks, Tim. I am going to keep plugging away on it over this winter.


Here is a picture of my new Garmin 7215 plotter that just arrived. This thing is massive! Supposedly is the last model that Garmin will use an aluminum housing. Radar and black box sounder will be added in a couple of months.

I also went back to the boat and was able to remove the two inspection/service hatches that were screwed and caulked into place on either side of the center console. I figured that while I was recoring the other hatches, I may as well do these too.

Attached are some pictures of the hatches, the foam filled stringers (very dry) and the massive amounts of space below the decks.

Well, we backed the 27 into the shop on Saturday and I started removing the original fugly hardtop from 1986.

The plan is to go with an oversized cored fiberglass top that will have the front legs mounted on the gunwale and rear truss styled legs mounted just outside the leaning post over the stringers. The goal is to make the boat as fishable as possible (the aft legs on the original top were always in the way) while providing the most protection from the sun while giving me the ability to add some strataglass curtains if needed.

I also have a new console for the boat, but that tear down and upgrade project will have to wait until next year as I don't want to miss half the season again this year.

I think the console & top on the hull behind yours would look sweet! ( For a minute, I thought it was yours.)

UncleBoo-

Yes, the hardtop and console on the boat in the background do present a bit of an optical illusion.

Will post some pictures as the project progresses.

Ed
Keep the boat porn up to date. When your finished and down this way she will look good at my dock. Plenty of room now.
I miss looking out and seeing mine. :(

Will do, Capt. Chuck. When it is finished, I will have to let you inspect it and see if it worthy of your gucci award.

We may be heading back down to "Del Boca Vista" in Stuart for a long weekend in March. Will keep you posted.

coming together. I like that console too. The coosa might be heavy, but its lighter than soaked plywood :)

Thank you for your business !

Below are some pictures of my first attempt at vacuum bagging. I had to keep my self entertained and my mind occupied while my snail paced hardtop project limps along...

First pic shows the original hatch decored and prepped.

Second pic shows a fresh layer of 1.5oz mat with tinted Raka epoxy.

Third pic shows the new Coosa core cut on 45 degree angles and all sharp edges rounded off.

Fourth pic shows the vacuum bagging in process. 1 layer of 1708 biaxial, a layer of peel ply, a layer of breather cloth and some 7 mil clear shrinkwrap. I used some expensive double sided tape from Home Depot to seal the bag. It worked pretty well.

Fifth pic shows the gauge (if i am reading it correctly) pulling 20 inches of mercury. Hopefully, I have some beginners luck. I have 4 more hatches to do over the next week or so.

Here is a picture of the finished hatch. Pretty happy with the results - it is super strong and lighter than the old plywood soaked hatch.

My only concern is the finished surface (1708 weave) may hold mold and mildew. I guess I can always fair and finish them next winter (who I am kidding!).

Looks good... The middle scale is inches of merc. The outer is Kpa or kilopascals... Or Korean peoples army...lol sorry . I use inches of merc,,, so looking at your scale it appears you got somewhere between 5-8 hg.. When bagging I found 20 is good at first then hold it at 15 till cure..the longer it takes though you risk having a dry bond laminate..you can tell with your bagging film there will be almost no voids or airpockets .. You can never have to much practice with vac bagging..Good luck

Thanks, Martin. I knew something was off.

When the valve is mostly closed and the bag is not tight, I was showing 20 inches of mercury. (See attached pic).

When the valve is mostly open, and the pump sucks the bag tight, I was showing 8 inches of mercury (the original picture).

None of this makes sense to me. The more I open the valve and the tighter the bag is sucked tight, the mercury should go up, not vise-versa correct? It seems to be doing the exact opposite for me...

Sounds like a small leak somewhere.. When I vac to 20" it is a chore to find the pin hole leaks.. Did you have bleeder holes in your foam..??

Yes, if you look closely....you can see a bunch of holes drilled in the coosa.

I will double check the bag more closely next time. Thanks for the tips.

Ed

Yea I see gem now.. Next time make sure you use a heavier plastic.. I use a 10mil and allow enough room for when the bag gets pulleddown.. Make gussets around the corners...you will know when you find the hole... It wil vac down in a few seconds hard ...I use duct tape to plug holes.

That would make sense if the gauge is between the valve and the vac pump. Sounds like the valve is set up inline as a flow control rather than in a tee as a vac control (as a bleed valve to atmosphere). You want a cheap vac gauge on or near the bag. I have a bleed valve (called a vacuum control valve) in a tee that allows me to set the vac to the bag and the pump; closed I get 20" and open I get 3-5".

Valve.
 

My yellow jacket has a main valve to the pump on the pump intake. And then another vavle for bleeding to atmosphere. So you can adjust the vac pressure and hold the vac at a specific "hg..my guage is on the vac pump..I also run one on the part side inline on a t...but if there is no leaks my pump will pull the parts to 20+" hg no problem...if there is bleeder valve then maybe it is leaking thru it

Check your hoses as well. My main leak were around the hose and plastic.. But I was not using those vancy vac connectors either...

I did a second hatch a couple of nights ago. I sealed up the bag better, especially around the hose and was able to get about 13 inches of mercury. With a little more practice, I am sure I will get 20, as the owner of the pump regularly gets 20.

20 degree tilted element transducer?
 

Just made up my mind to buy the Garmin GSD 26 and B175 transducer to go with the Garmin 7215 I bought in October.

Question for the Seacraft electronics guru's....what version of the transducer do I need...the 20 degree version?

Made some progress on my 27 Tournament hardtop project.

After too long of a wait, I picked up the hardtop the other night and dropped it off at the fabricator. The mold is owned by the fabricator but it was laid up by a local glass guy. The entire process tried my patience and then some. However, it will look very nice when finished as it is from a two piece mold and is finished on both sides. It has a radar bump on top, an electronics box and (4) led courtesy lights below.

We are going to make some modifications to the top next week to to better complement the boat, and then he will start bending and welding the pipe work.

Looking forward to seeing the finished product in the next week or two.

New hardtop is complete!
 

Well, after taking over 9 months to complete the new hardtop on my 1986 27 Seacraft Tournament is finished!

The front legs are a gunwale/cabin top mounted and made of 2 inch, schedule 40 anodized aluminum pipe with a brushed finish.

Since I always found the aft legs of the original top to be in the way, we designed this top to be a hybrid style. The rear legs have been moved inboard and make up a truss and they now come down next to the leaning post (which will be swapped out with something better in the future). In order to support the load, this pipe was upgraded to 2.5 inch, schedule 80 anodized aluminum. As a result of this hybrid design, I have the entire gunwale free and can fish or dock without any interference.

I also purposefully eliminated the traditional "halo" ring around the perimeter of the top. I feel they are unsightly, are a magnet for salt & corrossion and with the additional structural support elsewhere, unnecessary.

The top is from a two piece mold and is cored with 3/4" H-80 and coremat.

I also installed a new Garmin 7215 plotter with a 15 inch screen, a Garmin GSD 26 Black Box fishfinder, an Airmar B175HW 1kw flush mount transducer and a ICOM VHF radio with a Digital Antenna. Over the winter, I will add a Garmin Radar and some other accessories.

Attached is a before photo of the boat from the day I bought it down on the Cape and a couple of other photos with the new top installed.

Although it took way too long, I am really happy with the end result. Time to do some tuna fishing (or wishing)!

Wow... :eek:

That looks so much better.
I'm pretty familiar with that boat as I have worked in and around Saquatucket Harbor for years.
Was kind of sad to see her go away (and not to my house ;)).
But, you definitely took her to a better home.
Well done!

That thing is awesome. One of my new favorites to look at. Great job with the hardtop.

can you post a picture of the inside? I just want to see the layout.