What kind of frankenstein sh** is this?
 

So the fuel tank hatch is soft on my new sceptre. This appears to be the P.O.'s fix. Its odd because all the other work done on the boat looks nice, and then there is this. lol.

So here is what it looks like with the cover removed. I have to assume this was supposed to be screwed in. It was just "glued". It appears the goal here was to transfer the load from your feet to the fuel tank. Seems like a bad idea to me.

Plan: Remove the foam. Recore hatch with 1/2" marine ply (because I have it) and vinyl ester. Apply 4000 UV sealant around flange. Screw down hatch. Run a bead of UV sealant around the seam. Rejoice.

Do we like the plan?

Classic !

oh....and......immediately all of the PO's prior work is now suspect regardless of how it looks :(

That is exactly what I sad after I saw this. Also, the impeller that was supposed to be new this year was pretty bad. He also said he sealed the new seats when he screwed them down. Those are coming out and getting sealed. This deck is rock solid and I'm not going to let it get wet. There are a bunch of other screws for things that are not there anymore, and I can see the sealant on those, but for the seats it is not obvious. I think this boat is lucky I found it when I did.

Make sure there is some support to keep the tank level. They may have put it in there to keep the tank from see-sawing. (Didn't see any support under the tank). Good luck!

Good plan. http://www.classicseacraft.com/commu...ons/icon14.gif

Some times you just got to wonder what they were thinking. Good looking sled!

Am sure you will make it well again.

Ed

If you look closely you can see the plywood that the tank is mounted to, so I think I'm good there. I'll replace the tank most likely at the end of the season and probably do a new board there as well.

It gets better. The "recore" was done with foil faced insulation foam and CSM. Shockingly, the glass attached to the foil rather well, but the foil peels off the foam like banana peel. I'd say on the underside, it is about 50% bonded to the glass, and the rest is air voids. This has to be the worst attempt at a recore I have ever seen.

And here we go. All done. I used plywood so its a bit heavy but I think I'd have only saved about 8 to 10 lb if I'd used foam, assuming all else being equal. It is solid as a rock now.

Ha! that boat probably had a few owners in it's lifetime. some smarter than others :)

Looking good. I recored my fuel tank hatch with plywood. Its heavy as hell but solid.

Since you are already talking about pulling the hatch back up to replace the tank, figured I would throw out an idea someone here had. Before you 4200 the hatch back down work a piece of braid or heavy mono down into the seam, all the way around. Tie a loop at each end and leave it just sticking out so that you can grab it with something. When it is time to remove, instant zipper. Do not know whose idea it was but it sure makes life easier later.

I was planning on it, but I didn't have any at the time, and I just wanted to get it done. I'll regret it later, but for now its in there.

Drat. If I knew, I'd have offered my divinycel stash for this sort of thing so you didn't have to use marine ply.

Ahhh. I was so close to having enough Divinycell left over to do it but I was just a tad short. Thanks for the offer though!

Still have a bunch of stuff in Manchvegas.

You aren't missing any fishing. Nothing going on in WPT.

This was last week in Rhode Island. Nice 39" bass about a 2 minute boat ride from my dock.