Winter projects - doghouse and leaning post
 

So the only thing that really gets me thru winter are a few solid ski trips, working endless hours (tax season), dreaming about summer and hammering away at boat projects on Sundays. Here's whats happening:

Still hacking away at building a custom fiberglass leaning post. Backrest and cushion by Birdsall Marine. Installing 2 storage drawers in back, and the rest of the back will be open to house a 35 gallon livewell. Still need to fair, prime and paint.

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Debated building a scratch doghouse, but realized work like that is best left to pros and brave/skilled craftsmen on this forum. My time is best used elsewhere, so I reached out to Erik Kent, who built me this aluminum beauty.

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Can't wait to get everything done and get out there. Cheers guys.

Great house. What's the width and weight? If I keep my Sceptre it will become a Savage with dog house as well. Keep the pics coming and thanks.

Very nice!!!

Love the aluminum. What will you coat it with??

There's something fishy about this boat:cool:
Very nice. Looks like Mr Kent has some refined talents. Keep them pics coming. Nice proportions. It looks much lighter than frp houses. Any idea what it weighed?
Powder-coated?

Power plans?

Oh yeah --NICE garage!:cool:

Not sure of exact weight and dimensions, but I'll post when I have them. Boat is a straight inboard powered by 310hp PCM. The engine sits under the doghouse. Kent Fab also built an aluminum subframe around the engine well with a heavy duty hinge on the forward edge. The entire house tilts forward to allow engine access. It sits against a flange on the subfloor frame but all contact points are starboard (no metal on metal). There are 2 heavy duty dogs on the inside aft corners to fasten it in place. When we were planning this the goals were A) bulletproof, B) functional, C) purdy, in that order. Yes - it is powder coated.

McGill - Mr. Kent is infinitely talented - I highly recommend him. That's his garage (I wish it was mine!). I think you're right, the weight will come in a bit lower than a typical cored doghouse.

Blackfin - the Savage is a great layout - you'll love it.

Regrettably I won't have any progress or pics to share for a couple weeks, but I will post when I do.

Here is a pic of the subframe before it was powdercoated. I also had him cut it into 2 separate pieces in case I ever need to remove the aft deck plate.

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Finally got my leaning post done... almost. Here's how it started and how it turned out:

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Here's one of the dash of the new dog house with my electronics box dry fit in place. Starting to re-rig everything next week.

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Managed to make a little progress on the electronics box, gauge panel and a panel to mount the wiring bus, fuse panel, etc. Somehow we failed to add mounting flanges for the wiring panel so I had to 5200 some mahogany boards to the forward underside of the house, then mount a starboard panel to those.

Gauge Panel:
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Wiring Panel:
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Electronics Box:
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Everything is pretty much in place. A few more days of wiring/rigging/testing and we'll be ready for battle.

Mike

AHHHHHHHH!!!!

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Not pretty at the moment, but it will be by the weekend and more importantly, everything is working! Very good feeling to see lights, pumps, gauges and electronics come on and hear the starter click over.