adding material to section, making taller and long

[reddrum_com]

I am about to take possession of a pilot house boat. The pilot house is shorter (height and length) than I would like. I want to cut the top vertically near the back and extended it as well as cut it horizontally and make it taller.

Is this nuts?

I have alot of experience with autos including alot of restoration of Ferraris, and other exotics. I have experience with fiberglass on cars but not on boats. I figure there is going to be alot to learn but I'm sure alot is similar.

I've selected the places to cut where I will not have to worry about dealing with angles (so the top doesn't need to stretch as it is raised). I've chopped tops on cars so I've learned some of the tricks although those were metal.

Is the best way to make a piece of glass then insert it into the ~1.5' hole or raise the top and add the material in wet.

Any advise is appreciated!

mike

[Finster]

Is this a Seacraft your talking about? You could check out this thread, there's some hefty mods going on here.

http://forum.classicseacraft.com/sho...r=24951&Forum=

[reddrum_com]

Maybe my question didn't come across right. I just want to lengthen and raise the height of the pilot house portion of the boat. I'm crazy sometimes but not enough to try and lengthen a whole boat!

No its not a Seacraft. I was refered here because of the knowledge that hangs around here.

Here is a picture of a pilot house similar to what I am talking about.
http://parkerboats.net/pages/boat_detail.jsp?boatid=15

Cut it just below the windows and add in 1.5' and cut it just in front of the back corners and add in 1.5'.


mike

[gw204]

Mike,

You're aware that the 2520 has a step-down at the back edge of the pilothouse, right?. If you lengthen it, you'll have one section with more headroom that another unless you do some work to the floor also.

[reddrum_com]

I used the Parker picture since everyone knows Parker and the picture was good and easy to use. The boat I'm buying is a 25' C-Hawk.

Oddly enough on the older C-Hawks the pilot house is only 5' or so tall inside. Who knows why they did that. I think I can fix it tho ;-)

If this were a car I'd chop away and know that I can do it. Since its a boat I wanted to make sure there isn't something I don't know.

Thanks for any advice!

mike

[warthog5]

Oddly enough on the older C-Hawks the pilot house is only 5' or so tall inside. Who knows why they did that. I think I can fix it tho ;-)

A lot of times it's kept low for 2 reason's.
To keep the windage and top heavyness down.

The other reason is to make it look right. A short length boat can get out of proportion.

I understand why you want to do it. It can make a big diffrence if you reall get the lines out of proportion.

How tall are you? The underside of my hardtop is 6ft-4in.
The cuddy height has been pushed to the max limit, and still keep's the lines of the boat looking right.

I'm wondering what the core material is, if any now in the side's of the pilothouse?



http://www.classicmako.com/projects/xshark/

[salvagefirst]

strange someone mentioning C-Hawk ,i was at the C-Hawk plant yesterday. Dont worry about adding weight to the top. the hull on your boat is the same hull built today, out of the same molds that 25 hull is used in the pilot, standard cabin, and the sport cabin. the sport cabin is taller and longer cabin than the pilot and weighs 300 pds more. the only core materials i seen was marine ply. the transom, floors, stringers are all hand layed marine ply screwed together in a grid system than shot with the chopper gun. A very solid built boat. there is some info on www.chawkboats.com

[reddrum_com]

Thanks to everyone for the advice. I have bought the boat now and have cleaned it up and started measuring for the best places to cut. I plan on cutting it this weekend.

I'm 6' tall. Is there a guideline for how much space you should have above your head in a pilot house? I'm figuring on making about 4" of headroom.

Interestingly enough there isn't any core material in the sides of the pilot house. I guess since it isn't a structural piece it isn't necessary.

Again, thanks for the comments.


mike