'73 23cc restoration

[natchalkley]

So the boat finally went in the water a few weeks ago. Its not totally finished (still needs a bit of paint), but its in the water and it is catching fish.

Ill start with the windows. the windows I had cut by a local glass shop here in town. they are 3/8" lexan that are sandwiched between the vertical grain fir on the inside and Ipe mahogany on the outside. the frames are all biscuit jointed with west epoxy.
the inside frames were epoxied to the inside of the doghouse and the outside were countersunk and screwed. everything was sealed with clear silicone.
then I put the bulkhead and coming boards across the transom. no pictures at this point but coming soon.
next came the bracket, standard stainless marine bracket with no platform. my buddies Gray and Eric came over to help me install it. All holes were drilled, epoxied and redrilled.
I put glass down on the deck and started painting. first came the transom and doghouse. I used an interlux hatteras off-white.
I used petit easypoxy offwhite for all the interior in order to match what was there before.

Next came the engine: suzuki 250. the first prop that went on was a 15.5x17. this had way too much torque and it would hit 5800 rpms at only 2/3 throttle. they got me a 16x20 and it is awesome. It planes at 3400 at about 21 kts and tops out at 5800 doin 40 kts .
first tuna trip: