1988 seacraft rebuild

[No grave but the Seacraft]

A few quick updates and some pics. The bilge is nearing completion. The seachest is in and wired. A few more hoses to plumb and it will be done. Relief cuts were made to the old cap so it will follow the new hull shape. The new coring material is laid out upside down and glassed. The deck portion was supported with leftover preformed battens and was given a bit of crown to better shed water. I'm hoping to set it in the boat this afternoon. I will need all hands on deck for that maneuver.

[No grave but the Seacraft]

Ok, the new cap core material is in place. With a minimal amount of weight you can see it takes it's shape quite nicely. Once I finish grinding the other half of the cap, I will glue and glass it all together. Also, you can see the front access hatch and cooler. It's a Kenai 65. I went with this one because it had the sleekest lines and smallest footprint for it's size. I'm trying to mount the console as far forward as I can.

[No grave but the Seacraft]

So I finished grinding the rest of the cap and made some relief cuts so it too will follow the hull shape. I made some clamps from a 10' section of 6" PVC pipe in preparation of glassing the core material to the cap sections this weekend.

[No grave but the Seacraft]

I cut the hole for the front bulkhead hatch and have it sitting in place. I glued the inner and outer sections of the cap to the divinycell core material with thickened epoxy and clamped it in place. You can see the relief cuts I had to make in the outer section. I have a piece to fill the gap above the hatch that still needs to be glued in. The whole thing came together surprisingly easy and exactly how I wanted. I'm really happy with the new lines. Next up will be fiberglassing and filling the low spots then a mountain of sanding and fairing.

[SeaChuck]

nice work , been following for a while and you do stay busy after it

love the pipe clamps on the cap

told the wife ....... see all that stuff in my storage rack does have some future use and I am not a hoarder.

keep the pics coming

[No grave but the Seacraft]

Thanks for the feedback Chuck, it is very much appreciated. It feels like this project is taking so much longer than it has but I know I'm getting close to the finish now. I was out of town for work all this week so progress has been halted but I was able to find an anchor hatch and gutter set from my local boat recycler on my way home today. I've been stopping by every other week or so looking for one but today I finally scored one for $20. I removed the old hardware, coring material and excess glass. I plan on moving the hinges to the long side so it opens to stern. I wanted to keep it centered on the deck so I had to move it back a bit from the bow so that I'll have room to mount a trolling motor in the future. I must say I really lucked out with this one because the crown in the hatch matches the crown in the deck perfectly. I could not have planned it better. I also added a piece of leftover cap material to fill in the space at the bow bulkhead. Tomorrow I will start glassing the deck and gunwale cap to tie it all together.

[No grave but the Seacraft]

I started glassing the deck cap together today. I have 4 layers of 1700 so far. I think another 2 or 3 should raise it to where it needs to be to meet the original cap. After that I will glass the whole thing once again.

[JBASS02]

Looks great. You're getting closer.

Random question is the brown duck in the background a Khaki Campbell?

[No grave but the Seacraft]

Thank you. Yes it is. The white one is a Peking.

[No grave but the Seacraft]

Here is where I'm at now. I added glass the core so it is flush with the existing cap then filled any low spots with thickened epoxy. Lastly, I laid up a layer of stitched 1708 to tie it all together. Once it sets up I will flip the now fully formed cap and add a final layer of 1700 to the underside before screwing and gluing it to the hull permanently.