1988 seacraft rebuild

[No grave but the Seacraft]

So here are the pics of the swim platform and fishbox with the final coat of epoxy before paint. I also received a jewelry box from Gemlux with some of the pieces I need to finish. Man, they are expensive! I still have to order a bronze high speed pick up, 3 ball valves and a few hose barb adapters.

[kmoose]

Always call Gemlux to order stuff and mention the THT discount. It will save you quite a bit. I always check out their clearance page as well. I got some sweet deals being patient. https://gemlux.com/collections/marine-hardware-on-sale

[No grave but the Seacraft]

Thanks for the heads up Kmoose. I'll remember that for next time.

[No grave but the Seacraft]

Fish box is painted and plumbed. Fuel tank is glued down with 5200 on 1/4" x 3" wide strips of PVC. Next up is to fiberglass a couple bulkheads/supports on top of the tank to hold it down and support the floor.

[No grave but the Seacraft]

So it's been a while since I've updated my build progress. Rain and cold weather has slowed things down considerably but in the last two weeks I've been able to get a few things checked off the list. The fuel tank is glued down and the bulkhead and hold down pieces are glassed in place. The deck supports are glued in with thickened epoxy and the livewell was supported and glassed in. I also fiberglassed the bow section of the liner back together.

[FishStretcher]

I hope that you have a lot of glass connecting that pair of sawn through stringers/ through transom knees? I couldn't tell from pictures. Those box stringers are some of the primary load carrying members in the hull, and I didn't see that reconnected. I think I saw foam there.


Maybe I missed it? I saw a picture of the tank installation and it looks like the through-transom knees aren't connected to the box longitudinal stringers?


Without this connection the bending load exits the knees near the transom, goes through the hull and back to the stringers forward, peel failing the tabbing and bending the hull from slamming loads. If the glass is there, but isn't thick enough, it will progressively fail.



Apologies if this has already been addressed.


I do like the all composite bracket, in that it should never rot.

Originally Posted by No grave but the Seacraft

I've not built a bracket before but I do have some experience with fiberglass. I built three fiberglass over plywood boats before starting this project. I don't know that I would try building a bracket and glassing it on which is why I extended the stringers through the transom. This way the stresses are spread out from the hull through the transom and to the motor mount. That being said fiberglass is stronger than you think it would be especially epoxy. Either way I added more than I think I needed. As far as cost it took 4 sheets of 3/4" coosa with some to spare. Maybe 5-6 yards of 50" 1700 cloth and 20 yards of 12" 1700 tape and roughly 6 gallons of resin. All total its been about 35 hours of labor and $1800 in materials. Ordering an aluminum bracket might be cheaper and definitely easier but i prefer to do things myself.

[No grave but the Seacraft]

Hey FishStretcher. I appreciate all the feedback and questions/concerns. I think you can see it in some of the earlier pics and the one of the livewell looking aft. The box stringers that were cut were refilled with foam and glassed to the coosa Stringer/transom knees/outboard bracket. The last three feet of stringer where it meets the new coosa stringer received a third layer of 17OZ glass over the two the rest of the stringer got and the four layers that are holding the coosa stringers. Now that the livewell is in I plan to add one final layer to really sure things up and smooth everything out. This boat was already missing the in deck baitwell but I plan on keeping the hatch and gutter for bilge access and wet storage so I want it to be as clean and smooth as possible

[Thepistonhead]

Nice!!!!!

[No grave but the Seacraft]

It doesn't seem like it's been a month since I've updated this build thread but I guess it has. I finished rebuilding the front liner and have it resting in place ready for paint. The storage box has been raised and moved forward to allow for the raised stringers and new fishbox and the anchor locker has been modified to fit this new configuration. The rear edges will still need to be trimmed a bit to allow for the forward bulkhead. The bulkhead will span the width of the boat where fishbox meets the rear of the storage bin all the way to the top of the gunwales. Everything forward will be decked over. The bilge has been painted along with the area outside the box stringers. I don't plan on re-filling those voids with foam because I like the idea of possibly installing hatches for spear gun storage later on. I had always planned on using the old in-deck livewell hatch as bilge access but because I'm laying the new floor directly on the stringers, the old hatch gutters would not sit properly. This meant having to build a new hatch gutter insert. The new floor will be 3/4" honey comb but to avoid dealing with the exposed edges I went with scrap coosa for the gutters. These will then be glassed together before gluing in place. Then, I added new fuel vent and supply line and ran a piece of PVC pipe from the tank bulkhead to the livewell brace. Lastly, I opted to relocate the drain plug to the bottom of the bilge rather than out the transom. The reason being is that even with the trailer cranked all the way up there was still quit a bit of water remaining in the bilge. The water you see in the picture was still draining from the recent pollen cleansing. I will add a clamshell to the underside to redirect the water flow passed the drain.

[No grave but the Seacraft]

So Its been a fairly productive weekend. I was able to get the deck started and bow liner painted. Since this liner will be enclosed I decided to go cheap on the paint. I went with Rustoleum Topside paint. For the price it's not bad. The hard part was trying to color match the exterior gelcoat. The downside with the rustoleum is the few color choices. my gel coat is 1 part ultra white and 1 part ice blue. Apparently just adding a bit of royal blue to white paint will not get you there. I was able to get it surprisingly close by adding a slight amount of a different brand of key lime yellow I had from another project. I decided to roll it on because, again, it will be enclosed and out of sight, it was windy today and because it's just extremely awkward to move in and out of the boat by myself if I were to spray it. For the deck I cut the 3/4" nidaplast, set the new hatch gutter in place and fiberglassed the underside. I opted for the unfinished nidaplast because of the $200 price difference. I also added some Coosa reinforcements where the nidacore meets the hatch gutters front and back and gave it an extra 2 layers of 17oz biaxial glass. The pic shows the rear deck section in place but the topside has yet to be glassed. The underside of the second section is currently setting up. I'm debating if I should glass all of the sections together before gluing it down or doing it in sections. I would love some input. Lastly I cut out the old fishbox hatch gutter and prepared it for the new deck by removing the old coring material. Most of which was, not surprisingly, soggy. I will be filling the drain passages on the old hatch gutters because the new orientation won't really allow for proper drainage. I will likely just drill holes so the water drains into the fishbox.