# Putting my 1991 31 foot Ocean Master on a SERIOUS diet!



## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well, here we go. Just got my new 28 footer in the water, if you didn't see that build, you can check that out here: http://www.2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthread.php?t=1520122

Next project is my 31 Ocean Master. This is the boat I started on down here, and this is the first boat I really started modifying, but since it was my only boat for my first 5 years here, I really couldn't take it apart and set it up like I want it because it paid the bills. But now with the new "Quepos 28" in the water, and the gamefisherman and my other 28 foot Apex fishing everyday, I finally get freed up and get to fix this boat like it needs to be done. Now before I start posting pictures of what we are going to this thing, I have to make a quick disclaimer for Ocean Master. This boat was built in 1991 and has been a great boat. Back when they built this thing, the trend was towards heavy boats, and they accomplished that. And although this boat was 100 percent water logged, it is 24 years old. When I first bought this boat, I called Ocean Master as I had to convert it to diesel to see any kind of billfish action, and they were SO SO helpful, even though I bought one of their relics and they didn't make any money off of me. Here's a picture of what we are starting with:










I love the lines on this boat. Its almost carolina style, although it's not cold molded, I really like the shear break.

Here's a picture of where I put the motor 7 years ago when I converted it to diesel:










And then some interior shots:










And here is why I hate plastic hatches. This one is just a year old:


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

So that was the good. The bad was this thing just keeps getting heavier. This last season it got spanked every trip out (199 to 1) by my gamefisherman. It was such a masacre, that this year I don't even want to fish it until we can lighten it up. The floor was 1 inch thick plywood, with several layers of fiberglass mat (I hate mat) over it. Super super super heavy, especially since this boat is made out of polyester resin, and 24 years means EVERY inch of plywood in this boat is rotten. Even stuff that was sealed, because of Osmosis and the fine pores in Polyester resin, all the wood is 100 percent rotten. Check out the floor:



















And then the parts that don't have wood are like an inch thick ?? Check out the thickness of the CENTER CONSOLE wall. I get it, they did thick heavy boats back then, but this center console easily weighed in around 800 pounds.










And then here are some de-construction pictures:




























And when we finally got the tower off and the console out, here's another side view:


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

And then here are some more destruction pictures! We are kind of doing a time lapse, this boat has been out about 2 months now, but I've been working on my 28 footer so I just go and beat on this one when the other one frustrates me. So here are the pictures of taking the floor out. The back part of the floor was a thick layer of glass:










and then a layer of mud that used to be wood, and then another layer of thick glass on top. The whole cockpit came out like this, we took the top layer off, and then washed the middle layer away with a water hose, and then removed the bottom layer of glass.

The front pieces were a bit more solid, like it was rotten wood not mud, but they were super heavy. A square yard piece took two people to lift up, and it was super heavy for both people.










We decided to take out the front floor in one piece, so first we cut the edges:



















and then we put 6 big guys to lift it out. But it was soo heavy that we would have had more luck trying to pick up my pickup truck. So we got out the big motor hoist and finally got it out.










And the floor was that heavy NOT including all the structure that was under the floor. Here is what we were left with after we used the big wench to get the floor out:


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Got the floor out. The black is a mix of a little bit of oil, and a lot of rotten putrified plywood.










Check out this piece of the floor up front. Completely sludge. This was all glass, the plywood had long since turned to mud, but you could see the glass took the shape of the knots in the ply, kind of like a fossil 










And then some more dissassembled photos:



















And some of the rotten crud we took out:










And then here's a story. So I bought this boat about 7-8 years back, and it had outboards. It didn't raise billfish on the troll at all, so I changed it over to a cummins. I had NO idea what I was doing, still don't , but one of the old timers told me I need 160 gallons minimum. Why a day charter fishing boat that burns 40-45 gallons of fuel would need 160 gallons is beyond me, but since I usually listen when the smart people speak, i combined the 2 side tanks with some aluminum and built what has to be the heaviest fuel tank on earth. After we built this out of aluminum using pieces of the factory tanks, we covered it in 5 layers of mat to stop the corrosion. Obviously, this is going in the garbage pile, and my new 60 gallon plastic tank is going to save a whopping 495 pound while DRY and another 700 pounds or so when full. That's over 1000 pounds just in fuel tank...

World's ugliest and heaviest fuel tank?









Also, the small plastic tank will give me the ability to ALWAYS top off my fuel tank every day. That means I won't get condensation in the tank at night when the air cools off, and my diesel will be much cleaner. All around win.


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## JCockrell (Dec 14, 2012)

*stoked!!*

AHH S***... I watched the whole other build, but this should be a good one... I got my popcorn and am tuned in... good Luck!!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

And then it was time to take out the weight that was left. I once talked with a very knowledgable boat builder that said the bottom of the boat is where you hit stuff and it needs to be thick. The sides just keep the water out. So with that in mind we decided to make the sides of the boat thinner.










Something to know about boats that were built back in the 90's, they used two molds to make them. They did the hull in a big mold, and then with this boat, they did another mold for the inside. So the walls of the boat are double layered, and are every bit as thick as the bottom. So we seperated the walls and took the inside wall out. There was actually enough glass that we took off of the side walls that we donated it to a local builder in the yard and he built a water taxi out of it, and it's big enough to hold a small car.

So after they made the outside mold and the inside mold, they used what I think is cement to stick the two together:










It looks like they used tile grout spreader to make the cement the same thickness, but they failed to get the inside skin to touch the outside skin, so you can still see the lines from the spreader. Knowing the two layers were seperated and not functioning together relieved any doubts that the inside skin is just extra weight.

The worst job in the entire world was grinding all that cement off of those walls. That was a full 60 hours of work with a 9 inch grinder and 16 grit sandpaper, but what a difference:

Before:










After:










And then of course the transom. 3 inches of rotten sludge. We got all the plywood out of it as well:










And here's an inside shot of all the cement dust on the floor after one of those days of grinding on the walls. We made a cloud that covered cars and kids for about a mile down wind:


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

JCockrell said:


> AHH S***... I watched the whole other build, but this should be a good one... I got my popcorn and am tuned in... good Luck!!


 I'm not much on taking breaks, me and Harold are back at it, and we're going to be bringing on a pair of good guys in 3 weeks to help us out, and I'm hoping to get this boat together really quick.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well, today has to be some kind of record for accomplishments on a build. Me and harold started early, like 5am early, and we raised up the stringers. I added 6 inches on the outside stringers and 7 inches on the inside stringers. I want the water to the sides and then run to the back. The original floor was very flat, and the water just kind of hung out, so we are adding a ton of angle to get rid of the deck water. Here's the stingers, we got them done by around 4pm:



















As you can see, I went ahead and started doing the bird cages as soon as the resin got sticky, and we got some of the bulkheads in. That is 1 inch corecell, I got a box of 20 




























While I was working on that, Harold was putting new intake and exhaust tubes on my Versatone two stage muffler. We had to modify this with elbows for the other boat, but now we are going to put this under the floor in between the stringers pretty much right here, but a little bit back:










Well, I kept going on making birdcages and cutting out foam and I got these bulkheads cut:










And then around 6pm, I was still working on this by myself, and two friends of mine that are restoring an old bertram showed up. I was over there the other day showing them the corecell and how it worked, and so they returned the favor tonight, and we stayed out there until 9pm and got the cabin wall birdcaged and cut and in place!!!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

I did something really sneaky which I think is going to save me a TON of time. I took all 20 sheets of corecell, and rented a warehouse about a month ago and had somebody just put a layer of glass on all 20 sheets. So now all we have to do is cut it, put it in place, and do 6 inches around the edge and be done! He did some of the sheets on both sides, like these that need to be straight, and on some of the other sheets, he only glassed one side, so when I put them in the boat they will still bend. And so we have all the bulkheads foam pieces glassed on both side, and all the floor and cabin pieces are already glassed on one side. We are going to fly through the build 

Tomorrow, we are going to sand 6 inches around all the joints, give them a nice 1 inch filet, and hopefully have all this glassed in tomorrow. We left the front wall high in the center because I want to put a 6 inch crown on the cabin roof. We didn't cut the border yet up front because I want to glass the bottom part in so we dont' loose the form of the boat. After this big wall is glassed in, I'm going to take the front border forward of the division out, so we can build the frame for the cabin roof. We'll also put the floor in the cabin tomorrow hopefully.


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## battleredtexan (May 6, 2012)

As with the other build, I'm anxiously following this one!

One question though, and excuse my ignorance....
You stated that you switched from outboards to a diesel because the boat wouldn't raise fish.
Why is that?
I assume it has something to do with the sound or vibration???


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## Whipray (Mar 12, 2007)

Thank goodness you've got another boat to work on...I was already having withdrawals from your last thread. I hope this one keeps me going through the winter, but at the rate you're going, you'll be done before Christmas!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Whipray said:


> Thank goodness you've got another boat to work on...I was already having withdrawals from your last thread. I hope this one keeps me going through the winter, but at the rate you're going, you'll be done before Christmas!


I wish, but I'm hoping for a February drop...we'll see how long the fairing takes, I'm going to pay anybody that wants to hold a sander...


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## Hou-Chap (Nov 10, 2004)

Oh heck yea, another one! Another spectator reporting for duty.

On a side note, I got itchy sitting here on the couch looking at the picture of the dude working around that fiberglass dust without a shirt on... Now that's hardcore.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Hou-Chap said:


> Oh heck yea, another one! Another spectator reporting for duty.
> 
> On a side note, I got itchy sitting here on the couch looking at the picture of the dude working around that fiberglass dust without a shirt on... Now that's hardcore.


That guy's name is Bernal and he's really really hardcore. One of the smartest guys I've met with hands on stuff. The first time I met him, he was welding some tubes together to make an axle for his car. He put a larger tube in the vise, and he put a small motor to spin his homemade axle in larger tube in the vice while he hit it with the grinder. Like a homemade lathe. I never thought it would work, but that was years ago, the car still works great, the dude is crazy!

On a side note, I have him build all my struts....


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## battleredtexan (May 6, 2012)

Hey Cpt. John, I really enjoy following your boat build threads.
It's very obvious that for you, it's a labor of love. (and/or money)
I posted this on the first page but I assume you didn't see it because you always answer everything.
I'm really curious , so I'll copy and paste it again....
_________

As with the other build, I'm anxiously following this one!

One question though, and excuse my ignorance....
You stated that you switched from outboards to a diesel because the boat wouldn't raise fish.
Why is that?
I assume it has something to do with the sound or vibration???


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## saltwatersensations (Aug 30, 2004)

Awesome!


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## O2BFSHN (Jul 25, 2013)

Love these build threads. The first one was great. Looking forward to this one too!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

battleredtexan said:


> As with the other build, I'm anxiously following this one!
> 
> One question though, and excuse my ignorance....
> You stated that you switched from outboards to a diesel because the boat wouldn't raise fish.
> ...


Yep. There are several things that outboards do really well, like go fast, very quiet for the people up top, great at bottom fishing, great at live bait fishing, but they suck at trolling. At least here, but I imagine everywhere.

Something about the straight un-muffled exhaust being right in front of the teasers and yelling in the fish's faces. I think, and again this is just me, but I think the fish like the commotion of the boat and the low rumble, so they go up and see what's going on. But as they get closer, those high frequencies and loud noises they just don't like. That's why diesels do better, because they have mufflers and are quiet, they produce more low frequencies, and they sit inside and the boat can muffle their higher frequencies.

A step up from just diesel is what we are doing to this boat. It is being built with all corecell core. That will help even further with high frequency reduction. And then I have one boat with a wood hull which is even better. My wood hulled boat beat this fiberglass boat 199 trips to 1 while fishing for bill fish, and on average beat it 3 to 1. Even when I switched crews. It was soo bad, that I couldn't stand it anymore and am not waiting until I finish this fishing season, which would have been financially much better for me to do, but I hate having one all glass boat that gets spanked everyday. So this was my last all glass boat, and with all the corecell, we are about to make it a fish raising beast!

Another interesting observation, when I had the outboard boats here, which I've had two, you get a lot less time to hook the fish. It's like they are in a hurry. They just look frantic. And we never saw doubles unless they were on the long long lines. On my gamefisherman, we have had fish on both teasers at the same time, and sometimes you'll see two bill fish fighting over the teaser when it's right next to the boat. Never saw many fish that would come right next to the outboards. Also on the wood gamefisherman, there have been times when we'll have fish follow us for a full minute when they aren't hungry and are just checking us out. I never saw that on the outboards either. Then this year I had to pull 4 bills out of the boat that were stuck in there from when sailfish ran into the boat, and that wouldn't happen with outboards. And I had a Marlin try to sink my gamefisherman, he ran full speed right into the back right at the hookup and the bill was in my bilge. Knocked a perfect 1 inch hole right through my nice wood hull. We had to stick a trash bag in the hole to keep fishing.

BUT today my all new 28 footer spanked the whole Quepos fleet (if you didn't follow my build, it's a super light corecell boat), so there are more factors, like lightness (which makes the motor quieter by pushing less weight) prop rate (number of blades on the prop, more reduces bubbles in the center) and hull shape (a good trolling hull is sharp up front, and flatter in the back so it doesn't make bubbles or slap the water while trolling)

that was the short answer  and ONLY APPLIES TO TROLLING. And all boats catch fish, my friend in a Sea Ray with gasoline motors just released a Marlin last week, but some release ALOT more.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Here's a two day report! Yesterday we really didn't cover any new ground, until late, we spent all day glassing everything in that we had rough cut the day and night before.



















Then last night we spent until about 9pm cutting the front border off. We couldn't cut it before because the boat would loose form, but after we got the back cabin wall tied into the hull and sides, that will hold the front nose in place. We also left an inch of glass on there to keep it a little more rigid. After we cut this, me and Harold tried to take it out, and it was too heavy for the two of us. We had to wait until this morning and it took 4 guys to get it over the front of the boat. Completely water logged.










Here's where the border slept last night as two people weren't even almost getting that thing over the side:










And then I got to show off my mad geometry skills that I learned on the Hull Truth website. A while back i saw this cool circle drawn on the side of one of the boats that an old timer was building and after a little bit of thinking figured out what he was doing!



















That's how you figure out the crown. And that's what we did today! We didn't get done, but we got the first and second jig forms done for the cabin roof, and got almost done with the 3rd until we broke off the last sawzall blade and had to stop for the night.




























We still have to cut down the first foam wall which will be our starting point. That will have 6 iches of crown, and then then next form is 22 inches closer to the nose and will have 5 inches and each form is 22 inches from the next and has one inch less crown and is one inch max height lower. Hopefully this will look cool when I'm done, we'll see. When we get the jigs built, we already have the foam ready to go in the warehouse with one side glassed and both sides cured. I'm not sure yet if I will have to cut each piece the width of the centers of the jig, or if I can use one foam piece for two jigs, we'll see how well it bends, but maybe tomorrow I'll have something stuck on the front ???


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## battleredtexan (May 6, 2012)

SailFishCostaRica said:


> Yep. There are several things that outboards do really well, like go fast, very quiet for the people up top, great at bottom fishing, great at live bait fishing, but they suck at trolling. At least here, but I imagine everywhere.
> 
> Something about the straight un-muffled exhaust being right in front of the teasers and yelling in the fish's faces. I think, and again this is just me, but I think the fish like the commotion of the boat and the low rumble, so they go up and see what's going on. But as they get closer, those high frequencies and loud noises they just don't like. That's why diesels do better, because they have mufflers and are quiet, they produce more low frequencies, and they sit inside and the boat can muffle their higher frequencies.
> 
> ...


Thank you sir for the fishing lesson....:brew2:
I've seen a lot of offshore boats for sale with the proclamation that "this boat consistently raises fish" or something similar but never thought much about the reasons why one boat would be better than another....

It's funny, fishing inshore for reds and trout, you want to be quiet and stealthy to not spook the fish, but on offshore charters that I've been on, it's the opposite with the deckhand often slapping the water with a gaff or paddle to bring fish to the boat.

Thanks again!
I'll be following....


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## Whipray (Mar 12, 2007)

did you get a chance to weigh the boat for a before and after?


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

battleredtexan said:


> Thank you sir for the fishing lesson....:brew2:
> I've seen a lot of offshore boats for sale with the proclamation that "this boat consistently raises fish" or something similar but never thought much about the reasons why one boat would be better than another....
> 
> It's funny, fishing inshore for reds and trout, you want to be quiet and stealthy to not spook the fish, but on offshore charters that I've been on, it's the opposite with the deckhand often slapping the water with a gaff or paddle to bring fish to the boat.
> ...


Yeah, I don't put much faith in seller's opinions of their stuff. There are 15 boats here for sale the "really raise fish", but out of those 15, 14 of those do just the opposite 

As for the slapping the water, there is a scientific term for that, i don't remember what it is. It's a learned response though, like when the Black fin tuna follow the shrimp boats. The charter guys always make that noise and then throw out food, and the fish come. Glad it works, but here is more like your red fishing.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Whipray said:


> did you get a chance to weigh the boat for a before and after?


There are no scales. To bad, that would have been fun..


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Still working, but I got these cool shots and thought I stick them up. Cabin forms are done, we'll have that thing sealed up in no time!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well, we got alot done, but didn't get many pictures, will take some more tomorrow. We got the floor in the cabin, glassed in and ready, and then we built two shelves in the cabin on each side. The one on the port side will have the air cleaner for the motor under it so we can keep the cabin air clean.

And then we got the top cut! This is not glued on, but I set it in place with a couple of screws so I could see what the cabin will look like. There is still a visor that we are going to build, so this isn't done yet, but I am really pleased with my arc!


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## SeaY'all (Jul 14, 2011)

I cant wait to see more. Amazing work!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Still no great pictures, but here is the under deck plumbing. You can see I built an air intake again, this time it'll use a short hose and connect right to the turbo, and then the other side of the hose is in the cabin to keep the cabin smelling fresh and maybe get an extra MPG


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

A little progress today. Today my second guy, not Harold but the other guy, had to do a quick job for big bucks, so it was my and Harold again  We went around and rounded and glassed the corners of the cab. This is a mid process shot, we smoothed it out after I took the pic.










And then we got the front part of the floor in. That isn't glassed on top, but it is glassed on bottom and we have it connected to the boat with cabosil and resin. Tomorrow we will glass that in and then Harold will cut the benches. I am waiting on my small fuel tank that is coming, and that is why we didn't close up the center. The big 4 inch wide stringers make it easy to stick stuff to, much different than the half inch bulkheads of my 28 footer. I went around and around about where to put the tank. I hate when boats have two tanks, because you have to switch tanks and then when ther is a fuel problem it's a nightmare. Than I thought about putting the tank behind the motor, but my 28 footer is front light, and I think this one will be too. The tank is a 50 gallon plastic tank, so it's not too heavy. The cabin up front probably weighs 100 pounds finished, so there is no other weight up front. We'll see.



















And here is one of the out takes. All those pretty circles in the picture were little pieces of glass that the camera flash lit up. My poor lungs...


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Oh, and I didn't explain this tube. i thought it would be fun to pipe the motor box air to the back of the boat with a blower. That way as long as you aren't down wind of the tail pipe, there will be no diesel smell if there is a small fuel leak or exhaust leak.









http://www.queposfishadventure.com/QueposUnderdeckb.jpg


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Got everything glassed up. Started with the front cap. We got one layer on a day ago to hold it in place, but we couldn't glass where all the supports were, so now we have that done










And we got it done. Two layers on top and two layers on bottom.



















And then we glassed in the two pieces of floor. These were just stuck down with cabosil before.










Now we are working on more floor and the benches up front. More pictures coming soon,


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Ok, the other pictures were from yesterday, here's today's progress. We got two more sections of floor down.










And then we started building the seats! This was the first attempt, but I don't like the square look.










So we decided to round off the corners. I love simple, but sometimes things look bad when they are too simple 



















That's as far as I got on the seats today, but we'll go after that hard Monday and maybe get one or both installed. The port side will have an ice chest, so we are going

around the inside with 2 inch divinycell H60 a friend gave me. It's double scored, so it'll make the bends easier than the solid corecell I'm using for everything else.

And then I took some shots from the nose of the boat. It's really starting to take form and look like a boat again, a couple of more weeks and we'll have most of the foam

work done and then start the never ending process of FAIRING!!!


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## V-Bottom (Jun 16, 2007)

I love looking at this thread.....


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

V-Bottom said:


> I love looking at this thread.....


Thanks. It's been kind of quiet, I'm glad somebody is watching! :dance:


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## battleredtexan (May 6, 2012)

SailFishCostaRica said:


> Thanks. It's been kind of quiet, I'm glad somebody is watching! :dance:


Always watching! :ac550:
Love to see some catch pics in "fishing and game reports" too...








http://2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/forumdisplay.php?f=8


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## cg_wilson2003 (Jun 2, 2011)

Enjoying it as well.


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## commtrd (Mar 18, 2006)

These build threads of yours are awesome! Yall are doing a fine job. Keep posting!


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## Redfish Chevy (Feb 6, 2011)

Haven't said much but followed the first boat and now this one. Awesome work brother! I wish I had the courage to take something like this on. Keep it up!


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## Dnlstvns (Jul 1, 2013)

Been following quietly, I have enjoyed both threads keep up the good work!


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## yellowskeeter (Jul 18, 2008)

Really nice!

www.g-spotservices.com


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

battleredtexan said:


> Always watching! :ac550:
> Love to see some catch pics in "fishing and game reports" too...
> 
> 
> ...


I need to. I'll probably start doing that more regularly when I get the boats done, it's a lot working on the boats all day, shooting the pics, and still keeping the other boats running. I've got some great pictures of some big snook coming in tonight hopefully, so I'll stick those up there when they come in!


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## gman1772 (Jul 15, 2012)

I can't wait to see the lines on this boat when she is done. The last one killed it. Only in Costa Rica could you do these. I know materials bring a premium price down there but labor is where you make it up. I couldn't imagine what it would cost to remanufacture a boat like that in the States.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

gman1772 said:


> I can't wait to see the lines on this boat when she is done. The last one killed it. Only in Costa Rica could you do these. I know materials bring a premium price down there but labor is where you make it up. I couldn't imagine what it would cost to remanufacture a boat like that in the States.


yes the labor helps. On the last one I did half of it myself, but this one I've got a bigger crew as we are already in the fishing season. It's fun, I spent years sitting up in the tower wishing I could redo this one, so I'm glad to finally have it apart and halfway back together!


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## marshmadness (Oct 22, 2007)

HA! I have actually fished off this boat during the â€œlow seasonâ€ next time I come it will sail season. But seriously good work and cool thread.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

marshmadness said:


> HA! I have actually fished off this boat during the â€œlow seasonâ€ next time I come it will sail season. But seriously good work and cool thread.


It will be a different boat, you'll have to try it out!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

It's getting better, I'm not sure I'm sold on it yet, but it's getting better than the square one...










I know it's not level yet. This is an in process shot.


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## Liquid Assets (Sep 8, 2015)

John, 
We are all watching. Can't wait to see the final product. 

I am headed down to CR for New years but staying on the Nicoya Penninsula (kinda far). I wish i could go fishing with you on Mucho Fisho II.

We plan on one trip on a big boat and then fishing some pangas for a few days. How well are the Mahi running.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Liquid Assets said:


> John,
> We are all watching. Can't wait to see the final product.
> 
> I am headed down to CR for New years but staying on the Nicoya Penninsula (kinda far). I wish i could go fishing with you on Mucho Fisho II.
> ...


Too bad, maybe next time!

Mahi have been big this year, but we haven't gotten the numbers that we see sometimes.

Good luck up north!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Ok, made some progress today, here's quite a few pictures of what we done.

We got the frame done for the port side bench. I've decided that since the battery goes under this one, and since I hate hatches, we are going to have the whole bench just sit over there with a frame on the inside, and then two small bumpers on the outside to hold it in place. That way I can get to the battery easily, and this is also where all the cables are going to go up top, so I like having the access. 









And then we got the starboard side glassed in as well. What you can't see, is the back half of this bench has 2.5 inches of foam all the way around it and on the bottom and it has a 2 inch division in the center. We are going to put a door in the top of this one and it's going to be an ice chest. I wish I had taken some pictures of the before we put the top on, but i didn't! 










We got some more supplies in today. Here is a bag of joy, as you can see on his face! This is the microspheres that we are going to mix with gelcoat to fair the boat. That is a bag of torture right there!










And then I almost did the whole redo in DivinyCell, but I went with CoreCell at the last minute as it's more expensive and that makes it better  But for the borders I will finally explore the world of foam outside of corecell, and I picked these sheets of from maverick yachys in Los Suenos. I have to kind of laugh, this year their only boat that had some corecell work on the top side beat all their other boats in the big OWC tournament. And they just imported around 200 sheets of foam core, and I saw a couple of their other tournament boats, including their famous Spanish Fly were getting the foam treatment! I have to point out we are in the middle of fishing season right now, so they too thought it was important enough to miss trips and money to do some foam core...I think they are on to something...it's not just me...










And then we finally got rid of the last plywood weight on the boat.










Holy c***, the border was HEAVY. I couldn't take that piece out of the boat by myself, and with me and Bernal (the guy in the pic) it was still heavy. That will go back in super light. And then we took off the rest of the borders as well










The original outside shell of the hull isn't too thick. I think we'll have a good strong lightweight boat when we are done. Not at all as thick as I thought it would be. But remember we already took out the inside mold.










And then where the border was connected to the hull, the fiberglass was waterlogged and I pulled it off by hand.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

It smelled terrible and there was this nasty brown liquid that smelled a little bit like fart and catalyst that leaked out as we pulled the seperated glass panels apart. You can see a little bit of the brown here:










And back to the positive, I really like how the transom crown and the cabin crown compliment each other.










And I think the boat is prettier without those heavy borders.










Tomorrow me and Mako will start on the new border and Harold and the homeless guys will start on the torture (sanding and fairing)!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Ok, we got alot done in the last two days. Yesterday we decided to start building the gunnel frame. One of my friends that you see in some of our night photos, came by and brought me out to see some gunnels he built out of foam on a different boat. His used a LOT less braces than we used on the 28. I jumped up and down on his border, and satisfied, we decided to go with less braces on this one as well. So this is a mid process shot on building the braces:










And we did both sides. We started by copying the hull onto the foam and then cutting it out the same width to make the inside rail of the gunnel, and then cut some foam piece for the connecting pieces and then glassed it all together. With that done quickly, we roughly cut some foam and stuck it to the top with cabosil and resin and right now it's screwed down, but the screws will come out. We put a 2 by 2 in the corner to screw everything together with and that will come out. The cuts on the top are all a little bit big, but since there is no glass, it'll be easy to fair up with a 3 foot board and 36 grit. We're going to do all the screw holes and any other filler before we glass it, so it'll be pretty solid. We have the whole thing glassed on the bottom already. This is what we have got so far:



















And with that drying, the guys wanted to cut the transom piece. I thought we should wait, but I was in the minority and I let the guys have their way. They are wanting to do the top part and use the tape measure and boards to hold it in place until it dries. I'm still waiting on the steering piston so we can't do the back floor yet, but once the floor is in, they finish out the live well. I'm sure they'll figure it out.










And then the tank also came in. This is where it goes:










We still have to build another sub floor for the tank so it gets 100 percent support on the bottom, so this is just a rough in. I have 3 inches of drop towards the pickup, and the vent is on the high side, so I think it should work out great. Tomorrow we are going to sand the borders and fair them up and then glass the borders on top, hopefully. Then Saturday we should paint the boat and I plan on fishing it Sunday


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Oh yeah, and I bought a fighting chair! This is a scopinich. We will probably have to redo it, and depending on where I am at time wise, I might change the backrest to natural teak boards, but this will be a great addition to the boat!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well, today we mostly cleaned up the loose ends from yesterday, but hereâ€™s a pair of pictures. This is a picture of the rough cut foam where the fuel tank sits. I didnâ€™t want it sitting on the hull because I wanted the bilge to be free flowing, so I raised it up 3 inches in the back and 6 inches in the front from the floor, and then we built this cradle for it to sit in. We got this all finished with glass before we put the tank in for the final time and the tank is in there really snug. We then put a good filet of thickened resin around the tank so that it can't vibrate and wear any holes. It is in there very solid now, but here's the shot before we put the tank in so you can see what it sits on.










And then we got out the sandpaper and cleaned up the gunnels that were very rough when we finished yesterday. Tomorrow the gunnels will be glassed in by noon, today it was mostly just sanding and cutting and shaping all day. We have the gunnel completely built now all the way around, including the transom, and all glassed in on the bottom. We also sanded down 6 inches onto the outside of the full to tie it in to the hull, tomorrow this'll be done!


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## ChampT22 (Mar 7, 2011)

I know nothing of how boats are made, so I hope this is not a stupid question. If all the material you removed from the boat was rotted and water logged, how is it that the hull is not in the same condition. Is it because it does not have wood in it?


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

ChampT22 said:


> I know nothing of how boats are made, so I hope this is not a stupid question. If all the material you removed from the boat was rotted and water logged, how is it that the hull is not in the same condition. Is it because it does not have wood in it?


Yep. The hull is solid glass, and the hull did have lots of bad spots in it as well, but we fixed those before we started fishing the boat 7 years ago. The wood is the problem up top though, it just starts holding water and gets really heavy.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Ok, I missed a couple of days of pictures. Let's see where I left off.

So, here is a couple of shots of the gunnels after we faired them and then glassed them on top. It's so easy to write that, but it was hours or sanding to make sure the outside edge of the boat is straight. There were some areas that needed quite a bit of fairing, so I wanted all that under the glass, so now we don't have nearly as much to fair out on top and it'll be strong and won't chip off. We gave it a slight rake to the outside, that was on purpose, but I'm not sure if that's the norm. Last time we made them straight across, but I thought this would be cool to give it a half inch incline towards the outside ???



















And those were from last night, or maybe the night before, I'm not sure. It's been just a ton of little things, like we glassed the whole gunnel underneath, and we have been laying on our backs sanding the underside of it for what seems like forever. And then we built a place for the rope in the cabin, and we made a mold for access hatches in the deck, and also the ice chest. The corecell hatches were very cool, but the fairing was impossible on the other boat. So we are just going to do glass hatches and jams, and add the foam to the middle back of the hatch itself after it's put together to stiffen it. Anyways, here is the floor that will go over the fuel tank with the door jam that came out of the mold we just made. This is glassed in on the other side, and then when we glass the top of the foam we'll tie this in better. This will make for less fairing, we lost a week on the other corecell hatches, and they still weren't perfect.










And then the big job. We started on the bridge wing, which I like to call the visor because that's what they call it in spanish. We started by finding the angles we were looking for. That meant going over to a friends boat in the marina and measuring everything and drawing pictures etc. Once we figured out the angles I wanted, we stuck some foam carefully to the top of the boat. Like carefully as in two days worth of tinkering just to have it sitting in place with thickened resin.



















And then after we got most of the angles right, and again don't try to get me to explain it because we just moved stuff around and kept looking at it, we went ahead and made the ROUGH cut tonight! The front crown I copied straight off of the cabin below it. We still need to long board the top of it until it's perfect, but we did make some progress.





































We might have the "visor" glassed tomorrow, don't know we'll have to see. We still have to pop out several hatches with the mold we made, and we need to put the floor over the fuel tank, and we're working on the "visor" at the same time, so it's several projects. That's good though, because we set one up, and while it's drying, we jump over to the next one. We have a guy working with us now that all he does is get materials ready for harold, so we can keep up the pace. And somebody PM's me about the square cuts in the hull. Those are NOT going to be there when we are done. More photos soon!


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## Hou-Chap (Nov 10, 2004)

Coming together, and looking really cool!


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## yellowskeeter (Jul 18, 2008)

Really cool build! Thanks for sharing

www.g-spotservices.com


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## JFolm (Apr 22, 2012)

Looks great so far!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

We couldn't sand the top of the visor too much because it was just glued on at the bottom, so today we decided to glass the whole thing except the top three inches. So it's hard now, but we still haven't had a chance to clean it up yet. And then we got the floor over the gas tank put in. I was a bit worried about the floor, I didn't want water to sit in the middle so I gave the middle section a half inch of crown, but you can't really see it. I think it'll work out perfect.










And then I tried to get a good picture of the visor in the daylight, but there's a boat next to mine so it's hard to get a good side view! There is still a low spot on the left and a high spot on the left, but we'll get it quick when we get a chance.


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## MesquiteThorn (Oct 13, 2010)

Look great 1

Yep -- two kinds of people: 

1. Those that like to fish, AND

2. Those that like to rebuild boats.

They are mutually exclusive during the rebuild! 

I am a rebuilder too.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

MesquiteThorn said:


> Look great 1
> 
> Yep -- two kinds of people:
> 
> ...


I enjoy both. But the time in the shop is how you have good days of fishing out there afterwards, so the more we do and spend now, the more fun and less stressful the fishing will be.

Charter fishing is so much fun when the fish bite or when you get people on fish they have never caught before, or when you get a kid their first big fish, BUT when the bite slows down it gets super stressful... And better boats make for less stressful days.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Just seems to be a whole lot of little things. We got another piece of floor in the back done. The very last piece we added a lot of crown to, so it'll drain fast. We have a 1 inch crown 2 feet from the transom and then that goes to a 2 inch crown in those last two feet. Normally that would be too much, but the middle is going to be a live well for 18 inches, so you won't walk on the crown, it's just for the very last of the deck water management.










To get the crown right, we added some foam on top of the stringers in the back.










You can also see in that picture above we are just starting to build the stainless support that we use to hold the steering piston and the top of the rudder. We have this same system on the other 3 boats and I really like it because when you are done, there is NO play in the rudder, which helps the fishing. Stray noises are the enemy of good fishing boats, the foam will help with some of the noises, but it's always better to start with less noises.

Here's a shot of the holes in the transom. We couldn't make them 100% even because of the stringer on the inside, but this will be glued in with thickened resin on the inside, has 6 bolts and then we'll put a layer of glass over the support on the inside as well so there is 0 movemment.










And then we put in another one of the deck hatches. This one is where the life vests will go. The square on the right is nothing, that is where they set down a piece of plywood that had compound on it. There will be another hatch that will go to the right of this one, and that will be to the ice chest, but it's going to be in line with this one. It's drying right now, we have it in the mold.










And then we are finally getting rid of those ugly square vents in the side of the boat. I put those in a long time ago and first put in SS chrome vents, but they started rusting and then I put in plastic vents and they broke. So now, I'm taking those out all together and I'm going to do a small oval in the back by the tail pipe and I'm going to use a squirrel cage blower to vent the motor by the tailpipe. I always am worried about keeping the boat upwind from the tailpipe, and when there is a motor breather on the side of the boat, i always try to keep the customers up wind of that as well. With the tailpipe and the motor breather on the same side of the boat in the back, that'll be alot easier to make sure everybody is breathing fresh air.










And then all the bridge wings here have a part on top where they are thicker. It looks funny now because of the different colors, but when it's all the same color, you won't notice. I don't know if I like it better this way, and if when we gelcoat it, if I don't like it I'll grind it back off. The thicker top gives it alot more strength, I just don't know if it needs it. We'll see


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well, not too many interesting pictures, we have a 4 man sanding crew running now full time, and then me and Harold are slowing finshing the rest of the building part.

We finished the hole on the right to be the ice chest, with 2 inch diviny cell all the way around, but then I decided it was too small so we went back in and made the hole on the left 2 inch diviny cell as well. So now we have a huge ice chest! This is a picture before it was faired, it's white now and actually pretty close to being ready to gelcoat. Today was very productive.










We changed up the plan here as well. The top part I'm going to put hinges on so it lifts up and then stays in place with a spring. And then we'll have double doors in the front:










Got the section of floor down behind the motor. I wasn't sure how to do this with the fighting chair, so I put 4 layers of 1708 on the top and bottom of the floor, and then we built a big aluminum washer for the bottom of the chair mount and then we will through bolt it. There is a hatch in the floor right in front of where the chair goes, but the pictures can't keep up with production 










And on the above picture I don't know if you can make it out but there is a 1 inch crown in the back that came out very nice. The last section will go to 2 inches, but the live well will be in the middle so you don't walk on the more extreme crown.

And then this is the gunnel in the back. It's getting pretty fair. We actually made another pass after this picture was taken










And then here are some outside of the boat shots. We've have made a pair of passes after these photos as well.




























We're getting closer. Going to take off the first, I might go out there to shoot some pictures, and then on the 2nd we're going to hit it hard some more!


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## 2ltl2lt (Mar 7, 2011)

I have enjoyed this build as well as the last!! It has me wondering if it would be possible to build a Texas Scooter type boat entirely out of Corecell? Would it be possible to do , strong enough, and be worth the extra money?


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## jorgepease (Apr 14, 2011)

2ltl2lt said:


> I have enjoyed this build as well as the last!! It has me wondering if it would be possible to build a Texas Scooter type boat entirely out of Corecell? Would it be possible to do , strong enough, and be worth the extra money?


I built one completely out of corecell, vacuum infused with epoxy and coosa for select areas. Extremely light, barely drafts enough to sink the tunnel, I'v taken it through little less than 2 inches with no problem, reason I know is my strakes are 1.75 in deep and the paint got rubbed off ))

Corecell is great stuff, Im a believer!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Definitely would work, and it would be pretty easy. Just make sure you have a good table or flat place to work. Vacuum infused is cooler than what we're doing, but it drives the cost up alot, but you get better parts. It might be worth looking into though if you are thinking about doing something that is going to bang on the water. i haven't done any below water line stuff, I only do the bulkheads and decks and stuff that won't slam millions of times on the water, so I don't need to vacuum anything. If you are doing hulls, I think the epoxy and vacuum might be necessary so it doesn't de laminate. You could also look into a company called VectorPly that sells a 1200 biaxial that is part kevlar and part glass. It would make a huge difference if you hit something.

I would love to see some pictures of the corecell scooter if you have some!


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## jorgepease (Apr 14, 2011)

Not a great pic but here is one. She is way too light for a flat bottom, runs best when I have at least 400 lbs extra weight on her. I agree on the vacuum for the hull, it makes for a little piece of mind every time you slam into a wave lol.










I'v been following this thread and your other boat as well, I can just imagine the difference in performance from shedding so much weight! Can't wait to see her out on the water.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

jorgepease said:


> Not a great pic but here is one. She is way too light for a flat bottom, runs best when I have at least 400 lbs extra weight on her. I agree on the vacuum for the hull, it makes for a little piece of mind every time you slam into a wave lol.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


115hp! Wow, I bet that thing would move with a 9.9hp, 115hp is crazy.  How fast does that thing go?

Just for comparison, there is a boat here that is not mine, but it much much much much bigger and probably 50 times heavier that uses a 140hp motor:


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## jorgepease (Apr 14, 2011)

Yeah I know it seems like a lot but she is 22' x 8', flat bottom with a tunnel so even though she only weighs about 1200 lbs including motor lots of drag). 

Also the prop is double cupped, that drops rpms quite a bit, 16 pitch is most I run with her and that gets me to about 35-37 mph gps which is as fast as I would want to go in this thing.

The good thing though is I can run her all day in 3" hard bottom without rubbing the strakes or skeg and that lets me cut out a lot of wasted meandering and gas to get to my favorite destinations in the keys back country.

I like the panga style boat in that pic, I bet she books pretty good with that 140. I am contemplating a corecell version of one of those a cat or carolina style, need something for offshore. I believe you can get some really nice benefits with corecell on a 26'-27', so darn light!!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

jorgepease said:


> Yeah I know it seems like a lot but she is 22' x 8', flat bottom with a tunnel so even though she only weighs about 1200 lbs including motor lots of drag).
> 
> Also the prop is double cupped, that drops rpms quite a bit, 16 pitch is most I run with her and that gets me to about 35-37 mph gps which is as fast as I would want to go in this thing.
> 
> ...


It does make a lot of difference, and don't know if you saw my last build on the 28 footer, but that is exactly what i did and it turned out pretty good. I still have to redo the tunnel on the other boat, but right now it's out there fishing and paying for this rebuild :dance:

Here's the other build link if you didn't see it:
http://www.2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthread.php?t=1520122


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

The guys partied hard on the 31st, and it looks like production is stopped until Monday...we've been moving fast though, so I'm glad they had fun. I went to bed at 8pm on the 31st, I must be getting old...


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Mostly we have been sanding and resanding and resanding. So that doesn't make for very good pictures. But, in addtion to sanding ALOT, we have done a little building. Harold installed some tuna tubes:



















They aren't done yet, but that are where they go, and they are stuck on there!

Then we put the rim around where the motor box goes.










And we built the motor breather where we are going to expel the motor box air. This is very unorthodox, but i piped the air back there to get it next to the tailpipe so it's easier not to get downwind of fumes.










And then we put in the speaker boxes. One on each side. Going with 6.5 fusion speakers. I put them under so they don't get wet and so you don't see them as much.










And then here's the ice chest with the hatches installed










And a quick inside shot










Like I said, nothing super exciting, but these are the details that take TIME. Tomorrow we are adding four more guys to sand, we lost two last week, so we need some new ones! I want to get through this fairing stage quickly, but it's a big boat with lots of sanding needed..


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## Dnlstvns (Jul 1, 2013)

Looking good! This might be a dumb question but are you putting in a center console or is this gonna be like an express style boat?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Where'dMyBaitGo (Feb 15, 2015)

Just started reading this thread.
Subscribed.
Great work, this project is coming together fast. 

Getting popcorn.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Dnlstvns said:


> Looking good! This might be a dumb question but are you putting in a center console or is this gonna be like an express style boat?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


No center console on this one, just a motor box in the center for people to sit on, the benches on the side, a chair in the back and then the bathroom goes up front in the cabin.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well, i shot some pictures today, even if there wasn't much to show. We got the tuna tubes faired up and then built a little border to keep the water out of the boat.










And then we got the rudder holder welded up, and put together. Here's a mid process shot:










And here is a fairing shot of the inside. That's a big ice chest! 










And then here are some outside of the boat shots. Might GelCoat Saturday or Monday



















We are going to do a lot of things tomorrow that are picture worthy, I'll shoot some more pics hopefully.


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## Hou-Chap (Nov 10, 2004)

Coming together nicely!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

We got the gunnel ready put in the rod holders yesterday. Working with foam is much different than anything else, but you can't just bolt stuff down to it. Some of my friends called me yesterday to go over and look at a VERY expensive boat, that is a very high end, well known builder, that I won't mention here because they are awesome. My friends got the job of redoing the hull in the back where the rudder goes through because they pulverized all the corecell with an inproperly mounted rudder. We got to chit chat about how to fix it, I felt important  I'm talking a 50-60 footer, several million dollar boat, so if they make mistakes, it makes me feel better about mine. I bet if the owner had called the builder, the builder would have come out to fix it, but he didn't he called some of my people! 

Anyways, this is how we mount stuff to foam cored areas. First we take our super high tech tool, in this case a pair of vise grips and a bent sharpened piece of metal. We made it about 1.5 inches long after the bend, because that is how much foam we are going to remove.










Then we drilled the holes where the rod holders are going to go. And used our super high end tool to take out the foam core for as far as our tool would reach.










You can see the foam on the deck here:










Then we take 1708, and cut it into 1 inch squares so the fiber lengths are 1 inch. We mix that into resin, and then mix in some cabosil (silica) until we get this:










Harold likes mixing stuff, he looks happy.

Then we fill in all the holes, and take our time so we get it 100 percent filled with no air bubbles:










And then here is the finished product This is actually where the rope holder goes through, but you get the idea.










That way when you smash down the bolts (we always use nylon insert nuts and bolts on everything, no screws) you don't smash the foam, it sits on this super hard mix and the holes are all in solid material with no core. This is how I would install thru hulls as well in foam cored boats, or transducers, or just about anything. This is how we will do the screws that will hold on the fighting chair.

No Gelcoat yet. We took the crew out fishing today, hot tuna bite so I thought the guys would enjoy using one of the toys they built me. We'll start back up Monday, maybe GelCoat on Tuesday?


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

It's really starting to take shape now. I was sitting up on the point today imagining water behind the boat. We had a problem with another boat, so we put the crew on the other boat and will probably not paint until the end of the week, but it's still almost done.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well, we finally got the hull painted! We will probably Gel Coat the rest of the boat on Tuesday, we finally got the divinycell in for the last piece of the floor and the live well, so Monday we'll put that in and then hopefully tuesday or wednesday finish up the interior paint. Here's way too many pictures!



























































































We still have a lot of polishing to do. We will do the whole boat with 320 on the orbital, then 400, then 600, then 1000 and then we will hit it with some buffing compound, but that's just going to take a couple of days and this thing will have the mirror finish!


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## Friendswoodmatt (Feb 22, 2005)

When are you splashing her? Feb 4 maybe? 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk


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## ctcrop (Jan 5, 2012)

Another awesome build. I really enjoy your work!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Sorry, we've been super busy trying to get this thing floating. We have trips scheduled 100% full from the 15 of February to May, and I don't know if we are going to be ready, so I've been working days and nights trying to put her together!!! We got the outside painted and 400 gritted. We still have to do the 600 and 1000 so it's not shiny yet, but it's flat at least 




























We got all the live well and tuna tubes put together. They picture is a couple of days old, we have the door in the top of the live well now, and it is faired and we'll be painting tomorrow.










I thought this was the easiest way to get the water out of the live well. In our last boat, we made the holes too big and the sardines escape through the holes, so in this one, we made more holes and they are 3/4 inch. I put one at the bottom as well so when we turn the pump off the water will empty on it's own. I think I'll have a timer on the pump though, so we'll stick a little piece of bag in the bottom hole if I go that route. The holes on the top are the upper limit, the bigger hole on the right (not the tailpipe) is the rear bilge.










And then today we were welding in the motor supports, like the ones that go on the engine. This is not the motor we are going to use, it's at the machine shop right now getting sleeves, but this is a parts motor so we can weld up the part of the motor support that bolts to the engine. We also put in the driveshaft, guides and rudder today.










We should have all the inside walls painted tomorow and then I'm going to assemble this thing is fast forward and get it out FISHING!!!!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Friendswoodmatt said:


> When are you splashing her? Feb 4 maybe?
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk


Ha I wish you guys could try her out. We'll have it ready for you guys next time for sure!


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## JLJ1981 (Nov 7, 2014)

Looking good Captain John.

I hope I get to see her in the water February 19th-20th.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well, nothing like doing mechanic work with a paint respirator on! Had two crews going today, one building motor supports and the other spraying the interior gelcoat! Super happy with how the interior turned out, the lines aren't perfect, but it's light and I like the new look!

I really like the way the tubes came out. Nice clean install, and everything except the tubes themselves are corecell with a single 1708, so all that is very light and strong.





































We also got the bridge wing on top gelcoated, so now we're really close!



















And this is my friend Bernal helping cut some heavy metal to build the motor supports. We are going with the big Barry Control rubber, but we are building the part that bolts onto the engine.










And this might be the easiest engine layup ever for working on a motor. A TON of room, all the way around. Under the floor, I have another foot to as well in the front and back, so we can fix anything with the motor right where it is. Make for more days fishing and less days working on something. Should have a couple of trouble free years though, I am picking up my newly sleeved block Tuesday to put all new pistons and rings and bearing and turbo and this thing will have a new motor to go along with it's huge weight cut! We are going with a 330hp B series Cummins.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Pretty productive day, the type of day we needed if we want to be fishing in two weeks. We started with just everybody grabbing a sander and hitting the gunnels with 400/600/1000.










Then we pulled the boat out from under the shade and put the tower on!!! 



















That was a lot more labor intensive than it seemed. We put the tower where it was going to go, marked it, and then hole sawed the top skin and foam, leaving the bottom glass. We then took out 2 inches of foam core (I'm talking about the gunnel where the tower sits) and filled it with the silica/chopped glass/resin mix. When that hardened, we grinded it down flat, drilled the holes where the tower goes, put some 5200 and bolted it down! Completely finished with the tower mounting today.

Then with that done, a couple of guys grabbed sanders and kept polishing the boat, and Harold and another guy started on the motor box top. We are out of money and material, so we had to use some pieces for the side, but that won't affect the final product and it'll still be strong and light. But it does take alot more time.



















And then I layed out the upper (and only) station and tomorrow we'll get that put together.










Going to hit it hard again tomorrow and we'll see where we get. I know Bernal is coming out to mount the rod holders tomorrow. I wish I could have bought new ones, but budget meant I had to use the old ones. That'll be my project for next year


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## JPerkster (Sep 3, 2010)

That's a beautiful boat. I love watching your updates.

The only thing better would be if I were down there helping you out!


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## ChampT22 (Mar 7, 2011)

Thanks for all the pictures. I know it's just more work and we appreciate it.


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## Hou-Chap (Nov 10, 2004)

Great progress Capt. John! Like everyone else, love the updates. Your buddy Bernal rocking the gas ax in flip flops LOL!


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## jorgepease (Apr 14, 2011)

Looking good!!!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Hou-Chap said:


> Great progress Capt. John! Like everyone else, love the updates. Your buddy Bernal rocking the gas ax in flip flops LOL!


Bernal is a soldier. I always tease the guys that I'm going to buy them boots, but if I did nobody would wear them. Harold walks around 90 percent of the time with no shoes, it's just the culture or something...


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## bigfishtx (Jul 17, 2007)

Interested in the machinery Capt. What gear are you using? 2/1? 2.5/1? What dia wheel?

That 330 cummins is sweet, you will not use much fuel.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

bigfishtx said:


> Interested in the machinery Capt. What gear are you using? 2/1? 2.5/1? What dia wheel?
> 
> That 330 cummins is sweet, you will not use much fuel.


ZF 220a 1.5 to 1. Not sure on the prop, but somewhere in the 20 by 21 range. We'll have to see how it runs after I took out all the weight. There is a great prop shop here, one of the best, so we will play with that once we get it running, hopefully the end of next week!!!! :dance:


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## lapesca67 (Apr 9, 2008)

Time for an update.....feed the bear!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well, not too much to show, the boat is getting really close. We built the top that will cover the motor. And have that gel coated. We have all the steering installed, all the cables and wiring installed. We just got the bottom paint in, and weâ€™ll probably float the boat tomorrow to mark the line to paint the bottom. Had a small holdup with the pistons for the motor that Iâ€™m building for this thing, probably have that done by early next week and we should be fishing next week as well. Itâ€™s going to be tight, weâ€™ll see when we get her wet. Iâ€™ll post some pictures of the first run and probably some video so everybody can celebrate with me. Iâ€™m worn out and need some time out fishing nowâ€¦

Hereâ€™s the motor box. Weighs about 10 pounds, which is very light for itâ€™s size. If I had more money, I would have done it with Carbon Fiber and corecell, but the way it is I used 1708 glass, just one layer, and then the 1 inch corecell.










And then I was in for a big surprise when the seat I bought off of eBay came in. Itâ€™s 100 percent rotten on the base. So I had to dig out all the old rotten plywood, and we were careful not to damage the outside shell, which was glass, and then we just replaced the wood with epoxied local light weight wood. Kind of cool I got to save a little more weight, hereâ€™s the seat base after we redid it and sprayed it with Gelcoat. All the arms look good, it was just the bottom,


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## DonChuy (Jul 17, 2012)

awesome thread. tuned in


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## Whipray (Mar 12, 2007)

I need a fix!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well, i miserably missed my deadline, but it looks like today is the day. We got her started up yesterday on the trailer, forward and reverse work, and then finally my gauge panel with alarms came in this morning. I promised myself I wouldn't put it in the water without alarms, as I had a boat burn up an engine a couple of months back, so we have been held up for that. Here's a pictures of the gauge panel I just got in from Sea Board marine, and then in the same shipment I got a nice Furuno Sonar.



















And then here are some more pictures. We put it in the water last week to paint the bottom and it floated only a half inch from the corners in the back, full fuel. I don't know how high it floated before, I wish I had measured that, but it was at least 4-5 inches deep in the same spot.


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## Dnlstvns (Jul 1, 2013)

Looks great! Can't wait to see some running videos.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

This is just wrong:










Still have the tranny problem. I found a nice one I'm picking up tomorrow and we're going to get this thing moving soon. It does float though!


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## JKD (May 30, 2009)

Love the lines, glad to see it with water under it again.


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## DonChuy (Jul 17, 2012)

That is too cool. Hard work pays off


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## Boats Etc. (Jan 22, 2015)

This is too cool! Keep up the good work. Following along!


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## saltaholic (Feb 19, 2005)

Wow!! Mad skills


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## huntnetime (Jul 23, 2004)

That is one Good Looking Boat!!! Wow...I have an old Mako 22 that I want to rebuild someday. You give me inspiration...


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

huntnetime said:


> That is one Good Looking Boat!!! Wow...I have an old Mako 22 that I want to rebuild someday. You give me inspiration...


When you do it, make sure you post pictures!


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## Stuart (May 21, 2004)

I've read most of the thread. When you say you put it on a diet, do you have before and after weight? Btw, heck of a project and I like the finished product.


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## JLJ1981 (Nov 7, 2014)

Nice work Capt. John!

You looked mentally fried 2/19 at the dock. I think you said you were working 15 hours on your boat the day/night before.

Maybe your next project can be another inshore boat to add to the fleet. :wink:

Hope to get down there again in the near future.

-Jonathan


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Got some cool pics today after they got back in from fishing.










I got some video as well, but when I got back to the dock the captain said he was running only 15 knots. I don't think he understood the point of the shoot! But you can see it runs very flat, it comes out more at 20 knots, i might have to go shoot some more pictures... I got video too, I'm editing that now.


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## DonChuy (Jul 17, 2012)

That's seriously awesome. Very jealous of the skill and patience it takes.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

JLJ1981 said:


> Nice work Capt. John!
> 
> You looked mentally fried 2/19 at the dock. I think you said you were working 15 hours on your boat the day/night before.
> 
> ...


Yep. It's time for me to spend some time on the water and clear my head. The last part is always the toughest, I spent most of February walking around in a coma. I'm not sure when the next project will be, I'm worn out. It was fun, but so is catching big fish, so I'm all about the relaxing now!


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## yellowskeeter (Jul 18, 2008)

NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

www.g-spotservices.com


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## ChampT22 (Mar 7, 2011)

All that white side of the boat looks like a good place for a fish painting.


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

ChampT22 said:


> All that white side of the boat looks like a good place for a fish painting.


Yes sir, one day I'm going to do something cool, don't know what, but something. BUT, right now we are going to fish!  :dance:


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Wow, I have had a lot of people PM'ing me asking what is the cheapest way to get here. I just had some customers come out from Houston with Southwest airlines and it was only 250 dollars ROUND TRIP from Houston. That's pretty cheap... :dance:


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## BullyARed (Jun 19, 2010)

Awsome!!! Magnificient job!!!!


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## SailFishCostaRica (Jan 7, 2010)

Well, I have arrived again at crazy, and my skin has been not itchy for about a year. Gotta do another one, what am i thinking 

This time we are going to try to copy a 31 Bertram. I have always felt they are like the 69 camaro of boats. The first deep V hull that could run well, and all the fixed up ones I see here raise fish. Going to change nothing at all on the appearance, but we are going to make all the bottom out of 1708 glass and vinylester, and the top will be all divinycell Cored. It'll be one piece, look just like the original, but lighter, harder, faster and hopefully better at raising fish. Going to be a fun project. Anyways, it has begun, slowly, here is the new thread:

http://2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthread.php?p=20696849#post20696849

and Lord willing, here is what it's going to look like in about a year!


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## Trouthunter (Dec 18, 1998)

You sure did a great job on that boat. Fantastic and I really appreciate the hard work you put into it.

TH


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## Boats Etc. (Jan 22, 2015)

Sold!


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