This is my first 'noe, a 2006 Classic pushed by a 15 Merc 2smoke, and I’ve had it for about a year now.
She’s going to get the full on flyfishing treatment, to include:
raised and lengthened forward casting deck with hatch
false floor (will remove center seat)
rear casting deck
rear facing horizontal rod holders
LED courtesy lighting (blue) under the rubrails
poling platform (still undecided on exactly what to do here - custom aluminum work to go above and just forward of motor or just a shorty platform in front of motor)
tiller extension (carbon marine???)
possibly a sissy stick that would be removable from it’s base)
Sea deck/Hydroturf everywhere
A friend of mine made all the decks for me from patterns I provided him, so essentially I’m just cutting out what I don’t want and bonding the decks back down. I’ve never done any sort of work like this before, so it is a bit intimidating (and I’ll probably have a million questions).
looking good buddy what did you make the decks out of… Marine Ply? Let me know if you need any input / help… there are a few small things I would have done different when I decked mine. If your boat still has the metal rub rail its a good time to switch to the updated rubber ones. I got some Marine epoxy, filler and some Cloth left over from the drift boat build for cheap if you need it.
Working on it more this afternoon - the back deck has been dry-fit. Still need to do a little bit of shaping along the forward edges and bilge access areas so that I can get a good glassing there.
Also, I’ve my rod tubes and will be dry fitting them today. Shotgun style, so they are going in under the rear deck and will draw out from the front. No more standing up front on the casting deck and having to run to the back or hand the rod back to someone else to put it up.
The tubes are golf bag sleeves with a PVC fitting grommet for the bulkhead.
More pics soon.
A long long slow walk in the spartina gives you time to think big thoughts and put your mind back into order.
Jake, these decks were made for me by a friend from patterns I sent him. It is some type of composite corecell foam, vacuum bagged and glassed on both sides. Tough, lightweight stuff!
A long long slow walk in the spartina gives you time to think big thoughts and put your mind back into order.
Once the false floor is installed there won’t be enough room to slide a standard size 6 gallon tank under the rear deck, so I had to find a low profile one online. It was delivered yesterday and the dry fitting was successful. Rod tubes have been made and dry fit, almost ready to epoxy down the rear deck cap.
A long long slow walk in the spartina gives you time to think big thoughts and put your mind back into order.
Cool project. One suggestion. You need to grind off all that splatter paint and gelcoat down to bare fiberglass before epoxying and glassing down the decks. Don’t want to glue it to paint and gelcoat.
Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats
“Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made.” -Robert N. Rose
Looks like your weight is going to be neutral (not adding any more weight than you are removing). Excellent. As suggested, don’t epoxy to any top coat material (paint, gelcoat, etc…).
5 gallons of gas will fish that 15hp 2 banger ALL weekend long. Nice!!!
