Wow, great project. Grew up in Ft Lauderdale bouncing around on my cousin’s 13’ Whaler.
(The 40+ year old hull is sitting on his dock today looking sea-worthy.)
Hoping you’ve sourced a 33 hp Johnson 2-stroke to power it.
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That’s a good one KC ,we had a 33 evinrude on ours.Have you ever met captain Jeff Maggio down in Lauderdale ? He’s one funny sob,especially the older stuff.
I’m 90% sure I’m gonna hang one of the new lightweight Yamaha 25s on it. I had a Merc 25 4 stroke on it before and it was plenty fast. I don’t need to break any speed records but I do want reliability and I’ve done the 2 stroke oil mixing crap and … no thanks.
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Thanks for the updates. Coming along nicely 
great thread, subscribed!
Op, get the F25, you will absolutely never look back. electric start, the whole thing. Bro in law did earlier this year.
Talk to Mike at Skip’s about the best prop, but you better have a gear ratio and top speed in mind or it’ll be a longer conversation.
Last time I was at Skip’s I think it was a 2 hour conversation 
Sman, never met Capt Jeff. Johnsons and Evinrudes were supposedly the “reliable” engines back then.
Pretty stoked! Outside is done Turned out really nice IMHO. Those Alexseal products are simply amazing and a local product. Corporate HQ is on Clements Ferry rd and can be sourced at Hanckel Marine. If a clueless first timer like me can produce something like this, then anyone can! I highly recommend Boatworks Today on YouTube for a great resource also, as I pretty much did what Andy recommended on there.
Hull with three coats of Alexseal (recommended) Looks good but lots of orange peel - but it’s all part of the process.
More guide coat. We want to sand all this away, which will remove the orange peel but leave some paint. I went a little too far in a couple isolated spots.
The final product. In said thin spots I decided to add some paint to hide them, knowing it would show some orange peel in those spots after the final coat - and it does, but I’d rather have that than a discoloration showing through the paint.
Ain’t she purdy??
Gonna let her fully cure, probably buff and wax, then flip her back over.
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Dang, that little hull is pretty.
keep up the good work
You really did a great job. Nice slick looking hull will speed thru the water!
I have had the pleasure of fishing from Flatty many times. I’ve also had a front row seat for this project. Optiker is doing an amazing job and the pics don’t do it justice. I cant wait to slime up that pretty paint.
An update on the project after flipping the hull over. Hacking is underway
Removed a section of the floor to install a drain tube. The area behind the aluminum piece will be a couple storage hatches. First cut is stressful, because that’s when it truly becomes a resto-MOD. No turning back now…
Whalers have pretty thin skin. The floor layer of glass is about 1/8" thick or less.
Need room for my fuel cell up front, and this storage locker has always been pretty useless, so it’s got to go. Good news, is the foam is perfectly dry. I knew that already by weighing it but its good to see visible proof. It was interesting to see the voids in the foam from when they injected the expanding foam in the mold.
Heres the bulkhead glass. Came out in one piece.
Also cut out the drip gutter and cleaned up with the sander polisher. Coming along nicely.
I’m waiting for my core to come in, so I’m trying to do what I can in the meantime. Here I cut a hole for a thru hull fitting for my bilge drain.
Next steps will include making room for a bilge pump in the bottom of the bilge well, flattening the floor with expanding foam, embedding the drain tube in foam, and making the floor structures to hold the fuel cell and probably the trolling motor battery. I’m probably going to go with lithium for weight purposes. Hopefully receiving my core too.
That’s all for now!
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Man I know the feeling. Nothing was dry when I cut open the StumpNocker, so you got very fortunate! Love the pics and the updates. Its moving along nicely 
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Project Flatty Update
Front bulkhead installed. Here you can see where I cut the foam pretty much all the way down to the glass on the outer hull to make room for the fuel tank base. This platform was later supported by 2 part expanding foam.
Core fabricated structure to hold fuel tank and two batteries up front. All back filled with 2 part foam, sealed and glassed in now.
My approach to flattening the floor. I made a rib structure out of core, then cut core pieces and beveled the edges to fit flush to the flat part of the floor. I put a single layer of 10 oz on the bottom of these pieces for strength.
Then epoxied the core floor pieces to the original floor and ribs. Then cut entry and exit holes to pour 2 part foam in for back support. Once cured, I epoxied the hole cutouts back in. You can also see the back bulkhead in this pic
A rough idea of the rod holders to be installed.
I’m currently working on glassing the inside. All the corners and edges is messy and tedious work. Will post again when there is more interesting stuff to see. I’m working 2 to 3 hours a day on it after dinner.
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Man that’s professional grade work.
That is looking great. I may need to take on something like that when I retire.
Once I’m done with this project, I’m seriously considering selling my Sportsman then starting a new build of a Chris Morejohn skiff that will replace the bay boat. I’m just really enjoying the process. No need to wait till retirement, I’m doing this in my “free time” while working 3 jobs.
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Nice work @Optiker !!! I hope to do this one day too. How did you determine the angles for the beveled cuts and the inside 90 angles for the rod holders? They look really good.
Also I am assuming the electrical circuits for the front will be on the sides?
Pretty much kindergarten skills. Cardboard boxes and box knives TBH they don’t have to be perfect. Thickened epoxy takes care of any gaps.
Yes, there will be two PVC runs up underneath the side decks. One will be 2" diam for electrical cable runs, the other is 1" and will just be for the fuel line.