New V-20 project

[Curapa]

Thanks to this website I have aquired a new project boat. After I sold my 18' Fisherman I posted a thread looking for ideas concerning a V-20 bracket build. Last week I recieved a call from a young man that had a closed transom V, he saw my thread and offered the boat to me for free. I met with him today and negotioated $500 for the tandem axle trailer it sits on that needs a bit of work.

The transom is shot and the deck is too. No worries, I planned on having to close in a notched transom and raising the deck as well. It is a factory closed transom so that saves me the work of closing the top cap.

I don't have many pics yet as I have not picked up the boat yet but here are a few. She's rough but I see potential.

[phatdaddy]

i'm guessing that was a seadrive originally? nice find. way to save one from the landfill.

[Curapa]

Yeah, it was a seadrive. It's definitely landfill material for most people.

[bradford]

Sweet, I love bracket center console models. Have you seen "On the Fly's"?

[Hedge]

wow, what a sweet deal

[Curapa]

I got everything I need to repair the trailer and should get it to the house this weekend if this rain will let up.

I am starting to get crazy ideas like a built in custom fiberglass bracket like the Wellcraft Nova on Sreamandfly...

I will make that decision when I get it to the house and check out the condition of the stringers.

[the daydreamer]

Were can i see on the flys cc?

[Curapa]

Daydreamer, check out the Gallery section.

[Curapa]

I started the project a couple of days ago. I pulled the tank which still had about 30 gallons in it. The inside looks great and the outside had some minor pitting in a few areas. It would be nice to just buy a new tank but I believe this one has more than a few years left and with a baby due next month I can't afford to kill the budget the first day.

I cleaned the tank with my grinder and wire wheel and gave it a good bath paying special attention to any areas that had pitting. I filled any pitting that was more than a couple thousandths with Marine Tex. It then got a coat of primer and a couple coats of epoxy paint.

[Curapa]

I cut the top cap today exposing the inside of the transom. It is in bad shape. The plywood core in the transom and stringers is pretty much non-existent. After examining the transom it is obvious why it failed, the transom is only one layer of 3/4 in its entirety except for the center section where it is doubled. This boat started off as a SeaDrive and was swapped out with an older non-floatation Armstrong bracket. It was doomed from the begining.

[Blue_Runner]

Looking good so far. Excellent working bringing that tank back from the brink! Keep it up. Gonna be a fine vessel.

[reelapeelin]

Daydreamer, check out the Gallery section.

Where's on the fly in the gallery?...I gettin senile or something...cannot find..

[Curapa]

Yep, must be.:booty:

http://www.wellcraftv20.com/gallery/album81

[reelapeelin]

Yep, must be.:booty:

http://www.wellcraftv20.com/gallery/album81

Thanks...guess I got in too big a hurry...I really like what On The Fly did...lost a lot of weight and dropped HP...bet it's a pretty efficient ride...:nic:

[Curapa]

I have gotten the transom stripped down to bare glass. I was surprised at the thickness of the outer skin. Just waiting on my epoxy to come in to get started.

I also found a deck plate that goes to the foam filled bulkhead. Must have been a genius that put that in. The foam is wet as can be..

[Curapa]

I'm having fun tearing out foam. The shovel seems to work best for the most part. Once the foam is out I'll be replacing the stringers and bulkheads. Since the boat is still on the trailer I plan to take it slow and methodically to avoid mis-shaping the hull. The trailer has four bunks that are lined up with the strakes and seem to fully support the hull but I'm not taking any chances. The plan thus far is to only remove a portion of one stringer at a time, epoxy the new stringer in and move to the next. I'll start with the rear 8' of each side.

[RidgeRunner]

I see what you have been up to. Very nice. I too used a shovel on the foam. It chunked out nicely, wasn't wet either.

[Curapa]

Ok, so it's been a while... My baby is now 9 months old and I'm finding time to work on the boat again.

I have replaced the transom and the stringers. I'm working on the bulkheads and rear top cap now.
http://s9.postimg.org/ivccfb76n/20140503_114603.jpg

http://s14.postimg.org/8zn9371u9/20140503_192333.jpg

I'll be tackling the top cap from underneath. I plan to close off the hatches to nowhere and speaker holes along with make the access hole smaller to accommodate the new hatch on the way.

http://s10.postimg.org/w9h8s1ukp/20140503_195151.jpg

I'll be working from the rear to cut down on fairing.
http://s18.postimg.org/h2piliq6h/20140503_192315.jpg

[Curapa]

I have gotten plenty of parts in lately. Deck drains, hatches, fuel fill, fuel hose (that crap is expensive), pull up cleats, pop up bow light,....

http://s21.postimg.org/3puldpqfr/20140503_232730.jpg

[Striper80]

Looking good. It's amazing that you've gotten so much done with the young baby. Keep up the good work.

[bradford]

Looking great Curapa! Love reading about other deck off/cap off rebuilds. Gonna start tearing into my Chaparral 21 as soon as I can get about 5 or 6 smaller short term projects out of my way.

That's a pile of money in the picture with all the hardware. The small details like those are what really end up costing in a rebuild.

Before you get too far have you thought about having the deck drains go through the back of the cap/liner instead of the deck? Gets them up an inch or two higher and lets them drain better. Wish I had done it to mine, still considering it, plus putting in access hatches above them to help in getting to and inspecting the scuppers and drains.

[Curapa]

I actually thought about drainage quite a bit. I ended up raising the deck 3" to get it above the water line a bit more. You can see in the pics that one side of the cap is already cut and the other side isn't. I also plan on criss crossing the drains so they bail out of the opposite side, this way when we are all in a corner landing a fish we aren't in ankle deep water. The deck drains I bought also have a ping pong ball in them to help stop water from coming in.

We took little man to the beach for the first time this morning and I was able to tab some bulkheads in after we got home.

http://s9.postimg.org/6l3wyrln3/20140504_180451.jpg

[nymack66]

Awesome work and detailed pictures.:love:

[Curapa]

I had a moment of free time this afternoon so I did a test run of filling in the holes in the rear cap. I started with a piece of dry erase board, applied several coats of wax and screwed it in place.

http://s15.postimg.org/kh4c56fdn/20140505_195653.jpg

http://s30.postimg.org/3xj6utn0h/20140505_195751.jpg

Then I put a few layers of CSM and 1808 down.

http://s4.postimg.org/l1n36r7hp/20140505_200619.jpg

[Curapa]

The test run came out ok. I'll need to pay a little more attention to how well I fasten the backing. It bowed a bit and caused me to sand a bit more than I wanted, still easy easier than filling from the front.

http://s28.postimg.org/fbo3oz3wd/20140507_192917.jpg

After some sanding I put on some US Composites fairing compound mixed with poly resin

http://s30.postimg.org/s4n6ygg5d/20140507_194231.jpg

http://s21.postimg.org/rt906ugrb/20140507_194242.jpg

[Curapa]

I feel like a kid at Christmas almost every day when I get home.

http://s12.postimg.org/tshxri4tp/20140508_161630.jpg

[Curapa]

I'm taking out the step up and making the deck flat all the way to the front. The plan is to cut off the storage/seat on the front of the console, put an in deck fish box in front of the console with the anchor storage in front of it and a small coffin box over the fish box hatch. I am planning on reusing the hatches that came in the boat. I'm working on the layout now, I'm trying to juggle moving the fuel tank forward and leaving enough room for the fish box.

http://s1.postimg.org/v9b3c1jv3/20140511_155903.jpg

http://s29.postimg.org/f8ogmshnr/20140511_155913.jpg

[Curapa]

I got some measurements for my fuel tank and console layout so I'll be able to tab in the bulkheads shortly, after quite a bit of prep and grinding...

I spent a little time today working on the rear cap. I'm pretty happy with the results. I used the dry erase board and just glassed from the back side.

http://s15.postimg.org/62rwqg00b/20140519_154456.jpg

http://s3.postimg.org/wpsq5a6hv/20140519_173106.jpg

http://s22.postimg.org/7409zmhsx/20140519_200351.jpg

http://s16.postimg.org/wf6i76ldh/20140519_202015.jpg

http://s29.postimg.org/qn01m3b7r/20140519_202109.jpg

[nymack66]

Professional work for sure, you sure make this look easy. I know I will have to tackle my deck and stringers some day, I may have a few years left on it. I will loose the cuddy at the same time:sly:

[tartuffe]

Really looking good, keep up the itchy work! It will pay off in pride of ownership before you know it!

[brywheat]

Great looking build!! What are you building your stringers from? A/A fir? are they one single piece of ply? 1"? If so how do you tie in two pieces for your lenght? Sorry for so many questions, but your build looks great and im a rookie trying to convert an old beat up '75 steplift to a CC. Really stumbling on some things so really grateful for your input

For instance, did you make a "bed" for the stringers? is epoxy glue good enough for the bed? or use mat & resin?

should the old glass encapsulating the old stringers be completely removed?

Keep up the great work and thanks again for any input!

[Night_Sailor]

I am curious what you used for layup tabbing in the stringers? One layer of stitched mat?

Very clever using dry erase board.

Looking forward to more pictures.

[smokeonthewater]

I'm afraid the O/P hasn't been on here since December of last year.

[bradford]

Hope you're doing good Curapa. Sent some people to your website about some fence work they need. Looking for a split rail type.

[Night_Sailor]

I'm afraid the O/P hasn't been on here since December of last year.

I know. Hoping to spur some new posts. It's a way cool project. I'd love to see more.

[Curapa]

I'M BACK!

Sorry guys, between the baby and my phone ringing off the hook with work I haven't had much time for the boat. I just hopped back in it earlier in the week and got it cleaned and ready for work to continue.

I have the stringers and bulkheads glassed, fishbox glassed and halfway faired, and I'm getting close to putting the deck in. No pics right now though...

[steplift20]

Dam that last pic looks like a animal eating something

[steplift20]

The pic I'm talking about is the 3 rd pic from the first page you work is amazing I can't wait yo se the end result

[Curapa]

Here's a few pics from today.


I've been working on the under deck storage boxes, one on each side of the console. I thought they were good to go until I sprayed them with high build epoxy today. Afterwards, I noticed a bunch of pin holes needing to be filled.

http://s16.postimg.org/hig3gf02d/20150511_200046.jpg

http://s27.postimg.org/4c3p5em37/20150511_200056.jpg

Here's a few pics from the inside of the boat. I'm currently fairing the fishbox and working on the anchor well. The inside is filthy right now and I have a bit of grinding to do before I can glass in the bottom of the anchor well, just test fitting for now.

http://s3.postimg.org/vd76zrk1f/20150511_200253.jpg

http://s30.postimg.org/d6t6xzakx/20150511_200304.jpg

http://s10.postimg.org/hkixcvq49/20150511_200110.jpg

[nymack66]

Wow, excellent work for sure

[Curapa]

I put down about a quart of EZ Fair in my fishbox. I highly recommend this product. It goes on smooth as whipped butter, great working time and sands great, the only down side is the cost at around $75 for a quart and a half. But,... I'm all for making life easy and sometimes you have to pay extra for that. It is pretty hard sanding away something so expensive...

I have a bit more sanding to do then a touch up coat and it should be ready for primer and paint.

http://s30.postimg.org/6lc5htqch/20150511_200304.jpg

http://s16.postimg.org/jw9vvs839/20150516_171701.jpg

http://s3.postimg.org/sj2552zvn/20150517_202535.jpg

[Curapa]

The under deck storage boxes are finally done! It seemed like it took forever to get them fair. There's a couple of coats of epoxy primer followed by a couple of coats of Interlux VC performance epoxy.

http://s22.postimg.org/fx98603xd/20150520_203341.jpg

http://s14.postimg.org/5rnvmkwq9/20150520_203350.jpg

http://s8.postimg.org/u41xksjfp/20150520_203357.jpg

[Curapa]

I had to make a decision on whether to severely modify my console to fit my needs, or to build one from scratch. I wanted to ditch the rod holders on the sides to gain some foot room, raise the whole thing a few inches, remove the seat in front and make a larger area for mounting my electronics.

I am going the composite method on this one rather than make a mold. I sketched up a drawing and made some cuts today to see how I liked it.

It looks a bit boxy right now, but I have a big 1 1/2" router bit to take around the edges that should make it look a lot better.

http://s4.postimg.org/yw13vqi3h/20150522_203136.jpg

http://s27.postimg.org/a1k7mq5g3/20150522_203202.jpg

[bradford]

Sweet, def interested in seeing how the console turns out. Gonna be building one or having one built for my skiff.

[Night_Sailor]

Smart fairing the under deck boxes. Makes it much easier to clean up.

I don't like my console rod holders either. It's a way for water to get in and the T Top gets in the way somewhat.

Your project is coming along nicely.congrats.

[Curapa]

I did a little work on the console this morning. I ripped down some 2x's for the inside corners. Since I'm running the 1 1/2" router bit around the edges, I needed some more meat to rout. The angled corners will make it easy to glass on the inside as well, not to mention the stability added. I glued them in and added some screws until it set.

http://s28.postimg.org/6yygoosy5/20150525_111952.jpg
http://s3.postimg.org/ntf73sk9v/20150525_120844.jpg
http://s21.postimg.org/jcp6c2r6v/20150525_120907.jpg

[Curapa]

I removed the screws and got the inside tabbed together. I left the face off so I can glass the inside easier. I plan to glass most of the inside, put on the front, finish glassing the inside, then rout the outside edges and begin working on the outside.

http://s13.postimg.org/ly0cr3fvr/20150526_205246.jpg

[captaingene]

Just in case anyone wants to see it with center console

[Curapa]

I got the outside of the console routed today. The router dug in the ply in a few spots and I'll have to fill a bit before I glass. Otherwise it turned it pretty good.

http://s13.postimg.org/yjenndkc7/20150530_201903.jpg

http://s24.postimg.org/m66jmhrg5/20150530_201921.jpg

[Curapa]

Not much in the way of pics today. I've been fairing the fish box and I got the anchor storage glassed in. I should be able to put some bilge paint in it tomorrow.

The console is about ready for glass. I am making a large door for the front so I can access the batteries and wiring much easier. Every boat I've had in the past has been a pita to access.

http://s16.postimg.org/cii6oxsvp/20150606_195305.jpg

[smokeonthewater]

Ya gonna put a foot well and storage in the door?

[Curapa]

No foot well, I will most likely have an aluminum foldable foot rest on the leaning post.

I doubt I will I will do any storage in the console. With the in deck storage, huge fish box, and eventually a coffin box, I don't see any sense cramping the console.

[ReefReaper]

Looking good! Can't wait to see more pics!