F-20 Finished!!! Sorta......

[ssiredfish]

Finally took some pics in some really unattractive light today to show you guys the "Guale Girl", pronounced "Wally Girl", now that she's back on the water. She's an '85 converted in '96 then I picked her up in 2005. I put 20hrs on her before the engine gave up and paid on her for another two years while she sat....and sat....and sat. I finally got her re-powered in Jan. and re-wired the whole thing and was lookin pretty serious by June 1st. I still have a couple things left and savin for tabs and new paint on the bottom but the major stuff is outta the way.......

1-2: Rebuilt the dash for new gauges and new switch(which I love) and also recovered the top of the helm and covered all of the previous owner's "change of mind" we'll call it. Made for a much cleaner look and helps to keep everything consolidated.

3-5: These are the livewells I mentioned I was workin on in a previous post. They are transom mounted 13g's. They are mounted in a quick-release manner through the street unions and a hose clamp. They can both come out in 5mins to accommodate the fold-up boat couch and room to spare. I cut out what used to be the floor livewell and installed a seacock and pump to run both wells. In the future it would also feed my salth2o washdown.

[ssiredfish]

6: Close-up of how the livewell passes the bulkhead - best I could figure out, finding inexpensive 2" bulkhead fittings is kind of a joke.....Not to mention I bought 4.5' of that 2/2.5" poly pipe you see for about $25 and used 9".......

7: Where the crappy ol' livewell USED to be I put my seacock and pump and in the future wet(or dry if I get the time) storage. For now it gives plenty of space.

8-9: Rebuilt hatches which are 1/4" Starboard and 3/4" ply I believe. May be 1/2" but for some reason I can't remember. Ply has 3 coats of resin and 2 coats of outdoor poly and seem to be holding well so far. Didn't have a template for the fishbox which was a complete PITA but still managed to get that little "sfvOOT" when you drop the lid. Went with the Attwood t-bar handle and low profile hinges to keep it tidy and free of hang-ups, trip hazards and a million other things.

[ssiredfish]

10: WHAT I RECOMMEND ANYONE WITH THIS BOAT DO!!!! Cut out those measly little deck drains and put you two of these 2" thru hulls in. I came back in during a storm in this boat one time and by the time we were completely soaking wet, the water in the back of the boat was up to my ankles. Those were one of the first things to go in the rebuild. The Dremel 80gt sanding drum opened the holes with a quickness and works great but leaves you looking like Tony Montana. It only takes about 1.5secs for a five gallon bucket to drain off the back of the boat with the new drains and I am very pleased with it......

11-13: Boat shots...... I have the covers for the hatches but no door buttons yet. That gets done this weekend(unless it lays down a bit). Also missing amidship are my outrigger mounts that I took out to clean up and haven't put back on yet.

*Cable steering, which can be a doozy when its rough with a full load and stern heavy wear me down by the end of the day. She makes up for it by beatin the crap out of a following sea though........

[inaforty]

Boat looks great!

Have you used the boat enough to get an idea what your cruise and GPH burn is with the 150 Yammie 4 stroke? Also what is your speed at WOT?

Do you have NFB steering? I change our V to NFB and it works great.

[ssiredfish]

Thanks a lot!!!!

Yes its nfb but still pretty stiff.

Yamaha 150Hp Performance: http://www.wellcraftv20.com/communit...ad.php?t=15394

[inaforty]

Thanks for the link ssiredfish.
I must have missed that posting.

[willy]

So for everyone here tell us what you did besides cut new holes and install 2" drain holes.
Did you re-attach new hose in the same way to the original thru hulls in the side?

[ssiredfish]

The old drains, think they were 1/2-3/4" thru-hulls, just drained into the bilge and not out of the boat. The new ones are the same, it never had thru-hulls goin out of the boat for these drains. I just modified it so as not have standing water on the deck of the boat, it is a terrible design to begin with. Its absolutley ridiculous to have the water go inside the boat before it can go out!!!! Terrible design flaw and the worst part is new boats are still being built like this, either from deck runoff or even worse, livewells......

[reelapeelin]

Nice work ssiredfish!!...you really got a nice one there....and that Yammer!!...like old Jackie Gleason used to say....How SWEET it IS!!...

Any future thoughts of outter thru hulls and just allow deck water to go straight out the boat?...don't know what Wellcraft was thinkin' when they had that brain-phart...

[RWilson2526]

Things are looking great for sure....what do you have holding those bait wells off the floor like that. I see the clip at the top, got something similar in the bottom....bet those things are pretty heavy when full.

And speaking of Jackie Gleason, I've tried this on my wife once or twice but was returned with quite a look.

http://www.hark.com/clips/lxfwgdtzkh...e-eat-the-fish