Newbie saying hi and sharing p

[reyb]

Well, I figured I might as well introduce myself and my V20. I stumbled upon this website a while back ago but hadn't posted anything since now.

So, I bought my '89 V20 a couple of years ago and from when I got it it has gone through the following:

o I almost sank it when the boat had a lot of water in it
from a recent raining; I usually leave the plug in.

o I lent my boat to some friends and they ended up cap-
sizing it. When I bought the boat, it did not have a
splash board. The previous owner said he had never
needed it, but I guess when you have 4 adults fishing,
a 35 gal bait tank and some decent wakes, it makes it
easier for water to come in from the transom area.

o Made a splash board for it but I find that water is still
getting in from under the board. I'm gonna have to
redo it or something to make a better seal.

o The boat originally had a sofa type seat which I replaced
with individual seats; a lot more comfortable when
fishing.

o I replaced the dual axle steel trailer with a dual axle
aluminum trailer that I found for $1k. This trailer has
smaller tires, but I really like the idea that the trailer
itself won't rust. One drawback to the aluminum
trailer is that it floats and tends to drift to one side
when I'm taking the boat out of the water.

o Fabricated a bait tank(~35 gal) leveraging one of the
rear floor storage compartments. I had a bait bag that
hangs off the rear of the boat,but it could only hold
1/2 of bait. It's really nice having a bigger tank.

One thing I wouldn't mind having is a T-Top, but man are
those things expensive. I thought about building one but
my mig welder can't weld aluminum and it would cost too
much to make it capable. The idea of using plain steel
comes to mind, but I worry about the weight. Aluminum
is supposed 1/3 lighter that steel, so doing the number,
if an aluminum T-Top weight a couple hundred pounds
would make a steel one 600 pounds...big difference. Oh
well, on to some pictures :)

[macojoe]

Welcome to the site!!

Hammer is going to love you, a newbie that posts pic!!

For a boat that has almost sunk, and has capsized it looks pretty clean! Guess I would also with that much water ;)

[tsubaki]

Welcome to the site
:o
Heck of a way to start out posts ;D but a good one!!
List where your located in your profile.

[Pipe_Dream]

Welcome, reyb.

Those are some interesting photos. That's only the second time I've seen a V go belly up. You say you almost sank it when you left the plug in and it rained. Did you launch it with a bilge full of water? No bilge pump?

[Sean]

Welcome to the site!!! Thats a nice looking live well/bait tank, good job and oh ya I love those last two pics ;D ;D

[Franco]

Welcome aboard FNG, glad to have ya. Love the livewell and the rest of the boat too. Where ya from?

[reyb]

Thanks for the welcome. :) I'm located in San Diego, CA.

Let's see...questions/comments:

o Yeah, it's always nice to have pics when posting and what
really drove me to post pics was the bait tank. :) I really
like how it turned out. I went fishing last week and had
just a 1/2 scoop of sardines and I think only a few died
while fishing the whole day. With the bait bag, at least
half would've died.

o bilge/rain water: So, I launched the boat that day and
when I was walking up to the dock I did notice that the
rear was sitting kind of low, but didn't think that much
of it. While going to the bait barge I noticed how the
water level of the bay was almost the same as the
floor. I opened up the rear hatch and that puppy was
full of water. I turned on the bilge(2) and escaped
capsizing the boat myself. The bilge pumps are
connected to a float, but the wire had corroded. I had
since fixed that connection, but during that fishing trip
mentioned above, which was the first time I went out
with that new bait tank, there was a lot of water
coming in from the back at time and I had to manually
turn on the bilge pumps. I thought I was "covered"
with the float connected but later on I had noticed
that the wired had corroded again, so there was no
automatic bilge pumping.

Geez I'm wordy. ;D

[C YENSEN]

welcome aboard.....love the bait tank......looks like you need some new friends ::)

[parishht]

Welcome to the board,
that bait well is really nice. ;) ;)

HMMM, San Diego, I should get you hooked up with my sons,
Naah, they are up in Los Angeles, one in Lomita and one in Marina Del Ray. ;) ;)

[Bygracealone]

Hey Reyb,

Glad to have you on board.

Man, you've had some serious adventures in that V.

How in the world did it capsize? Water looks fairly calm in the pic.

Nice recovery nevertheless.