Wanna see my what Santa got me this year?

[captpete13]

Wow! That thing totally transforms your boat into a serious fishing machine. Outstanding!

[kamikaze]

Thanks Captpete

That's my intent. I'm looking to make it a perfect pocket fisher. There is lots still to do... full enclosure (a must for cold weather fishing), dual ladder back captain chairs, radio box, dual 8ft whips, Bow pulpit with anchor. And if I can find a used radar unit cheap enough I may even go with that!

Lumber better watch out I'm coming after his title of cleanest V20 on the site!

Kamikaze

[randlemanboater]

Dang son! That is super nice.

[SkunkBoat]

Welcome to the V20 "Express" club!
Get the enclosure first. I resisted for years saying "I like the wind in my face". November stripers with an enclosure is awesome!

Just an fyi, I use a 3ft stainless vhf antenna mounted up there and I get great coverage.

I'm sure you'll be putting nav lights and a deck light up there too. Did they give you an internal cut thru from a vertical to the top horizontal pipe? Plan that out and do as much at once as possible because trying to fish another wire later is tough.

Looks great. Congrats.

[macojoe]

Very Very Nice!!

[bradford]

For some reason still cant see Kamikaze's or ANY of Ridgerunner's pics. In fact the only pic I've seen of Ridgerunner's is in his avatar, No hogfish pics, no inverted V hull NV pics, makes me sad.

Comes up at the screen where it's telling me to log in, although I'm already logged in.

Maybe Mj or Valiant , or someone could fix it?

[inaforty]

Kamikaze,
Are you going to add a second control station?

The enclosure will be great. You can usually get a nice tight fit because of the solid mounting surface of the hardtop. Most shops use an 3/8" aluminum awning track riveted into the hardtop pipe (inside) with 8.5mm keder welt attached to the binding on the enclosure.

I've only made one enclosure for a hardtop. It came out pretty good for my first attempt. Looks like you have plenty of room to add smiley zipper on the sides if you want (look for pictures of Skunk's boat). Also you might want to consider adding zipper to front panel to access the sliding hatch/bow. If you add these zippers you be less likely to remove/replace the panels when the weather gets warm. Open up the zippers and you will have a nice breeze without the hassle of removing/storing and scratching the clears. Side zippers will more then likely have to be rolled up. The front zipper could be rolled or folded up against the inside of the hardtop and attached up and out of the way using common sense fastener (the turn kind).

Sorry I just got carried away thinking of making this enclosure. My imagination runs wild. This type of project would be a hoot to complete.

[kamikaze]

inaforty:

Thanks for your suggestions, and yes, I did initially considered a second control station but had to draw the line some where! Actually the crows nest it's taller than I initially thought it would be. Not sure I would want to be under way that high up on a 20ft hull to tell you the truth!

I have a Sailrite Ultrafeed LS sewing machine and a snap press and have been doing my own upholstery for several years now. Up to this point, I have lots of cushions, a couple of 3 sided console enclosure and several mooring covers, but I am looking forward to making the full enclosure.

I intended to pretty much all you discussed (smiley zippers with roll up windows on the side curtains, metal or plastic track rails all around etc. but I am kind of torn on what color to make the enclosure. My first thought was a pacific blue to match the boot stripe but I think the size of it in a dark color like that would be visually unappealing. I am now considering going with a off white / natural as it will be less distracting. and look more like an actually cabin when viewed form a distance.

I got talked out of dual 8 foot whips the other day as no matter where they are placed on the top they will interfere with casting from the crows nest and have decided to go with dual 3-4 fts whips instead as they can be easily casted over/worked around from up in the crows nest no matter were they are mounted.

I have also been considering adding a 12Volt, 13-15 inch HDTV over the passenger seat given the interior height of the top (appx 6' 8"). HDTV marine antennas are plentiful and can be found in a smaller Omni configuration relatively inexpensively and if not watching the game I can always the local weather updates when fishing which would be nice and line of sight reception isn't a problem where the boat will be fished (Cheasepake Bay). Still working on how to mount/fold/enclose it for running but I think I can come up with something out of starboard that would fit the bill. Still flushing that idea out but it will make a good winter project anyways as with winter coming to Virginia. I'm not going to be able to get much done on fitting that needs to be done until spring anyways.

Kamikaze