Home Forums Fishing Saltwater Some boat work and some fishing--2017

I see the tail end of my fishing season for the year on the horizon as we near hunting season so I thought I would share some pics from my year with the campfire.

A bit of brief history--back in early 2009, I had started building a boat. It was going to be my first attempt at a home boat project and the vision I had was a 20' skiff of a sort of hybrid nature. Something between a flats boat and a bay boat but with a bit more "V" than the normal bay boat design. I also planned on hanging enough motor to satisfy my youthful exuberance for speed.

In late 2009, I found out that my girlfriend was pregnant and my priorities with the boat realigned. Instead of a go-fast skiff with low freeboard and NO sides to speak of really, I figured I would need to get something a little more "kid friendly" that would still allow me to fish the Mobile Bay, Mississippi Sound and the barrier islands. And whatever it turned out to be, it needed to be cheap. I found a hull on Craigslist that was mostly inline with my needs though it was in rough shape, 21' center console with saddle tanks. And in all honesty, I still don't have any idea what brand the boat was (that is a whole other story). We did all kinds of patchwork to the boat, hung a 150hp Evinrude on it and used it for years as my daughter grew....until 2015.

One fine summer day in 2015 when my wife convinced me to take my MIL out, I started to notice that the boat was not sitting right after we got to our first fishing spot. Checking the bilge, I noticed that she was FULL of water. Something had happened, I was taking on water and unbeknownst to me, someone had turned off my bilge pump switch. After a stressful period I was able to get the water pumped out, get the boat to the beach and then start inspecting the hull. Somehow the keel had cracked right on the knife edge of the "V". I had some underwater putty on board, was able to seal the crack as best as possible and sort of enjoy our day on the beach. We idled back in at a gentler pace and did some inspection after we got home safe. The poor gal had served her served her purpose through the years but she was clearly done. The stringers were rotten which allowed the hull to buckle in rough seas and after a few trips in a good chop, the keel finally split.

Later that summer, I was able to find a beautiful hull in MUCH better shape that would give the family another boat project, be more reliable, give us more room, and hopefully allow us more freedom on the water. A 1970 Seabird, originally a 24' cuddy cabin inboard / outboard--the previous owner had removed the cuddy and converted her to an outboard with a bracket. She came with hydraulic steering and an horribly, disproportionately small center console.

After getting her home and swapping parts from the old boat to the new, I realized I had not done my due diligence and I was going to pay the price. The transom was infested with termites. When I bought the boat, I had envisioned doing a very quick parts / equipment swap across boats and being on the water in about 1 month's time. This was a considerable and costly setback. I began the horrid task of cutting, grinding and sanding the old transom so I could install a new core and several layers of 1708 fiberglass saturated with US Composites epoxy resin. Doing this kind of work, in a full Tyvek suit, in August, in the Gulf Coast heat and humidity...I felt I had won the stupid lottery. But my determination got me through it and that September we were able to splash her on the local river for a test run. Just in time to take a trip out to Idaho for a family visit and then start the hunting season once we got back.

2016 was a better year. Though she still had a lot of little things that drove me nuts, it was a year to USE the boat and not work on the boat. We spent most of the summer running around in the Mississippi Sound chasing speckled trout, small sharks and then beaching it on Dauphin Island to play in the surf. Great times with the daughter and wife and just what I had in mind when I started the work on this boat the previous year.

Following the end of the 2016-2017 hunting season, I felt it was time to address a few issues with the boat before putting her to use this year. One, some of the in-deck compartment hatches were in horrible shape. Two, the tiny console had to go and a better fitting console would take its place....along with better electronics. And three, the cockpit was in desperate need of some cosmetic repairs and a fresh coat of paint.

So, with all that out of the way...here are a variety of photos to show some of the progress on the boat as well as our success through the season.

Building and test-fitting the new compartment hatches:




Paint on the bottomside:




And the topside (took a pretty good shine, still had some buffing to do):




Finally got paint in the cockpit:




New hatches painted and laid in place:




Pulling all the cables and rigging:




to be continued in next post....