14' Sea Nymph Conversion

[kmercury]

Hello,

I am new to the thread and am looking for some ideas. I recently picked up this 14' Sea Nymph with a 7.5 Mercury and trailer. Originally, the rear bench was in its factory position (too close to the transom, hard to steer the boat) and the front seat was mounted to the front bench (the front passenger could not face front). I moved the rear bench forward 8" and up 3" and made a new bench for the front seat well behind the factory bench. I am not a duck hunter but I like the camo paint and it is in good condition so I will leave it. The motor is good (starts on the first pull) but it does need to be tuned (some hesitation in the mid RPM ranges).

The mods so far were to get us through the rest of the season as I plan to do a full modification this winter. I am a new fisherman and have begun to develop some wants in my fishing boat. Of course, I want to make this more functional and comfortable than pricy and flashy. These are my thoughts:

[*]Install a bottom deck from rear factory bench to front factory bench
[*]Install upper deck on top of factory front bench to front of boat thus creating a battery and storage compartment.
[*]Leave rear bench and seat alone, just carpet it.
[*]Create a mid-bench with cooler live well and extra storage
[*]Remove temporary bench with front seat and install a pedestal front seat mounted to lower deck.

Any thoughts around this would be appreciated. I intend to keep the lower deck quite low and use camo carpet. I want to install a trolling motor and somehow wrangle that anchor line. As I begin work I will post more pics but the work may not start unitl October or so (still some good fishing out there, hu).

Thanks

Kmercury

 

[kmercury]

It has begun! Here I used nature's level to get the position of my deck. Time to drain the boat and get some materials.

Also, here is some cheap white foam from Lowes. Will it work for flotation under the deck or should I get the big blue or pink stuff?

 

[Brine]

Welcome aboard. Use the blue stuff from Lowes. That white stuff will probably hold water or deteriorate much quicker. Filling the boat up to use as a level was interesting assuming the boat floats in the same position. If you didn't check, it's a good time to get under the boat and see if you have any leaks. What part of the world are you in?

 

[Howard]

Welcome to the site. =D> I would really encourage to paint your boat. [-o< It has some great lines and looks to be sound. A gallon of Duck Boat Paint ($32) and a days labor would drastically change the look of your tin. This would be a perfect time to do it also. You have put some good thought into it so far, I don't think you will be disappointed with a fresh coat of paint!

 

[kmercury]

I checked the boat for float level before filling it with water. I have had it out 4 times since I bought it and it is great.

Thanks for the paint suggestion. I would really like to paint it but I do not have an air sprayer. I have seen a few boats online with the duct boat paint rolled on. Does this give a decent finish? I would probably just sand down the loose paint, prime where needed and roll on some new paint. I should do this now before I get too far and wish I had.

Where is a good place to get the paint? I will probably get my deck bracing riveted in and then paint.

I am in the Great Lakes region but will only be fishing small inland lakes and ponds.

Thanks

 

[Howard]

I had it shipped to my home. https://www.parkercoatings.com/decoy.html Cabelas also sells it. I have seen it rolled on and looks good.

https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14366

 

[kmercury]

Got to work on the deck framing today. Used angle with vertical supports. Next will be fitting the deck and painting. Then I can move it into the garage for the fitting and finishing.

Of course, my work today had to be officially inspected.

 

[Ranchero50]

Looks really nice. As you can see from the helicopters and other crap it's going to be pretty important to either be able to remove the floor to clean it or have the deck fit nice so stuff doesn't end up down there.

Jamie

 

[kmercury]

Well, I was able to move ahead and get the deck cut and pre-fitted. I did not use a cardboard template though. Instead, I knew how long it had to be and how wide it had to be at the front, the back and at each rib support in between. I laid out a centerline on my plywood and then measured to either side of it half the distance that I needed at each rib support point. I then simply connected the lines on each side with a flexible piece of trim I had sitting around.

I cut it out and here it is. I need to notch out the deck board at each rib support so it will sit flat on the deck supports (right now it rests about 1/4" above the deck supports). I threw the cooler (live well) in and places a board in front of it where a bench seat will be.

I hope you can start to get the picture of how I want it laid out. Just imagine the front bench seat removed and replaced with a pedestal seat.

Still a lot of work to do!

 

[kmercury]

More progress made today. I notched the deck where it meets the rib supports and it fits great. I was able to fill all the old rivet and screw holes and paint the inside of the boat today. I used 3 Rustoleum boat camo cans (man it is hard to get an even coat but once it drys it will look nice. The paint it still drying the pic so it is a little inconsistant). I got my flotation foam in and my drain line for my live-well.

Next is carpet on the deck and install.

kmercury

 

[Sgt. Stiglitz]

Thanks for the floor framing pointers. I am almost done with mine..........

https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=15880

 

[kmercury]

Wow, that looks great. It looks like you had some nice rib supports to mount to. The carpet job and deck layout look good as well. I like the enclosed front and rear decks. I may do that yet but not until later this winter.

kmercury

 

[kmercury]

I had a nice long weekend to get some work done on the boat and even get 4 hours of fishing in. I was able to get my front and rear deck carpeted and get my rear bench carpeted. I began to frame out my middle deck which will hold my battery and livewell.

Here are some pics.