Been a while since i posted but here is the latest update. I have stained and sealed the deck. I like the look of the stain compared to carpet. I still plan on adding carpet later on down the road but for now I like the stain. All the hatches have been cut and hinged except for the splashwell hatch which i just left loose and stick it in place once on the water. Yesterday I installed a radio under the rear hatch on the front deck. Have a small antenna on the right rear corner cap and 2 6x9" speakers mounted one in front one in the rear. Its a lot louder than i expected it to be. Guess I should also list some things I picked up recently. I got a free trolling motor its the Minn Kota Endura 30lb transom mount. Not the C2 but still decent. Neighbor had it laying in the yard for 4 years or so and they tried to use it on a canoe a couple weeks ago and it wouldnt run. Told me if I could get it working I could have it. Picked it up the next day, walked back to the house with it and had it running 5 mins later. Took it apart to see why it hadnt worked. Turns out it had been dropped overboard and they never got the water out of the lower unit so it was rusted almost solid. Cleaned it all up and put it back together and I have used it 5 or 6 trips now with no problems. I recently sold my wifes old van and was given half of what it sold for, wife got the other half. I picked up a deep cycle Group 27 Marine Battery and a 1.5-10APH Solar charge cell for $144 after taxes and new battery fee. Battery does great. I went out this past saturday on Johns Lake in Oakland, FL and spent 9.5 hours on the water with the trolling motor running the whole time fighting the wind. Didnt feel like it lost even the tinyest bit of power the whole time. Took it out again the next day for 3 hours without charging it other than the solar charger being hooked up during the trips and it still kept kicking along. So having the battery is what tempted me into installing the radio. It is not a marine radio which is why it is installed under the hatch on the front deck. I just lift it up a little and turn it up or down or change station then set the hatch back down. Both boat and trailer are legally registered. Boat has a brand new title. Previous owner never titled or registered it. Took a letter to the tag office stating they owned it 13 years and never tagged or registered it and that it was only ever used on private lakes, signed by the previous owner. Tag office made a new title for the boat and gave me a new HIN for it. Guy at work has a set of number and letter punches so I took a small piece of semi trailer side paneling and punched the HIN into it and have riveted it to the boat where you would REALLY have to search for it but I can get to it in seconds to show its my boat. They gave me a homemade registration for the trailer and transfered the tag off my old motorcycle that I sold last year to the trailer. I can tell you from experience, when you pull a boat down the road or get on the water and know that your vehicles are all legal it takes a huge amount of stress off of you. spent the last 3 months pulling the boat with no trailer tag and getting on the water with no registration for the boat. I only ever pulled the boat 5 miles at the most but I constantly worried they would pull me over if they saw no tag on the trailer. I have yet to get out and have a good day for fishing. Either way its a good day if I get out on the water but I havent had that great day where you consistently put fish on the boat. But I have only had a decent battery for the trolling motor for the trips this past weekend and the battery i used before was the auto battery from the van before it sold and wouldnt only last an hour and a half or so before it died. HUGE difference with the deep cycle. I will get pics when I can. Cameras seem to all be temperamental at the moment. both my camera on my phone and my stand alone Nikon SLR are being very rude at the moment lol.
