flatbotm's 1542 build

[Flatbotm]

I got another step done after work today hole drilled for the seat base and one coat of stain. You can see the rear deck a little better since yesterdays pic was taken at 10 pm.

 

[Derek]

If you have the tools and the time I would suggest sinking the pedestal mounts into the wood. Especially if you fish barefoot, I wish I had, and I have carpet over everything.

 

[Flatbotm]

So your talking about sinking the plate the 1/8 inch that it sticks up so it is flush? What are my options for doing this?router?

 

[Derek]

Yes. A router would work perfect or if your really good with a chisel and hammer.

 

[Flatbotm]

Derek, my brother in law said he'll bring his router over next time he comes over and help me sink them. Here is a few more pics.

 

[dryin]

damn bud that boat looks great

 

[Derek]

looks great. You are going to appreciate them countersunk if you ever fish barefoot

 

[Ranchero50]

I'd get it wet before you get too much further into it... You should be close to 300lbs of T+G up high, that's a lot of lost weight capacity. Looks great but it's way overkill. You could reduce your access panels a size or so too. My big door (15"x48") is only .125" thick and plenty strong. Most of my decking is .080 with 10" stringers. The boat drafts 3-4" empty, 4-6" loaded. It's something to think about.

Jamie

 

[benjineer]

Wish I could see your pics. Sounds like a nice build. They don't let me see photobucket, etc. I only get to see stuff uploaded to the site.

 

[Flatbotm]

I weighed the front decking before I re did the doors with aluminum and it was 110lbs including everything. So I trimmed the weight down to 95. All the other bead board combined was less than 100 lbs. It is only about 5/8 thick. I think my weight capacity w/ people is 775. My wife and I combined are under 300. The old decking and flooring was 3/4 plywood which was really heavy per square inch. If it sits too low I can add some pods too. Benjineer I will see if I can upload some to the site.

 

[Ranchero50]

Mine was 3/4" plywood too when I got it, felt and ran like a tank, would not plane out with a 9.9. Now I can pull it up on the trailer by myself.

I was thinking and a binimi set up like a retractable hardtop would be awesome if you could pull it off. Four legs, hinged in the back, pinned up front that lay down so you could have a fisherman off the back too.

Jamie

 

[Flatbotm]

Thanks for the idea Jaime. If you have any ideas for weight reduction besides eliminating the front deck I'm open ears. I'm going to cut out the area around the console to shed a few pounds. The bead board and aluminum are close pound for pound when you consider the support the aluminum needs and the bead board needs little to none. The thicker t and g in the front is where I can trim more fat. I went with the large hatches so I can fit things in there like coolers and other large items depending on how I need to distribute weight once I get her on the water. One area i will need to figure out is where I will put my trolling motor battery. I have a smaller battery for the engine starting battery. The fuel can go up front or in back depending on where the weight needs to go. Right now I have the fuel set up in the back front hatch. The tubing I have for the bimini top is super light weight. I have thought of making it fixed and not folding to avoid straps. I will probably pin it with lynch pins or bolts so it can be removed in the winter if you are wanting sun. Thanks for the help.
Selby

 

[dryin]

damn bud your boat looks really good . i was hopin you could post more pics of the binimi top. iam relaly thinkin about makin one for my boat and get a couple ideas from yours

 

[Flatbotm]

Hey Dryin,
Thanks I've been putting some hours in on my boat. Still haven't built the Bimini yet. I've been waiting for more ideas to be posted. Once it's bent up it will be too late to change it. I have extra aluminum tube but not enough to do it twice. So hopefully I will nail down a plan in the next week or so.

 

[benjineer]

Hey, got to look at your build pics at home. Pretty nice with the T&G. I had an idea for a strapless top that I never built. I wanted something on our cuddy cabin boat that would shift from high and toward the rear for fishing to low and forward sitting on top of the winshield for rain or going under bridges. I can make you a rough concept drawing if it's something that interests you. Not sure I ever figured it out completely, but I'd sure like to see someone try it.

 

[Flatbotm]

Benjineer I would really like to see a sketch of your Bimini design. I like the idea of a top that converts for different uses.

 

[benjineer]

Ok, it goes a little something like this. Don't laugh.
You'd need a pin jointed horizontal bar at the top keeping the uprights the right distance apart. The top would always be parallel to the gunnels, which you can't get with a bimini unless you put it on a slide and adjust the straps when you move it. I wanted vertical adjustment too though. Ok, I have to show you what I devised this for. https://www.benjineer.com/Seabird1.htm. It came with a delapidated bimini, but I prefer to drive standing up looking over the windshield. That means you'd have to put the bimini away when driving, what's the point? Now I have to draw some more. The blue in the second pic are the gunnels and windshield. The top two positions are the most needed for what we do. A fixed top in the "normal" position would be fine except there are some bridges we couldn't get under like that. Also, pushing it down and forward would be nice in the rain or to make more room for fishing at the rear. I wanted to try this, but I never had the time and money at the same time, and went on to other things. We still use the boat, and still wish it had some shade.

 

[Flatbotm]

Benjineer this is the kind of brainstorming I've been wanting. I really like the multi position bimini idea. Originally I was thinking of a fixed main bar that stayed up all the time and maybe bundle the multi position parts to it during road travel. I have seen this on pontoon boats. You idea where the whole thing can lay down might be better. Especially with high and low positions. I need to see if my old cad program still works.

 

[Flatbotm]

I got the console hardmounted in the boat this afternoon. I cut a little notch in the front deck so the console is pushed all the way forward against the middle seat. I tried to figure out a place to hide the teleflex cable and it's not looking like it's going to be easy.

 

[Flatbotm]

I used one of the golf club tubes to run the teleflex steering cable thru the the rear bench tonight. Unfortunately the cable would not fit thru the rib that runs along the side of the boat but my throttle and shifter cables will. Coring out the foam was fun I used a hollow aluminum tube to core the foam like a apple(not as easy as it sounds). I started drilling the holes for the fishing rod holders. 1.5 hole saw is the ticket. 1 and 3/8 is too small fits inside the golf tubes.