IRon

I'm seriously thinking about going with a composite with mine, too. Total Plastics Inc has an outlet in Kalamazoo & Grand Rapids if you're interested and carries the Coosa Bluewater 26. http://www.totalplastics.com/about_us/contact I haven't contacted them yet, but the stuff is very expensive, but no more rot worries, though.

Wow, some serious rot there. Good thing you were on top of that potential disaster! Make you wonder how many other boats are like that out there? What are you going to use for replacement wood? I know you can get regular marine ply just about anywhere. Johnsons Workbench in Charlotte has or can get just about any type of marine ply you want, I believe. http://www.theworkbench.com/pdf/plywood.pdf They've even got Merante, Teak, Okoume, listed on their site. Pretty expensive , though.

Good luck with your project. Not an uncommon fix in the boating world. A labor of love, no doubt. Doing the same thing to my aluminum Crestliner. Should be a lot easier than your project (I hope). Looking forward to your progress reports.

I don't mean to be Mr. Obvious here, but there is a public access site, so I guess we all have a "place" there.

Here's a helpful link: http://www.marinepartsman.com/installing-an-outboard-on-your-boat.html

Yes thats a great boat!!! It'll give you a lot of great years of dipsey fishing.

Nice boat Special K. What year is it?

Roots Canvas in Plainwell does a lot of boat canvas work. I've used him and was very satisfied. http://www.rootscanvas.com/

Good deal on the shake down. One step at a time. It just takes time to work all the bugs out and get the set up right. You still have time to put a hurting on 'em.

Very cool. Sleeping Bear looks the same, but Traverse City has grown a bit . Pre Mac bridge was cool, too.

Well hopefully we got the boat (Cheri Leigh) back on the water, too. Did a second test run today on a local lake and all went well. Don't know if we'll chance the big lake tomorrow with all the T-storms popping up but if not maybe next weekend.

Thank you Sherman. Boats can be a pain. I did a complete re-do of the interior (floors etc.) Started up big motor, had fuel running out of carb so tore it down and cleaned out floats and needle valve. Fixed. Bought a used kicker, did complete install myself. Another pain, you know, hook up remote everything. Took me over a week when you count ordering all the control cables, steering bar connector, on and on..... But it worked great, started up, ran like a sewing machine. Throttle, gear shift, separate fuel system. Perfect. Took it out to lake and everything went well ran down lake and anchored so son could fish a little. Tried kicker. NOTHING. Would not fire once. What the........ Well we'll run back and do a little trolling with big motor, yeah right. That started stalling. Acted like it was running out of gas. Realized ball was collapsed so in the mean time we'd drifted dangerously shallow and I tossed out the anchor. was able to get gas flowing again and in my distracted state of mind wound up the short anchor rope in the prop and tore the crap out of the prop. Limped back to launch and getting new prop today and dropping off kicker to be fixed (no spark now?).

Congratulations I'm sure it was a happy day for you. Unfortunately my day wasn't so happy. Shake down trip today- both motors gave me trouble. Kicker never fired once and is going back to the shop tomorrow. Got in trouble when big motor died too and tore up prop on that. Wow. When will it end.

Customer service is the same for all products at BPS. I bought a high dollar tent from them one time. The poles would just break randomly. The tent would be set up and suddenly, snap a pole would break for no reason. I started to do some research and found out it was a common problem other people had. I called BPS. They wouldn't replace the poles, they denied there was a problem, wouldn't help me find replacements, nothing. Just basically, sorry for your bad luck. I have never bought another item from them and never will.

I don't usually have to whack 'em. But I have one on the boat (somewhere). And when I have time I like to make a cut at the base of the gills with my scissors and bleed them out right away.

Congratulations! Looks really nice. Just needs a little H2O.

Sherman. Sounds like a great time had by all. Everything always seems to work out with time and a little patience. Now there's an idea, get him to clean the fish. I like that one. Looking forward too the whole experience.

Lots of reasons. But mostly because I love the Great Lakes and want to share the experience with my 12 year old son. He loves to fish, and last year we invested in a bigger boat. Needs some work, so hopefully I'll have it ready shortly for a shake down. But since life tends to set you back three steps for every one forward, a series of recent layoffs has put that in question and I'm hoping to get out by the 4th of July now. Who knows.

Great job. Enjoyed following your restoration. Gives me the inspiration to keep plugging away on mine.

There's always bit of a debate on plywood flooring. Definitely don't use treated for reasons mentioned. Any plywood used in a high moisture environment if not sealed properly is going to absorb water, swell, de-laminate, rot and fail in a few years. No debate there. So, to me anyway, why spend the money on marine grade plywood just to put it in unprotected and cover it up with carpet. Looks just like what you get from the factory, no doubt, because it is. And it'll fail, just like from the factory. If thats what you want, nothing wrong with that. Just have to re-do it every few years. In my opinion, you can buy a lesser grade of exterior grade of 7 ply exterior grade wood or MDO as suggested (not cdx) for about half the cost. Buy some epoxy or fiberglass resin with the money you save and take a little extra time to seal it properly (edges, openings and screw holes). It'll last probably the rest of your life. JMHO. Good luck

Thank God that video is back. Makes this cold March weather bearable.

Wow, with the name Lubber I can think of a lot of combos. Land, Lake, Salmon, Fish, Steel on and on.......

Wow, I've got a long ways to go. Been working on the plywood floor, about got everything cut out except enclosing the transom area and a little cuddy repair. Still have to seal everything then finish coat. Absolutely nothing rigged yet. Be lucky to get done by mid-April.

The DOT tape is what I use for my rod tips. The glow tape/paint just doesn't last like mentioned, although it still catches some light.

Can't really comment on spot/flood lights, but in my walleye boat I had red LED strips under the gunnels and red instrument lights to keep my night vision intact while night fishing. I know the military does that so I did, too. I plan on doing the same with my big boat now. Of course the boards were set up with glow sticks and I put some reflective tape on my long line rods. Still undecided about just going with hand held spot lights or mounting some adjustable lights possibly. Good question.