My sons first boat.

Thanks for the encouraging comments everyone. This project has been a lot of work and he is still trying to get into the water on quite a limited budget. However, he wants to do it right and said " we aren't going all cowboy on this" lol :). He works part time for me and has been doing a lot of work for his elderly grandparents. Don't know what the final outcome will be financially but he can take pride in his accomplishment which is priceless :cool:.

This morning he just pulled the pin on a used 89' 25 hp merc 2 stroke, fresh water only, electric start, with controls in really good condition (best one he could find after looking for a week and a half). He's pretty stoked!!!

Down side is that it is a long shaft and we have to design a riser plate for the transom. We might have the technology to do this ;).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Great thread. Love seeing father teach son the trades and skills. Not enough of that anymore.
More people should take on projects like this. Makes ownership that much more special and your likely to look after it better when you have put so much work into it.
Will be a special day when it hits the water!
 
I have great memories of my cousin's Merc 25 of around the same vintage. They were great motors. I hope yours gives you years of good service and fun!
 
The trailer is finally done and getting painted.


A poor shot but showing the new aluminum channel bunks with UHMW strips. It also shows the side guides.



One has to have some bling on a trailer. Here's the new fenders.



He decided to go with two 6 gallon fuel tanks. They fit pretty nicely in the two rear corners.



He wanted to do something about the floor to add flotation, quiet the ride, and add some strength. We ended up cutting some 1" x2" x 1/8" aluminum h.s.s. in half and capping the existing members. Some of the existing members were cracked and they were welded up before the reinforcing members went on. We only put a few stitches per side on them. It really stiffened up the hull without adding too many hard spots.



These new reinforcing members will be drilled and tapped for the new floor.

Continued....
 
He cut and fit 1" rigid foam insulation between each floor member.



With a little help he laid out the floor starting at the stern and numbered his members towards the bow measuring their centers. Then he took center line to side measurements for every member.



Jake laying out the floor old school.



We could have gone the easy route and sent the layout to Spring Velocity and had a dwg file created and sent to a cutter but then he wouldn't have learned much lol :p:D.

Center punching all his marks.



We are going to loft the curved line and cut it out tomorrow. The plate will be cut so that it actually doesn't touch the sides of the hull. Don't want to create any hard spots or chaffing. He will run a bead of Sikaflex down the side to seal it and act as a bit of a cushion. The floor will go in after the inside is painted. The floor will be painted as well and then finished off with a few 4" wide strips of safety grip tape that I have kicking around.

Continued....
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The trailer is finally done and getting painted.


A poor shot but showing the new aluminum channel bunks with UHMW strips. It also shows the side guides.



One has to have some bling on a trailer. Here's the new fenders.



He decided to go with two 6 gallon fuel tanks. They fit pretty nicely in the two rear corners.



He wanted to do something about the floor to add flotation, quiet the ride, and add some strength. We ended up cutting some 1" x2" x 1/8" aluminum h.s.s. in half and capping the existing members. Some of the existing members were cracked and they were welded up before the reinforcing members went on. We only put a few stitches per side on them. It really stiffened up the hull without adding too many hard spots.



These new reinforcing members will be drilled and tapped for the new floor.

Continued....
What about mounting the tanks in the bow to compensate for the weight at the back?
 
thats what i was thinkin... a good gust of wind while coming around a point and that light boat will get spun right around... even my grocery getter in bam has battery and fuel up-front as we had a few scary moments!!



great father son teamwork by the way....
 
Good looking work for the young fella there. If I can make a suggestion, don't put both fuel tanks full aft ..... thats a ton of weight, plus motor and if you do intend on tiller steering your body weight. I put one 5 gal aft, battery for sounder etc and other 5 gal mid ship when I ran my 12 footer with the 25 HP.

It's nice to have so much power on a 12 footer that you can blow by the ferries, or at least get in behind them when its real rough to get home ....... the closer ya get off that first wake the gooderer the ride. ya draft too, reduces fuel.

Have fun, play safe
 
Thanks for the weight distribution suggestions. The hull is 14.5' long and we are putting her back together with the bow and helm steering (see picture in first post) which is just past midship. He won't be steering from a tiller. Going to weigh the fiberglass bow to see how much it weighs. I read that a short shaft 25 merc of this era is around 95 lbs. so the long shaft a bit more. Pretty light motor. We really won't know until we float test her with everything in it. There is going to be one bench seat for driver and passenger. We can look at putting stuff under it.
 
Very impressive work guys. Keep the pictures coming. Enjoy watching the process and look forward to seeing it when it is complete.
 
The weekend didn't go as planned and we didn't get as much work done as we would have liked.

The floor turned out pretty damn good. The layout and lofting worked good (still works old school lol).

Jake drilling and tapping.



I had to scab on an extra piece at the front past the 8' sheet mark.



We are just playing around with full size stuff to get an idea how it will all come together. We scrapped the bench seat and are going with two boxes on the sides to allow for a 12" isle way between them. The floor is so stiff now if we connect the boxes to the floor and then fasten them to the sides it will be good to go. You can see the new rail caps placed as well.



We went to Windsor Plywood to look for marine grade plywood. They wanted 118 bucks for a 3/4" sheet. Well out of his budget. We saw this cart in the middle of the isle there that had some slightly warped 3/4" Oak good both sides plywood on it marked at................20 bucks a sheet.......SOLD!!! After that stop we went to the Plastic Shop and got some epoxy sealer. Going to seal the plywood with a few coats of that so it is sealed. Oak is strong to boot. A little on the heavy side but for the price WTH.



Going to get lots of damage done tomorrow :).

Albernifisher came by today looking for some tubing for the reach on his little Whaler trailer. We talked him into painting her up for us. Should look killer! :cool:. He scoped out my painting equipment and said " I'll bring my own gun" :confused::eek::p.

Continued.........
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well like I posted before, the trailer is about a 90% rebuild. He managed to save and tune up the tires and rims (still in really good shape).





The main channel frame was the only thing worth saving besides the wheels and tires. With a little bit of help from his old man, he is turning into quite a fab man.

Straightening everything out so she will tow nice.



Coming along and Jake welding.



Not too shabby for about his 3rd time ever welding with a mig gun.




To be continued....
I see a little bit of lack of fusion at the start of the bead, Lol. I rebuilt my tin boat trailer as well ...Awesome project fellas, thanks for sharing!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just givin' er the last couple of days and nights.

Side rails are mounted and new bow trim flat bar being installed. The old windshield is not staying. It is just in place to start lofting a new lower wind screen that will be made out of aluminum. Just for shites and giggles, I took it to a plastic place and they said it would be 900 bucks to make a new one. So a new shorter wind deflector and sunglasses it is lol :D.





Anyone that knows me knows I would never never go overboard on a project :rolleyes::eek::).

New railings with downrigger mounts installed. I had a couple of old Scotty swivel bases kicking around. The free downriggers that my buddy gave us are not in good condition at all so we are looking for some inexpensive Scotty manuals if anyone has any or knows of an ad etc.



New box seats installed. There are swivel seats that will mount to the top of them.





The transom coming along and should be done really soon.



Hopefully we can get all the fabrication stuff done and rip it all back apart tonight and start working on hull repairs and unnecessary holes tomorrow before painting.


Continued.....
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top