the popemobile is getting tired

Dude!!! I was just getting some work done on my truck at the tint shop and I saw your boat outside. It looks magnificent!
 
Well I just went for my sea trial, the boat looks incredible. Ill post a pic shortly.

the good: It is beautiful. It handles like a dream, picks itself up out of the water onto a step effortlessly, the bow hardly lifts at all. The finer details turned out great. The seating is comfortable, the layout is perfect, the trim tabs, washdown pump, lights, bilges, all that stuff works great. The boat doesnt pound or slap or vibrate at all. Theres tons of storage and its plenty spacious.

the bad: The throttle for the kicker is pinched or sticking somehow. On a turn to port it idles down, on a turn to stbd it revs up. The kicker cowling also bumps the main cowling when you turn hard to stbd when the kicker is raised, but that can be easily fixed. The digital display for the main isnt working either.

the ugly: My biggest fear about this build for the past few days came true. The self bailing deck sits 1 inch above the water line at the stern with 0 people or gear on board. At the bow its got plenty of buoyancy, it sits 6 or 8 inches above the waterline. TC regs for commercial passenger vessels specify that it should sit 3 inches above the water line fully loaded with gear and passengers. With a full load the deck would likely be below the water line at the stern. Self bailing decks operate on gravity, and must be above the waterline to work, otherwise you just have a boat with holes in it.

I feel awful for my builder, hes done an incredible job on everything, but this issue is pretty major. He thinks maybe he can get the buoyancy required by widening the pod but Im skeptical. My initial thought was to raise the deck with a subfloor and bolt everything back on, but that is a ton of work and might require taller stern and bow rails. He seems to think if it comes to that hed be better off building me a new boat. Another option is to seal the scuppers off and just have a regular hull and deck, which is not something I want. I had planned to keep this boat for the rest of my life and the self bailing deck is a must for me, for function and for safety. Another possibility would be to swap out the suzuki 150 for a suzuki 140, saving about 50kg of weight but Im not sure that would do it either. The stern needs to come up atleast 3 inches, maybe more.

If anyone else has any suggestions feel free to post them. :(:(:(:(:(
 
**** man that sucks. Don't compromise though, I'd get him to sell yours and start fresh. That's a major error on his part. Feel bad for all parties involved.
 
Where is the fuel tank? If it’s in the stern and gets moved up front you may see some results.
 
Where is the fuel tank? If it’s in the stern and gets moved up front you may see some results.
Its pretty close to midship, mounted to the hull structure on an aluminum cradle. Might be an option but that would also require a lot of refab, and it would change how the boat sits in the water and how it rides. Its a 50 imp gal tank and would involve moving hatches and all kinds of stuff.
 
**** man that sucks. Don't compromise though, I'd get him to sell yours and start fresh. That's a major error on his part. Feel bad for all parties involved.
Im not sure its that easy, unless he wants to seal the scuppers up and find a buyer who doesnt need/want a self bailing deck. Or a buyer who wants a self bailing deck but doesnt care about TC certification or swamping himself and his guests. Its such a tough situation, idk what the solution is right now. Think I probably need to sleep on it
 
3” is **** ton in my opinion. Honestly for a forever boat I would be inclined to make him build you a new one. If you are like me at all any mods at this point will feel like a band aid. Good luck...that sucks
 
What a ****** situation. Seems like he needs to build a deeper hull with a higher deck. How established is the builder? Do you have any pics of the back of the boat/pod?
 
What a ****** situation. Seems like he needs to build a deeper hull with a higher deck. How established is the builder? Do you have any pics of the back of the boat/pod?
No pics of the finished pod, but lots in this thread of it during the build process. Its got about 3-4" on each side it could theoretically be widened without interfering with the trim tabs. I dont think thatll provide the buoyancy required for another 3-4" of deck height in relation to the waterline though.
 
3” is **** ton in my opinion. Honestly for a forever boat I would be inclined to make him build you a new one. If you are like me at all any mods at this point will feel like a band aid. Good luck...that sucks
That would be an ideal solution but I dont want to leave him holding the bag on this boat. Its beautifully crafted and otherwise perfect, save for that 1 glaring issue. Its a huge issue for me obviously though, not something I can look past.
 
Oh wow that is a serious issue. 3" is a huge change to achieve, core architecture has to change.

The one change that pops into mind would be to hang an Etec G2 on it, those weigh 180 kg compared to Suzuki at 240 kg, would also have a lot more torque and dealers have big factory incentives to move them.

But... even though 135 lb off the transom would help, would it be enough to make the 3"? If I was the builder, any offer to build a new boat would be strictly one time only, you don't get to try a bunch of ideas before finally asking for a new hull.
 
Need to use it in saltier water, move the scuppers up 3 inches, Ah man I’m so not helpful

tough situation, seems hard to change the physics at this point
 
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Yup that sucks but I have to ask, why is the self bailing deck so important to you. Done right a properly plumbed and with the right pump set ups you can get rid of water just as fast or faster with pumps. This is providing your batteries are up to snuff of course.

But if It’s a must for you and you specified to the builder what you wanted is it not up to him to build you the boat you requested and build you the boat he said he was going to build you.
 
Oh wow that is a serious issue. 3" is a huge change to achieve, core architecture has to change.

The one change that pops into mind would be to hang an Etec G2 on it, those weigh 180 kg compared to Suzuki at 240 kg, would also have a lot more torque and dealers have big factory incentives to move them.

But... even though 135 lb off the transom would help, would it be enough to make the 3"? If I was the builder, any offer to build a new boat would be strictly one time only, you don't get to try a bunch of ideas before finally asking for a new hull.
I agree. Any pod modifications, engine swaps (i dont want an etec anyways), etc would just be patching up the problem. Raising the deck with some kind of subfloor structure would create more problems by making the gunnals and stern rails too low. Sealing off the scuppers would fix the issue, but thats not what I ordered so it might work for someone else but not for me.
 
Yup that sucks but I have to ask, why is the self bailing deck so important to you. Done right a properly plumbed and with the right pump set ups you can get rid of water just as fast or faster with pumps. This is providing your batteries are up to snuff of course.

But if It’s a must for you and you specified to the builder what you wanted is it not up to him to build you the boat you requested and build you the boat he said he was going to build you.
Short answer: gravity never fails.

Long answer: I dont want to turn this thread into me throwing my builder under the bus, as I said before hes done an incredible job with the fabrication and finishing. The boat is truly a work of art. Its just not what I asked for and what we agreed upon. The reason I want it to have a self bailing deck is mostly for safety and redundancy. Its an open bow boat and I planned on fishing in it all over the coast. I dont want to have to rely on a bilge pump and battery if I take a big wave over the bow. I like things done well and done simple, with as few points of failure as possible. If I plan to register it as a commercial passenger vessel I want my guests to feel safe as well, and I want to have confidence in my boat that I wont be putting my passengers at risk.
 
Darn good of you adv not to want to turn this into bashing the builder.
I’m not sure what the answer to your problem is but I hope you find a reasonable answer to it brother. And I feel for you it has to be heart breaking.
 
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