Turning the ugliest boat in Costa Rica into a respectable 28' Center Console Diesel
 

Well, been down here a while and I've redone a couple of boats that I charter, including my favorite the old gamefisherman, but the last year I've been stuck rebuilding other people's boats here. So two weeks back, i saw this ugly boat in the boat yard and decided it's time I do one of my own! This has to be the ugliest boat I've ever seen, but I just really thought it just had a nice looking hull, this takes some serious imagination, but we'll see if I'm right Here's the ugly sucker when i bought her:

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/1Benditiion.jpg


Yeah, it was en evil person that put all that ugly on that pretty hull, so right away I (and my best friend Harold) got out the 6 inch disks and put on some trash bags and cut the top off and then flipped her over!


http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/2...oldNoPaint.jpg

We also sanded her down and found several spots where there was no glass and just bondo. That's what the glass strips are all about. So after all the cutting and sanding, we sprayed some Gel Coat on her to see what she looked like painted up:

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/3...dShortMold.jpg

And here's another angle:

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/4...ShortMoldB.jpg


Not bad Ehh ?? But, it only measured out to 25 feet, and my smallest boat in my fleet is a 28 footer, so we needed an extra 3 foot. I'm not a Naval Ar****ect by any means, but we will just figure it out as we go here.... So we put some Wax and PVA on the last three feet and put a couple of layers of 1708 on her!

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/5MoldBackpart.jpg

And here's another shot:

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/6MoldBackPart2.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/7...nAlignment.jpg

So here's what it looked like after we dismolded the 3 foot extension, cut off the transom and put in on the back. We also added a tunnel while it was on the table after we dis molded it, I forgot to take pictures, but you can see the tunnel there. Then we stuck the thing on the back of the boat and did some Micro Spere's and Gelcoat and came up with this:

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/8HullTunnelPic.jpg

And here's another angle:

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/9HullBeforePaint.jpg

Now was the time for the big decision. Up to this point I had always thought we were just going to use the boat. But after some thought, I decided that the original hull was just not done very well, and we instead are going to use this creation as a MOLD to build another couple of boats at least. I really like the way this hull is looking, but it was done with all 18 and 24 OZ roven, with thick mat between every layer and it was heavy. Since I'm going to do all the topside with corecell, it would be dumb to have a heavy hull with a light top, so we decided instead of doing too much finish work, we were going to just spray some gelcoat thick, do a little bit of long boarding and then throw on the Wax and PVA and just make sure it's a good finished boat that doesn't weigh 10,000 pounds... So here's the shots of my bud harold throwing some GelCoat getting her ready to be copied:

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/AHarolPainting.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/BPaintingB.jpg

Here's a before and after:

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/1Benditiion.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...ishingHull.jpg

And here is the end of two weeks of Hard Work!

We are going to go with 4 layers of 1708 on the bottom and 3 on the sides. That's kind of thin, but on the inside we are going to use alot of bulkheads all in corecell, and then the corecell floor, and I think with all the tie-in's we'll end up with 5/6 layers on the bottom and then the floor will help support the hull. We are going with a cummins 210B series engine in the center, so we need to make her light if we want a 20+ knot cruise at 5.5 GPH.

The idea is to make a boat that doesn't burn fuel and gets out to the fishing grounds cheap but fast, and the hope is to offer $600-650 full day offshore trips with food drinks included for up to 5 people.




http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/.jpg

Here's some pictures of the very first "Quepos 28" as it sits on the mold. This was 4 layers on the bottom of 1708 and 3 on the sides. It didn't turn out perfect, but I'm sure it'll float. We used a isothalic (that's in Spanish, i don't know the English word for it) Polyester resin, I would have used VinylEster, but there wasn't time to import it and there is none in country. We had a little trouble with the resin from the local supplier, it was really thick so we had to make a big table the same length as the boat and we wet the 1708 down on the table with the inside part up and then went over it with the metal roller to wet it out good from the inside, and then we rolled it back onto the cardboard tubes they sell the glass on and then unrolled the tubes onto the mold. If the resin had been thinner, it would have been a lot less work, but we eventually got it all on there. Once we got started, we just decided to tough it out...

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...aidUpMolda.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...aidUpMoldb.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...aidUpMoldc.jpg

Since we did this the wrong way as a Male Mold, we are going to have to fill in all the weave that you can see with Micro Sphere's and a Gel Coat mixture. To put it on kind of thick and try to knock out the big stuff, we decided to mix a big bucket of the stuff and put it on with a brush. Here's Harold painting the microshperes on the boat with the paint brush:

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...resFishing.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/P...posFishing.jpg


Funny story, I had to drive to the capital to pick up this huge bag of Micro Spheres and I got pulled over on the way home with a huge bag of white powder in the passenger seat of my Tacoma :) I showed him the receipt, and I guess he figured if it was the "other powder" commonly moved through the area, it would be worth way too much and let me go! Here's the big bag of white powder I drove across the country with:

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/C...gbondofish.jpg

Then comes the best part, a 2 by 4 with some 36 grit. The first one was a picture I shot while I was supposed to be sanding, and the second picture was just too corny so i had to post it as well. I joking asked Harold to pose with the board, I didn't think he'd do it...

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...rdFishingA.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...rdFishingB.jpg

Here's some pictures of us fairing it out. Didn't turn out too bad, there aren't any places with super thick microspheres, mostly just defects and pinholes and such.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...ishing630A.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...ishing630b.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...ingGelcoat.jpg

Well, we got her painted. We sprayed on about 3 gallons of Gelcoat mixed with 2 gallons of Estrene to thin it out to go through the gun. We got four coats on the bottom which is good enough, tomorrow we are going to 100 grit the bottom so that when we are ready to bottom paint it we won't have to sand it upside down. I know it'll probably be pretty flimsy when I get it apart, so we are going to have to do a lot of bracing before we put in the bulkheads. I was overall happy with how the hull turned out, the border was a little rough, but we have to sand all that down anyways to put on the top side. I setup the Go Pro and the Nikon to take some video of us pulling this thing apart and I'll post that in a few minutes. The idea was we used a water hose and floated the mold off of the hull while it's right side up. it was easier than I thought, but the video turned out pretty funny so I'll post it in a sec. :)
http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...intedHullA.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...intedHullB.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...intedHullC.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...intedHullD.jpg

Well, i think this proves I'm more ghetto than talented...but here's the video of us taking the Hull off of the mold. Keep in mind we are in a fairly remote area of Costa Rica, and there are no cranes or anything that normal SANE people would use to demold boats. All I have are some friends and some homeless people that looked hungry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYKb3Pv4XPA

The idea was pretty simple, flipping the boat over demolded a little bit of it, so I stuck a water hose in there between the two and floated the mold inside the new hull. It took a while, but worked great.

The hull didn't hold it's shape 100 percent, so we built a quick cradle with a tape measure and some 2X4's to keep it straight and it did straighten up nicely. Today we fiberglassed in some stringers and the lower motor support area. Really happy with the finished product, but the process was Iffy

So we get the molds apart, but we were left with this deformed hull. It took us a while to figure out what was going on, but it ended up being that the floor of the shop was curved and that's why the point of the boat points up. The glass looked good and solid though.


http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...formedHull.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...ormedHullB.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...ormedHullC.jpg

But like everything in construction, it's nothing that a tape measure, a shovel and some 2 by 4's can't fix.

So we moved the hull out of the cover and dug some holes and partially buried some 2 by 4's. We then made a cradle to put the hull in and everything straightened out nicely!

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...FixedHullA.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...FixedHullB.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...FixedHullC.jpg

On the last picture, you can see one of the side projects where we took a 5 inch PVC and wrapped it with 4 layers of 1708 to make the exhaust pipe. We are waiting on the CoreCell to get here, they are saying by the end of next week, so we are trying to build everything that we can in the mean time. I wish I had taken more pictures of the hull with the braces on it, the lines came out nice.

With the hull straight, we decided to put the motor mounts / mini stringers. I didn't want to put in some super big stringers because we are going to put in alot of corecell bulkheads, but I wanted something to help the hull out where the motor was going to be mounted. We built the non wood parts by just making a one layer of 1708 on the table and cutting it into 6 inch strips and using some bondo (with extra activator to dry fast) to make boxes attached to the floor. Then we got out the filet knife and made a nice 1 inch filet with Cabosil (which was grey, some offbrand I'm sure?) and then used that as a mold to put on 4 layers of 1708. We still have to put some holes in it so that it doesn't hold water (at the bottom so water will flow to the bilge if any goes down there). Not the prettiest, but it'll work, and it'll give the hull a little more thickness where the motor goes. We are still going to clean this up and close the end, but I figured I'd take some pictures of the process.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...StringersA.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...StringersB.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...StringersC.jpg

I shot this right before we hid this beautiful wood. This is some amazing Iron Wood we are using to mount the motor. This is a purple version of CocoBolo called Nazereno. It's bright purple and has the best grain swirls, like most things that are really cool, the picture doesn't do it justice. We chose it because it is one of the hardest woods here and it doesn't rot. That is where we are going to bolt on the stainless part of the motor support table, I'd explain it, but pretty soon I'll just post pictures of it finished and that will be easier!

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...StringersD.jpg

What a difference loading it on the trailer with the motor stringers in place, it was a lot more stable and didn't want to deform like when we first demolded it. But we still hand loaded it onto the trailer with three guys, so it isn't very heavy.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...ngInWaterE.jpg

While I had the boat on the trailer, I took some better pictures of the cradle we made, nothing too complex, we buried some two by fours and then got out some string and a level and the three two by fours that are horizontal are all the same height and level. We measured from the horizontals up to make sure the hull was symetrical. The sides of the cradle we did after the boat was on top using a tape measure on the upper border. The hull wants to "open" so we measured the original hull which was alot thicker and not as flexible. We put a board across in the middle and then lifted the chimes with the small pieces. I am terrible at explaining, but look at the picture :)

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...ngInWaterD.jpg

So we get it in the water and it drafted about an inch and a half, with just the hull.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...ngInWaterC.jpg

So then we put three drums of water in the boat where the motor will be going. Filled it up with salt water. Three drums weights about 1300ish pounds, the same as the motor. And we are putting in a 40 gallon tank which weighs about 240 pounds full so I put two friends where the tank will be. Here's us putting in the water and then the photo of all the weight where it goes. It floated really level.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...ngInWaterB.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...ngInWaterA.jpg

And then we got a piece of fiberglass and marked out 7 inches and put the bottom mark in the water and then marked the hull all the way around with the other and we have our waterline.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...ngInWaterF.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...ngInWaterG.jpg

After these pictures, we spend a ton of time getting it back on the cradle and back level again. Next we are going to start doing birdcages for the bulkheads!

Still waiting on the corecell to get in, but I managed to find enough scraps to make the border around the edge where the floor will sit. This is also what i'm going to use to make my birdcages which we start next. The boat is going to live on a mooring, so I made the floor a hair higher than I would have if it was going in the marina so that water doesn't come in through the back scuppers at night when there are waves, and then I also put quite a bit of fall from the front to the back so that if a bunch of people go up front, I won't have a little pond up there. :) We also roughly put the floor to the bathroom in. Still have to clean that up, but I found a 1 inch divinycell that a friend had so we glassed it and stuck it where the bathroom floor will be.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...eckbordera.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...eckborderb.jpg

And then with a little time on our hands and now knowing where the floor goes, we put the tube in the muffler that will go out the back and we are going to finish the muffler next. The floor will sit on the top of the muffler and it will be the same height as the bulkheads on top.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...eckborderc.jpg

Here's an inside view of the muffler. This was before we finished up the glass on the tubes, they are just stuck on there with cabosil and resin in the picture. We got those glassed in and the middle wall glassed in after the photo. On the top, we are going to do the top half at a time, like the left half and then the right half, so in the middle we can tie the top to the partition with at least one layer of 1708. We got it cut down to floor height though so it fits right under the floor nicely. I did make a mistake, I wasn't there when they stuck the tubes in to the sides (where the air enters and leaves the muffler), I would have liked to see them about 3-4 inches deeper, but it didn't happen and I don't think it makes that much difference. If I get some noise on the transom, that's why, but it's kind of fun to experiment, I know it'll knock down 90 percent of the noise either way.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gbirdcagea.jpg

Here's my Engineering plans which I made with Paint! :)

http://www.queposfishadventure.com/q...flerdesign.jpg


And then spent the rest of the morning building birdcages! Birdcages are 2 inches strips of 5/16 plywood that we use to make a pattern so we can cut out the corecell when it gets here. We are sticking it together with a nail gun, which is not OSHA friendly, but you can also use a staple gun, and I've seen some people use hot glue, although that would be painfully slow. Hopefully by the end of the day we will have the rest of the birdcages done and the muffler stuck to the floor, and I'll stick up some more pictures later!

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gbirdcaged.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gbirdcagec.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gbirdcageb.jpg

We are going to do bulkheads at 24 inch centers, that's what we did on the gamefisherman and my other 28 footer, and those floors are very stout, so I'm sticking with it! Here is the strength of 1/2 inch corecell with 1 layer of 1708 on each side. This was placed perfectly between the bulkheads on top of a hatch opening on my other 28 foot boat, and I didn't know the floor could hold this up but it did nicely:

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/MotorOnCorecell.jpg

The motor weighs about 1300 pounds plus the transmission, so if it'll hold that, we should be alright walking around on it!

Next we finished the birdcages and took them out. This was a lot of work, but we knocked it out in a day and a couple of hours.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...installedC.jpg

And then we went ahead and finished the muffler and stuck it down to the hull and cut the hole in the back. i like solid exhausts because the hoses always scare me :) We stil have to flush the tile pipe up to the transom, but he have it glassed in from the inside with a double 1708. We are going to grind it flush with a 36 grit 4.5 grinder and then put some cabosil and put a 1708 on the outside.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...installeda.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...installedb.jpg

And then that brings me up to date, and this is where I am now. Today is the day my box of 24 sheets of corecell was supposed to come in, but not to my surprise, it's not here yet. I shipped it from Florida about 2 months ago, and it should be here anyday. So we are kind of stuck with nothing to do, the next thing on the list are the bulkheads, and the birdcages are ready to go, we just need the foam

SO, to try to get ahead a bit, we decided to do the worst job imaginable! My big friend Harold, and another guy in the shop, went ahead and sanded the whole inside of the hull with 36 grit sandpaper on the 4.5 grinder. That way we can just stick in the bulkheads and glass them to the floor quickly and everything will be sanded and ready to go. So today, i took the day OFF! and the guys spent 10 hours with grinders in hand making fine white powder!!!! The hull cleaned up well though, these will probably be the last photos for a while, when my foam gets out of storage we'll have these bulkheads in quick though!

This photo is deceptive, the motor stringers actually run 65 percent of the hull length, here they look short and small ??? It was the wide angle on the camera, but even with that in mind, you can kind of see where we ended up.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gworstJobA.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gworstJobb.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gworstJobc.jpg

Sorry for the million posts, I kept telling myself I was going to start the thread and then i was worn out. I'll try to keep it up to date from here on out!

Nice job

I've been following your build on the other site. I always look forward to your updates.

Great Post
 

Awesome stuff man, please send updates.

Build a boat- On my to do list one day.

Nice job


THT?

Yes Sir

Yep, I have this build on THT as well.

looks fantastic, great job.

its a shame though you didn't stop at the beginning and make a true female mold from the newly extended hull shell when you had the chance. I suppose its not too much work to repeat what you did the first time to extend the hull and make a solid permanent female mold so you can produce as many of these hulls as you want.

im sure you will want to make more of these and im also sure they would sell fast if you made them to sell.

awesome build... cant wait to see the finished product

I might on the next one, I want to make sure the boat rides good first. I really don't need too many, 3 max but probably just 2 and then I'm going to build some cold molded or foam cored 30-32 footers. These are just to feed the boat building bug until I can build the bigger more expensive ones :)

Nice work.

really cool to see the build process, esp one that is taking place in such a rural backdrop. Keep us posted with pics and updates please

Will do, I am going to the capital tomorrow, my core cell has finally arrived, so Friday we will start work again and try to put this thing together!

Christmas has arrived here in Quepos! Full box of Corecell, only a little over 2 months on a boat to get here, but today was a good day! And we hit the ground running, cutting out all the bulkheads and glassing 4 of them!

Yes sir, I'll take a box of that one!

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gCoreCella.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gCoreCellb.jpg

Sorry, i get so excited seeing the foam come in. This was several months of saving, I was so depressed when i used up the last piece of my foam last year, and gettting more in today really made today a good day!

Here's us taking the bird cages and tracing out the bulkheads on the foam. When we do this, we always trace outside a little bit. That makes the foam bigger than where it goes. Then we try to put the foam in place, and mark with a construction pencil where it touches first. Then with a little 32 grit and a wood block, sand down the line where it touched and stick it back in, and repeat and repeat until we get a tight fit. After the thing fits, then we are glassing them, 2 1708's on each side. Usually you leave a 6 inch section on the bottom of the blukheads that only has one 1708 and it gets the 2nd 1708 when you tie it in, but I'm going to bulk these up a little bit as I've been making everything light and I want these to be indestructable. Here's us tracing the birdcages onto the foam:

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gCoreCellc.jpg


http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gCoreCelld.jpg

And here are the four bulkheads we glassed. We glassed two layers of 1708 on one side with light catalyst, then flipped them over on the table while still wet, which is heavily waxed formica over plywood, and then glassed the other side with two more 1708's. They are going to be very solid. I got a little too excited today, and as you can see it's very dark by the time we got these glassed and I'm worn out! Today was a full 5Am to 8PM work day, if you can call this work...

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gCoreCelle.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gCoreCellf.jpg

Here's the Costa Rican version of post cure! It was a scorcher out there, I'm super burned, worse than when I fish with no sunscreen! These things sat in the sun from about 8 to 4, and they were so hot you could barely handle them, but the resin dried up soo much it felt like we put paraffin in the resin and it wasn't even sticky anymore. Probably unnecessary, but it's free.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gPostCurea.jpg

And then we got out the grinder and 36 grit and carefully cleaned them all up.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gPostCureb.jpg

And then we rough fit them in the boat. They are pretty close, will have to tweak them a little, but we'll have them in Monday.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gPostCurec.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gPostCured.jpg

On one of the bulkheads, we had a little spot that de-laminated so we decided for the other bulkheads we are going to do the double mold thing. We have four bulkheads done, I think we are putting in 7 or 8, so it'll be pretty stout. The bulkheads are super light, maybe 30-35 pounds each, so 7 is maybe 220 pounds which isn't that much for the supporting structure for the hull. Here is our "double mold", we ended up putting about double the weight on it and it will dry for 24 hours before we demold it.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gPostCuree.jpg

I need to start getting into the vacuum pumps. That would make a little bit better laminates, but we're in low season right now and I'm broke :)

Pretty busy day today. We started off by putting nice 1 inch filets on every bulkhead I have in the boat using resin thickened with cabosil. I'm not super neat, we try to be, so in the picture, that was after Harold sanded the filets a bit.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...bulkheadsd.jpg

And then we went ahead and did two layers of 1708 to tie them to the floor. After this had dried, there was no movement whatsoever in the hull, there wasn't too much after the mini stringers, but this firmed everything up really nicely. We have 2 builheads glassed in and we ran out of glass, so tomorrow late in the day we are getting another roll in. We still have to build one more bulkhead on the table, and then there are some longitudal ones that we are going to put next to the motor and then a box up front under the floor to store things in, so more pics coming soon!

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...bulkheadsa.jpg
http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...bulkheadsb.jpg

Also, somebody had a scale at the shop today, i thought the bulkheads weighed around 35 pounds each, but apparently they are just big and awkward, because the biggest one tipped the scale at 16.5 pounds. So 7 of those is probably a little more than 100 pounds, so this is working out to be very light and hopefully worth all the expensive materials!

Nice work!

Question, who would you use to book an all inclusive trip to Costa Rica.

My family is interested in snorkeling, eating, beach, some near sure reef fishing, zip lining and hiking.

I run a charter company and we can setup your hotel and all your activities. Shoot me an email at FishCRJohn@Gmail.com and we'll get you all setup!

This is awesome. Love this thread. Really looking forward to the finished product.

Thanks, I'm having a lot of fun too, I am curious if it'll float, but either way it's fun putting it together!

Got the last bulkhead in the boat and we made the cabosil filet. Then we went ahead and made the walls that go next to the motor and put those in place as well with the cabosil. It was getting dark, so we're going to go ahead and do all the glass to hold the last bulkhead and motor walls tomorrow. Here's a couple of pictures of all the bulkheads finally in place!

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gbigfileta.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gbigfiletb.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gbigfiletc.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...gbigfiletd.jpg

Got the bulkheads cut off. We started using a Saw Z all, but they only had cheap chinese blades at the hardward store, and the first blade melted from the friction off of the foam. So we ended up cutting it off with a 4.5 metal cutting wheel and then using a 2 X 4 and some 36 grit to get it down to the line. We marked everything using the rim of the floor as a guide, we took our time and got the rim pretty level, and then just shot a string line across, marked it and chopped it.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...Bulkheadse.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...Bulkheadsd.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...Bulkheadsc.jpg

I also went ahead and made the deck hatch frames. When we cut the foam for the floor, this will go underneath so that we can make 1 inch hatches that sit in the frame. I used to use lots of the plastic hatches, but I get tired of buying them every year as they are super fragile. The corecell hatches don't break.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...Bulkheadsb.jpg

And then who says you can't learn everything on the internet. i got this trick off of the hull truth, this is how we figured out the crown that we are going to put on the back two bulkheads. We have 2 inches on the transom floor support, and 1.5 inches on the first bulkhead in the back and .75 inches on the second from the back bulkhead. That way when the mate filets the fish in the back, the water will run to the sides quick and out the scuppers. The circle trick is how you figure out the crown of the floor.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...Bulkheadsa.jpg

Ok, here's a midday update :) This last week we installed all the chases where the hoses/electrical will go. Probably could have been a little neater, but we are kind of excited about putting in floor. We also knocked most of the holes where the water will drain out of the bulkheads, i think we still have two left, but I have to get another bit as the hole saw died. Here are some pictures of the plumbing for all the cables/hoses:

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...irstfloorc.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...irstfloord.jpg

And then here are the first two pieces of floor. These go right next to the motor. There is still some welding i need to do in the back for the rudder and piston, so we are going to do the front part of the boat which is easier. It'll feel nice to get some of the floor in there. The hatches still need some finish work, but we've done several and they look pretty good when we get them finished up. I used to use plastic hatches, but with lots of trips with drunk customers, I need some bulletproof hatches so they don't break. The hatch itself will be 1 inch corecell and they sit in there pretty deep so we don't have problems with them moving or coming up when you don't want them to.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...irstfloora.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...irstfloorb.jpg

Looking great Green-Go. I've been trying to convince the wife Costa Rica is where we need to take our next vacation.

Love to have you guys, fishing has been really good out here lately, right now we are in offseason for billfish, and we had 15 sailfish hooked up and released 9.

Gringo John, my wife is a travel agent and she's sending some clients to Quepos and they were looking for a guide. Ill give her your contact info if you can send it to me.

Sure my email is FishCRJohn@Gmail.com and my website is www.QueposFishAdventure.com so she can see the boats that we have running now (and this one should be running by late January or earlier)

Thanks bud...

This is the coolest thread. Keep the updates coming.

Well, we got some of the floor down. The two strips of floor by the motor we had stuck down yesterday with cabosil and then today we glassed the edges. We did a 12 inch strip on those, 6 on the floor and 6 on the wall to hold the pieces down. And then we sanded it off flush to wrap another 12 incher into the motor compartment and the bathroom to tie everything together nicely.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...condfloorb.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...condfloorc.jpg

The front had a weird angle on it, I don't know that we did that on purpose, but we are going to build a wrap around bench up there, so you won't see the front of the floor anyways, up by the nose. But because of the angle we couldn't build that on the table, we had to glass just the bottom on the table, and then glass the top in place, and then I put another 10 inch strip around the edge for a little more strength. Got a nice resin burn on the face from that one, lots of vapor, but we got it done.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...condfloord.jpg

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...condfloora.jpg

And then for some reason, we didn't make the little piece of floot that connects the sides to the front, so we are put those on the table to glass in tomorrow.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...condfloore.jpg

I think tomorrow we are going to cut the foam for the console also, maybe start glassing those pieces so we can get the console in place in a day or two. It's starting to look more like a boat!

Here's some pictures I shot yesterday. It's center console time! Building the console has got to be the most fun part of building a center console boat, it's such an important part it's even the boat's first name :) Before I post the pictures, i have to make a disclaimer. We are grinding glass alot, and instead of throwing our clothes in the washing machine every day and getting glass on the rest of our clothes, we go to this used clothing store, and gets big sacks of clothes for a couple of bucks and then throw them away. The bag is getting empty, and today Harol got stuck with a women's shirt :) so that is why he's dressed like that! I had on a terrible shirt as well, but I edited myself out of the pictures!!!

Ok on to business! Here is the first drawing of the console.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...erConsoleA.jpg

I copied this off of my other 28 foot boat. We cut it out and mounted it in the boat, but I thought is was a little too tall.

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...erConsolee.jpg

So we took off 4 inches and then we decided to put a small step on the motor side so the captain can sit on the motor box and have somewhere to prop us his feet. We came up with this:

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...erConsoleb.jpg

Satisfied with the design, we made a copy of it and then figured out how wide the motor box was going to be. We then cut out a ton of panels at the width of the console, one for every different face, and labeled them, for example here is number 5:

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...erConsolec.jpg

Then we made two more tables to glass on, because its a lot of pieces and glassed both sides with one layer of 1708 and they are drying right now. With the console moving forward, we went ahead and installed more of the back floor, we had already glassed the underside of this part, and since there is a little crown, we have to glass the top side in place. Here the newest section of floor:

http://www.QueposFishAdventure.com/Q...erConsoled.jpg

this is great stuff

Thanks!