fish nautique bulkhead repair

I have been working off and on between marathon overtime stints at work this winter on my 23 foot Correct Craft "Fish Nautique". I wasn't even going to post pics but decided too after all.   As you can tell I am not a perfectionist. My work is solid as a rock but kind of sloppy. I will re-do the wiring next. My uncle in re-building the trans. and then the motor can be re-installed.

I bought this boat on e-bay early last fall. Used it a few times and then pulled the engine and started in on replacing the bulkheads that surround the engine compartment. These rot out on most all the older fish nautiques. I asked the P.O. if they were solid and he a$$ured me they were. After a long trip to the east coast I found they were skim coated and painted over. I took the boat anyway and decided to fix it. Well now there 1/2 inch marine ply resin coated both sides and covered with 3 layers of heavy cloth and resin. The cross members are 1.5 inch laminated marine ply tabbed in both sides with 3 layers of cloth. The floor is now supported like a rock. I painted the bilge with "bilge coat" enamel and re-sealed the thru hulls. Don't ding me too hard for the sloppy work,

Engine coming out.



mess of rotten wood and extra wires





example of the rotten wood I removed from the bilge area.



After the side and front bulkheads were replaced.



Cross members replaced and bilge getting ready to paint.



painted bilge, first coat







here is a pic of her last fall on one of our fishing adventures. The boat really runs out well and is fun to drive



dave.

Dave, great job! Who looks in the bilge anyway? (except maybe one of us)
                                 Farmer

Thanks guys, it will look some better after I sort out the wireing and dress it up a little.

dave.

79nautique wrote: while your doing the motor just be sure and step up the cam a little and maybe get some gt40p heads and AL intake like we just installed on jbears

Remember this is a fishing boat, a steped up cam can kill the idle for trolling. The motor has about 80 hours on a jasper reman. I probably wont touch the engine other than possibly a set of cool valve covers and maybe a alum. intake.

dave.

Dave, good looking job, you are under estimating the quality of your work. Keep us up to date with your progress.
Jerry

farmer wrote: Dave, great job! Who looks in the bilge anyway? (except maybe one of us)                                  Farmer

Very good work Dave.

That bow section looks like new. Neat boat. BKH

Dave, any chance you'd part with the top before selling the whole boat? My t-top just isn't optimal for me and I'm longing for one of those factory towers...

Pretty much dialed in...prop specs out at 13.30in dia with 12in of pitch and a ton of cup and I run 4600RPM at 39.99999999mph.

Could probably take some cup out and see 4800 and maybe 42mph, but for now I'm calling it good.

Prop guy wants to step it up to a 15in diameter prop and just trim the tips down if it doesn't clear sufficiently so I'll at least have the blade area of a 15in prop and stick with the 12in pitch with maybe less cup or none at all.

I say 40mph and right in the sweet spot of wot RPMs is fine by me when a new prop is $440.

Let me know if something changes about the tower...you're welcome to my t-top in partial trade...it's the factory issue t-top.

I have a fish, and was considering trim tabs. I was looking at your pics. and wanted to know if you would recomend them. also looks like you did a great job on the repair.

Hey Dave...how is your fish box hinged? My fish is the only one I've been on, but I have two exposed hinges that I hate...yours doesn't appear to have them unless those things forward of it somehow hinge it.

Thank ya sir...I guess that means Dave's FN is either different or I'm not seeing the picture correctly. I just don't like to wear shoes, but in rough seas my toes tend to find those hinges like they were 2' wide instead of 2".

Dave, the chrome scoops came with it...I wish they were a bit lower profile, but I reckon that would probably diminish their performance a bit...and they do perform an important job.

As for your plumbing of the livewell...how'd you go about doing it? Mine has one drain that does nothing (so probably a previous intake rather than drain) and the other one drains slowly and into the bilge...also, any ideas on how I could replumb the fish box to drain to a macerator/pump and then through a thru-hull above the waterline? I want to do both of those things, but don't know how to access the bilge forward of that bulkhead in front of the engine.

So are both 'drains' in the livewell 2 way? Also, any way to get the rubber hoses out and new ones on? Mine are there, but they're hardly rubber anymore.

-Ryan

Dave, This has been an enjoyable thread, we don't talk about fishing boats much here but those fish nautiques are certainly great looking boats. I think I need to drive one sooner or later. Yours looks awesome great work.