Aquasport 250 Express - Rebuild -

[UnWired]

Hi guys,
I am new to the forum, but been lurking here for quite some time and impressed by the amount of information on this site. Awesome hangout!

We are the proud owners of an Aquasport 250 Express, with an old Evinrude 300xp motor. The boat itself is awesome and we have been happy with it. I will try to post pictures of it later.

After a long discussion about the best way to go, either sell it and purchase exactly what we want (Parker 2520 diesel), or fix the Aquasport up, we have decided to rebuild our boat completely and customize it. It's kinda like pouring money after money... but then again, that's what a boat is about.

We are going to strip the entire boat this winter and either paint it, or gelcoat it. I have searched the web, but I can't find much about people gelcoating their boats, except here. Painting it seems like it would be less expensive, but when you put your boat on the trailer, it seems it would chip the paint. Gelcoat seems much more durable. Does anyone have any good information on this and what the difference is?

Also in the rebuild plans are a complete custom hard cover and tuna tower...

2nd question, does anyone know, or has anyone heard of adding spray-on floatation inside of the hull for added safety? Is it worth it? When we start rebuilding this thing in a couple of weeks, we just want to make sure we do everything we can. Adding a new Yamaha 4stroke 250 will definitely increase our fuel consumption. That Evinrude is fast, but SUCKS fuel and oil like you wouldn't believe. Last tuna trip, at 70 miles, sucked down 81 gallons of gas and almost 1.5 gallons of 2 cycle oil. Fuel mileage is about 1.5 - 1.7 mpg... horrible. Thanks - Chris - (Unwired)

[LilRichard]

Welcome Chris.

As fas as gelcoat vs paint, I think that they are both very durable.  I have seen a TON of boats painted with Imron an the finish does last.  Typically if prepped correctly, there will be no "chipping" like one might expect from an enamel.  However even with gelcoat, if you bang the hull against the trailer, they will all gouge.

I have nothing against floatation foam in a hull, I may add some to mine- but it is a two part mixable foam, not the spray stuff.  The only hazard with foam is that over time it can absorb water.  In order to help avoid that, make sure that if you trim it (once cured) that you paint the exposed foam with a thin coat of resin- otherwise you will have "open cells" in your foam that may absorb water.

One other thought, if you are running those kinds of distances, you might be better served by a twin engine setup... maybe two 140s (suzukis) or 150s (yamis)?  Will be less economical than a single, but hey, you might make it home if one engine has an issue.

[UnWired]

Hello lilrichard,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I think sealing it is important to keep water out. No need to take on water without knowing it.

We had originally thought about putting twins on the boat, but my main concern is this boat has a "Wet deck". I thought the wet deck was a great idea at first, but when you stop the boat to catch a fish, 2 people in the back of the boat, next thing you know your feet are wet, cooler is floating and god forbid you get a wave at the wrong time. I don't know if there is a way to fix this or not. It's just kind of irritating when you go fishing and feel you need a wet suit just to catch fish. Does anyone else have this problem with their Aquasports? Is there a way to fix this? There is a transom door in the back, that swings up, but it would just seem to compound the problem if we took a wave overboard.

The single Yamaha outboard should work good. Much less expensive than doubles and it will leave room for the outboard kicker motor we have for trollling. I think we will be replacing this with a small 4 stroke 20hp motor so we totally eliminate the need for 2 stroke oil period. I'll miss that power though.

Does anyone know of a company name, or material name of Gelcoat? I've done some searches, but it's very confusing trying to figure out what I need to find and the process of re-gelcoating a hull.

Anyone else experience with an open transom and that wet feeling you get when you take a wave over the back?


Thanks again.

[RickK]

Hi Chris - Welcome Aboard  :!:  :!:
Does your transom look like this?

I was a little leery of this open end too but have not had a problem with it at all.  That's a 250 Yammy on the tail.  I added a 40 gallon tank to the bilge area right in front of the motor (the 3'x4' deck access in front of the engine in the pic above) and that added about 350 lbs to the aft end of the boat when full and I noticed that she sits a little lower in the water then.  Still no "Wet deck" effect except for our lab shaking off
You didn't mention the year of the boat but maybe you are carrying a lot of water somewhere that you don't know about? Foam, stringers?  You'll find out when you tear into her.  
Don't be shy, all questions will be answered here, whether you really want them answered or not ,  so ask away.

Again, welcome aboard Chris.

[JimCt]

Hi Chris!  Nice to hear you're hanging onto the AS.

For off-shore work I'm a fan of twins or at least a reasonably sized auxiliary kicker.  Always nice to have redundancy when you're out there all alone and the sun's going down.  Other benefit if you do any amount of trolling is you can shut the main engine down and run on the small motor.  Fuel consumption is reduced dramatically.

[UnWired]

Hi Rick and Jim and (all)

Thanks for the quick follow up post. Wow, this place is great.

Yes, that is pretty much what our deck looks like, but we have a (Custom?) rail, that goes around the back of the boat with a bait station. Then, we have a live well off to the port side and oil, trim tab controls, etc inside of another box on the SB side. I will be posting pictures of our boat on here soon.

She doesn't need to really be re-painted, but I want to redo a few things on it and since we will be dumping so much money into it, I want the end results to be a complete rebuild.

We have had it offshore a very long distance tuna fishing and I want to be able to reliably going 70 miles off into the temp break. We couldn't make it 70 last week, so I was so disgruntled at the end, I was either going to sell it and get a new long range boat, or completely referb our existing boat.

If money wasn't really an object (so to speak) and you had to redo your boat, what would the ideal mods be? New 4 stroke outboard, floatation hull, complete repaint, tuna tower and custom hard top, bigger fuel tank (thinking about making a custom stainless or aluminum 150 gal tank, new gauges and an E-box up top for the radar, GPS, depth finder, radio etc. The engine is a must, but I'm scared of adding twins to it because of the added weight and the wet deck. That open transom really gets water flowing, so to speak. We went out in 5-7 foot seas one day and trying to bottom fish was kinda like swimming if we had the back to the swells and wind waves.

Every time I pull the drain plug after a long tuna trip, it's bone dry. The bilge works good because it has leaked water before. I think I have a leak in one of the top accessory caps because only when the wet deck leaks does it get water in the bilge.

Also on the agenda is a new Floscan and most important, a fuel gauge on the dash. There is only a small accessory cap in the deck that you have to pull up to look at the fuel supply. This is nonsense. I'm sure most of the other Aquasports have a fuel gauge.

We absolutely love the way the boat handles and we have been out in the rough stuff plenty of times. I've made my share of friends puke off the back of my boat.. hahaha!!

Transom is rock solid, hull looks like new except for trailer scrapes and I think the previous owner beached it a few times and a few dings down to the fiber. That's why we want to do a repaint.

Thanks again and look forward to posting the complete rebuild here.

[JimCt]

Please post some pictures when you get a chance.  Like to see how she's trimmed sitting at the dock.  Shot of the stern if you can get it.

[UnWired]

Hey guys,

I have a question. I know I've been complaining about this wet deck (open transom), but right now I have that huge Evinrude 300xp on the back and a 25hp Mariner on the back. Total weight of the engines should be 700 lbs.

I found 2 Yamaha 150 HPDIs and worried about the weight. The weight difference is about 200 lbs putting twins on it and removing our existing engines.

Is the extra weight going to matter that much? Will my boat's hull take the 300 combined HP and transom weight? It's' a good deal and I will do it. I think I have a call to Aquasport in the AM unless someone else knows about a 250 express with twins on it and the combo works good.

Thanks, Chris

[RickK]

Chris, spend a few moments in here and even though we might not have your exact hull in the 250 section, look at some of the other docs and see if you can find what you're asking.
I haven't had my 230 but a year and use it to camp mostly - haven't used it to go deep fishing yet.  If I wanted to go as far offshore as you do, I would want twins for safety sake.  Maybe add a flotation bracket to mount the twins, to help offset the weight?

[LilRichard]

Chris,

Pics would definitely help.  The options depend on why you're getting wet... is it water over the transom, or are the scuppers letting water in also?

You say you're rebuilding the boat, well here is what I would do, but you may not wish to go this far:  I would enclose your transom, and put a bracketed pair of motors on it.  If I am 70 plus miles offshore I would rather have an extra foot of height between me and water coming over the stern.  I have heard of a lot of other hulls going down that way- Gradys in particular.  

It all depends though on how the boat will be used normally, and how deep your pockets are.  Mine are rather shallow!

 :afro:

[kiwapilots]

 

Hey guys, Im new here to but have a pretty awesome 25 I do say myself.  The WET deck he is spaking of definitely scared me too.  Thank goodness to the expierienced glassers and boat builders in Savannah Ga.  I wanted to hang twin 250 2 stroke mercs and had the transom raised 5 inches.  Even with that when parked on the Savannah river overnight would scare me from the tides, (very fast moving)  I only had about 3 inches of transom out of the water.  The twin 250's would fly on the boat BUT the boat absolutely handled like crap!!!!  TOO MUCH weight and HP.  I sold the mercs and just bought a 350 Yamaha 4 stoke.  I am super stoked to see what this new set-up will do.  I am raising the transom ALL THE WAY and adding a 30 inch bracket with swim platform to help for transom support.  This is going to be an awesome set up I hope.  I will do a complete Project page with pictures on this website so stay tuned!  In Afghanistan right now so will start in March when I get home.  I think that I will sleep much better having the full size transom and I think it just gives a neater appearance.  Will keep you all posted,

PS, I just tried to upload some photos of my 25 Aqua, but pictures wont load,,, to big a file

Larry

[Capt. Bob]

 I just tried to upload some photos of my 25 Aqua, but pictures wont load,,, to big a file

Larry

Try loading them first to the Forum Gallery:
http://classicaquasport.com/smf/index.php?topic=12725.0

Then you can load them directly into your post rather than attaching a file. The original file size does not matter (ie too big) because the Gallery auto sizes the original file to fit within the post. Attaching files was meant for something else (think .pdf files) that has a limited size.

You also should start a new thread specific just to you.

Good luck.

[kiwapilots]

Thanks Capt Bob.