1971 222 Flatback

[DoubleD]

I've had the boat over ten years and finally have been able to slowly begin chipping away at some improvements. Before I go too much further I have a couple questions. In a small following sea the boat is going to soak you sooner or later. I am also not fond of the cut down transom. If I were to put a full transom and a flotation bracket, does the ride improve enough to be "cost effective"? I'm currently powered by two 1995 60 hp Yamaha's that may seem under powered but will top out around 30 kts and jump up skinny with an impressive load on it. Do spray rails significantly help? As mentioned above, the boat don't spray, it soaks! as in a five gallon bucket at a time when it comes. Is adding a hell of a set of curtains a better solution? I'll see about putting some photos on photo-bucket and adding later. Thanks for any comments.

[fitz73222]

Would love to see your flattie with twin 60's. That's plenty of power and torque for that boat. That boat did not do well in following seas because of no deadrise at the stern and its propensity to bow steer as result. A little positive trim with the engines and higher idle speed in a following sea could help to keep the bow up and stern down to give some control and dryer entry.You're getting wet from water coming over the bow? If your running in a quartering sea on a constant basis there's not much to do except adding the spray rails to tame the spray. I'm assuming your dealing with Atlantic inlets where the water gets pretty big?

[GoneFission]

I don't think you would get much difference in spray from a bracket - keep the twin 60s and put spray rails on.  Check out the pics on the SmartRails site:

http://thesmartrail.com/

[gran398]

DD,

First off, welcome aboard! We're glad you're here!

I too am an aficionado of small twins on 22-2's. Please post up some pics, instructions found at the top of every forum.

As the guys suggest, look into installing spray rails. My neighbor just added SmartRails to an Albemarle 27. His only regret was he didn't do it sooner...says the difference is night and day.

[DoubleD]

Ok, I just put a couple photo's in the member's gallery. Let me keep playing with this and get them in this topic. I'll also add a few older ones if I can dig them up.

[fitz73222]

Nice DD,
There aren't many originals left, especially with twins. Those engines probably replaced the originals like mine. I've have an original '73 with '95 115 Mercs. Very cool. Where are you located?

[DoubleD]

Florida Big Bend near Cedar Key. I'm looking for an electronic's box, I like the idea of Sea Deck and the Smart Rails. I'm kicking around a full transom and a bracket. Thinking about a fish box in transom, and if you have to bracket it only seems to make sense that you would want the extra lift....thoughts? And yes those are 1995's that replaced originals. I got the boat with less than 100 hrs on them.

[fitz73222]

Well DD,

The full transom project is going to reveal some other issues and is going to put you at a cross roads. Chances are the flotation foam in the stringer grid is saturated with water and you wont be able to glass in a new transom with the presence of water. It will lead to the floor coming up and a stringer replacement or rebuild, new floor, foam etc... I've never seen a flattie or any 70's vintage that doesn't have wet foam. So a do it yourself $5K project (with bracket) jumps to $12-15K + . My advice is run it until it needs a rebuild and then take the deep dive on a full rebuild and full transom if you wish. How are the floors in the boat? Any soft spots?

[DoubleD]

That is the kind of reply I was looking for. Thanks. I'll shelf the transom project until the engines put me at that cross road. The spray rails and Sea Deck are about a $1,500 project from what I can tell. The floor is good, and the inner hull area generally stays dry.