Has anyone widened their gunnels?

[Gamble]

I am in the process of trying to find an old 24 Flatback Proline or 22.2 for a rebuild and was curious if anyone had widened there gunnels and if so how? My uncle has a 70 24 Pro that already had a partial rebuild done when he got. It's gunnels are 14" wide or so and it is so nice to be able to walk around up there.

[JimCt]

Haven't seen it done before but if you've got some experience with carpentry and glasswork it should be a do-able.  Interesting idea...

[Captain]

Tommy West at Hammerhead Marine is doing that right now with a 22'2"

[Gamble]

I figured that Tommy had it down. I noticed that almost all his boats have wider gunnels. I just can't figure out if the extra width goes in the center or inside. I would think the center would be the easiest because you wouldnt have to cut the contour of the hull into the extension.

[Captain]

I think he's adding some on the outside. I guess the theory is it helps cut down on spray.

[Gamble]

It really does on my uncles flatback Proline which is basically the same hull as a flatback 22.2. I guess if you add it to the outside the rubrail can cover up most of the edge.

[warthog5]

It's not a AS, but here are some pix's.

The washboard's were being recored anyway and I wanted ample room to walk around the pilothouse.

http://www.classicmako.com/projects/xshark/bw5.htm

[Gamble]

Warthog5 I have looked through your pictures a LOT of times over the last few months and every time I am blown away.

On the gunnels,  you simply added it just inside of the factory lip in the gunne right? Was the cap installed at theat time or just sitting in place? How much did you you add to it? Did you need to add any bracing?

Thanks.

[warthog5]

Here's the step's.

The cap was never removed from the boat and you'd play hell ever getting it off the boat now as it is glassed to the hull. This make's a much stronger boat.

The glass where the core in the washboard's were was cut away and the core removed, leaving the inner skin.

The inner skin was sawed down the center where the core was removed to seperate the inboard side and moved inboard.

It was then blocked/clamped into position and a few spotweld's of epoxy/Cabisol used to hold it there.

Then piece's of plywood covered with plastic/visqueen sheeting were put underneath and pieces of wood cut to proper length to wedge/prop the plywood in place.
This gave a foundation for glassing the inner skin back together.
The spot weld's of epoxy/Cabisol were ground off and where the cut's were made to move the piece inboard were ground back and glassed.

Then the 1/2in Kledgecell core was vacuum bagged into place as the new core. Then the 1 layer of 1808 [+45/-45]--- 1 layer of 18oz fabmat roven woven--- 1 layer of 1808 (+45/-45) were vacuum bagged on top of that to create the new top laminate.