19-6 ff pilothouse build opinions

[drwgblanks]

Well I know most of you don't know me, but I have talked about restoring my 19-6 ff for a long time.  Heck I've had it rotting for over 10 years.  Well I have finally gotten back to work on it.  I plan on building a pilothouse on it.  I am a fair weather fisherman that loves to go out in rough weather.  My 23' Carolina Skiff is beating the crap out of me and soaking me.  I have had a sketch for a few years of restoring the Aquasport.  Now I am framing the top, and after numerous rebuilds of the frame, and it overpowering the size of the boat in person, I have discovered I don't need all of the fuel tank storage.  Therefore I can make a small walkway and a standing area 3 inches below, effectively lowering my top by 3 inches and hopefully making it look proportionate.  I have included a crude drawing on paint program.  I hope to finish putting ply on it this weekend so I can give a real picture.  I love critics, so please give me your opinions.  By the way, I would be putting my Suzi 115 4 stroker on a bracket to run it.  Stop me soon if you see problems.  I'm still having a hard time with my pics.  RickK, don't worry about telling me again....lol, I'm just too tired to figure it out.  Please just copy and paste for tonight.  Thanks

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b138/ ... port28.jpg

[Marcq]

That would look cool, wanted to do the same thing but my boat to small


Marc..

[drwgblanks]

Hey thanks for putting that up for me.  I was going to try to figure it out later.  By the way, some of those black marks are just me blocking out stuff that was on the boat and bad lines.

[aquasport79]

For windows you could use smoked 1/4" plexiglass. It would be lighter and alot cheaper that the safety glass.
You could move the gas tank more forward at the same time as well.
Also get a set of bennett trim tabs, them really smooth and level the ride on my 19.6 FF.

[Marcq]

Yep, the more I look at it, the more I like, I think that hull is perfect for that kind of project. Looks like it belongs there and well proportion. How do you plan building it ?

Marc..

[GoneFission]

Check out Pacific Pilothouse - they made add-on pilot house units for boat that work well.  Check out the gallery and before/after pics:

http://www.pacificpilothouse.com/index.html  

See ya on the water!

[drwgblanks]

Thanks for the compliments.  As far as building it, I'm going the cheap route.  I'm going to frame it with 2x2's and 4's.  I think I'm going to end up with 3/8 ply and polyester fiberglass.  Do you all think a coat of 1708 inside and out would be sufficient?  I will remove all the framing afterwards and use much smaller framing where needed.

[Marcq]

.  Therefore I can make a small walkway and a standing area 3 inches below, effectively lowering my top by 3 inches and hopefully making it look proportionate.  

Or you could gain that height by making your top/roof this way

First the top as a curvature, and you ad a next level of it
Cross section



Like a C-Dory top
http://www.c-dory.com/boats/classic/angler-19/

Marc..

[drwgblanks]

I love those c-dory's.  I was just admiring one this weekend and I never noticed that about the top.  It's a good idea, however it doesn't solve my problem of allowing me or the passenger to stand up in front of our seats while riding in rough water.  I would have to tee the top instead of the floor and don't think it would look good.  I don't see any other way out because the top just dwarfed the boat.  On that note, I got alot of the top reframed out this afternoon at the shorter dimensions and it is really looking great now.  I'll try to attach some phone pics (crappy quality) in a bit.