81 manufacturer n/a rebuild

[blowingsmoke621]

New to the forum and this is my first time rebuilding a boat. Definitely not a rookie when it comes to tools and fabrication but I literally have little to no knowledge about which weight and types of glass to use for different situations so feel free to critique my work and ideas. Luckily Dirtwheelsfl lives about 15 minutes away so I'll be able to pick his brain on most of this build. Picked up this 15' hull a few weeks back to flip the 3cyl Yamaha 30. Once I saw it I decided it's too unique to get rid of so here I am in the beginning stages of this build. I have a pretty good idea on what I want to do with this rig but I'm sure I'll change my mind along the way. I'll be using epoxy resin on this project and some sort of foam for the stringers, not sure what I'm going to do the deck out of yet but I'll get Dirtwheelsfl over here to take a look at it now that it's gutted and see what he's thinking. Thanks for any advice in advance and I hope you guys enjoy the build.

[blowingsmoke621]

Also if anyone has seen a hull like this I would love to know who made it. Title is an 81 homemade so I'm not sure what the deal is with that. Everything I've seen so far seems like quality work in my opinion. Console was massive and took up a huge portion of real estate on the deck but it was built pretty well. It was all 1" foam board with wood on both rear corners. I'm guessing for strength to reduce the chance of cracking the glass on the radiused corners if something were ever to hit them. Foam used was very soft and easy to compress definitely not a dense type of foam like I've seen used nowadays. Every hatch was fully glassed and gel coated. Hull sides are a pretty thick layup. I'd say they are about 3/16" thick. Not sure how many layers of glass. Anyways here are a few more pics.

[blowingsmoke621]

You guys might get a kick out of the D rings on this boat. They used a stainless d ring and I would guess they used a steel washer and nut on the backside. Nuts and washers were little piles of rust, flaked right off by picking at them with my razor blade.



Another piece of quality work by somebody throughout this hulls life 



This is the livewell drain which is below the waterline..... Surprisingly those steel screws that they used to hold on that sweet screen dont protrude out of the side of the hull. Kind of gives you an idea of how thick the layup is

[RickK]

Welcome aboard.

Looks like there were no stringers in the boat to begin with.  Being all foam made it easy to de-construct.

[love2fish]

I'd put some stringers in there, a good casting deck on the front, and a poling platform and you have a flats/back-country monster there! super small skiff console or make it a tiller... sweet starter hull!

good luck and keep posting

[dirtwheelsfl]

Trent is also the owner of that red Intrepid I put on here 

[blowingsmoke621]

As of now the plan is to build a mini version of Dirtwheelsfl fb, minus the pilot house. Thinking of doing a small front deck(about the same size as the original) with a 5" or 6" gunnel around the entire hull sides. Horseshoe shaped seat in the rear with a hatch on each side. Also thinking of doing a mini coffin box where the console used to be. Not really planning on doing much fishing on this rig but who knows, I might change my mind. I didn't do anything on the project today so here's a picture of one of my smaller boats.

[RickK]

That little boat looks like fun.  I had a 10ft hydroplane with a 25 on it when I was 15 - it would move right along.

[blowingsmoke621]

oh yeah, thats my baby. Its 11' and weighs right around 100lbs(if i had to guess), I can flip it on its side and pick it up by myself. Fastest I've hit is 41mph with a stock 3cyl yamaha 30 with the stock 13 pitch aluminum prop. I've got a new prop for it that I need to get re pitched to about a 17 and Ive done a few other mods to the motor so it should be a hair faster next time out.