69 flatback rebuild

[Capt Matt]

Thank you everyone for the good words, 14 months of hard work finally coming together.
I'm amazed at how much wiring was involved, there is another block below the one you see in the pictures that is just about full too. Once the engine wiring harness is in then everything can get tied up for good.
Last night I went out in the dark and was playing with the LED spotlight, running lights and spreader light They are so bright, never had LED on a boat before and was blown away and they draw such little amp's.  I do a lot of running in the dark and the lights are going to make it a whole lot easier.
Should have pictures of the her first floating early next week.
Capt Matt

[c master]

CM -

I think you should leave the tag hanging on the Opti, and name the boat "Minnie Pearl".   (a few of you older guys might 'get' that joke...)


Seriously...it's a great looking rig.  Very professional, which gives customers 'instant comfort' when they first see a guide boat at the ramp.

[RickK]

SWEET - your sweat equity is shining through now.

[Capt Matt]

A few more pictures,
My dad came over today to help me finish the along with installing latches and hinges on my hatches.
We where hoping to do some final paint touch up but ran out of time. Probably a good thing anyway as I need to wait till everything is done and touch up one time only.
The Cabinet came out awesome, just need to hook up the washdown. The compression latches close nice and tight with no rattles at all.
Excuse the dirty deck, will clean it when I get it back from the final rigging stuff at the marina tomorrow. Should be floating tomorrow afternoon
Capt Matt

[pete]

beautiful job matt!! may she serve you well!

[Capt Matt]

Well she finally hit the water today, I  was hoping to have her in the water yesterday so I had some time for the shakedown/break in. Things took longer than expected as usual and I did not get the boat back till 5pm today. I knew there would be a few things to fix as is the case with any boats first splash.
After launching the boat I filled up with 50 gals of fuel and filled the livewell with both pumps running looking for leeks. The livewell runs like a jaquzi I can't wait to fill it full of bait.  One of the drain hoses leeks a little which I figured was a possibility and did not screw the livewell to the mount for that reason, also the trim switch on upper station was reversed (both easy fixes)

So once I primed the motor with fuel I headed out the canal, picking up my buddy who did all the wiring a little way down the canal. As we reached the end of the canal the boat starved of fuel and died, the primer ball would not pump up so we managed to unhook the fuel line from the racor and pump enough fuel to get us back to the dock.

All the way back down the canal I was freaking thinking I could have kinked the fuel line somewhere inside the hull during the build. Luckily it was a easy fix as the anti syphon fitting on top of tank must have seized up. Blowing back through the fuel line showed us that the fuel line was not kinked. We switched out the aluminum fitting for a brass one with no anti syphon BB in it and primed the motor, That was the problem, another easy fix. It has been more than 6 months since I put the fuel tank in and the salt air must have done a number on the anti syphon fitting.

Getting to the end of the canal I gently pushed the throttle as the boat jumped up on plane in its own length. I started off with a very worn 21p 4 blade prop I had from my flatsboat. The boat ran 43mph on the GPS with a full tank of fuel and a full 43 gal livewell. The prop is a little large as I figured it would be, but at least it gave me a starting point.  The motor would only turn up to 5300rpm. A 19p Revelution 4 prop will be order tomorrow. I think with half a tank of fuel and the right prop she will run right close to 50mph. Only time will tell but even mid to high 40's is  more than I had hoped for.

For about a hour I ran the boat all over the backcountry in way less than a foot of water and the prop never even touched bottom. I ran places my shallow running 17ft flatsboat would have bumped bottom on the same low tide and never even touched. With the porta lift up she runs scary shallow just about in dirt. You do have to watch the water pressure gauge as you can lift the motor so high. Making some hard turns she never slid out and handled like a dream

The snap your head back mid range torque with the pro XS 175 is incredible and will only be better with the 19p prop. At one point I shut her down in about a foot of water, raised the porta lift up past vertical, dropped the trim tabs and hopped her right up on plane. Its amazing how shallow this boat will get up on top. 3800rpm is about 30mph burning roughly 6gph. I think the boat will do better when I get the hang of running it and everything dialed in. At slow speed with the braket up this boat will idle in just 8 inches of water.

I'm taking my first charter on the boat tomorrow AM and should have most of the small little stuff to fix done in the next day or so. I knew a flatback could do awesome things if built light and rigged right but even in the first hour of running the boat surpassed all my expectations.

Thank you everyone for your help on the build and I will post some pictures of her in action.

Capt Matt

[gran398]

Excellent report and story...damn anti-siphon valve, again.

I'd love to be on that charter tomorrow morning...what a sweet ride.

Matt, best wishes from all of us to you on the first charter of your new ride, first thing in the morning ....BURN 'EM UP friend

[love2fish]

Sweet boat! Where did you get those hatches?

[Capt Matt]

Thanks luv2fish
I ended up making every hatch on the boat. Just don't seem to be able to find a good quality plastic hatch that lasts more than about a year in the Florida sun without cracking. I built the deck hatches all sized for a bucket or a milk crate to fit in.  I spent many many hours during the rebuild making and fitting cabinet hatches and deck hatches with drain channels.

First charter on her went ok, my clients loved the boat and caught a few keeper reds and stayed comfortable and dry on a very windy swfl morning.

Capt Matt

[Capt Matt]

[Capt. Bob]

I was always under the assumption that dogs liked chasing catfish not reds.
Did they tip? 8)


PS.....Looks sweet in that shot.

[love2fish]

Nice! Do you have a closeup of the hatches and drain channels?
What did you use for the core and glass layup?

[Capt Matt]

I made all the hatches with coosa board. The deck hatches are 3/4 inch like the deck and the cabinet and cabinet hatches are 1/2 inch coosa. I used the 1/2 inch coosa on the cabinet so I could bend it enough to make the transom cap.   I'm sure you could do the same thing with wood too, it would just be a heavier.

To make the floor hatch drain channels I made a jig out of PVC pipe, sprayed it with pam and laid biaxle over it to make a semi circle. After letting the glass go off I did some fine tuning. I then re wrapped and triple tabbed them with biaxle into the underneath of the deck before the deck went down. When making the hatch lids I used the pieces I cut out of the floor. After rounding and sanding the edges of the hatch lids I wrapped the lids with mat and re fitted, laying more mat in spots and sanding in others until the small gap was close to uniform in size. Then I gradually sanded the top edge of the drain channel until the hatches sat flush.

The drains I made out of 90 degree pvc pipe. I cut holes in the corners of the drain channels, scuffed up the pvc and glassed them in. Both front floor hatches hook together and drain out of the boat, both rear floor hatches are plumed together and drain out the transom.

Making the hatches involved a 10X more work than I thought it would. Gause sells pre made fiberglass floor hatches but at $800 a pop I could not bring myself to buy them and they wher not the exact side I wanted.

The cabinet hatches did not require a drain channel so they went much quicker

[love2fish]

very good work. how did the pam work as a releasing agent? I would think the PVC wouldnt allow the resin to stick by its self.  
I remember reading a while back about the davidgause.com website (i think thats what it was) where you could buy consoles and hatches but I cant find that website anymore... $800!? somebody's proud.

[Capt Matt]

The pam worked really well as a release agent. I also used it when making sheets of glass to cover my inner gunnels.
The Gause hatches are nice hatches also add to the cost the price hinges and a ss latch.
Capt Matt