And it begins.

[Boatdood]

Hi folks. I've been a member of this forum for years now, but surprisingly, have never posted. Time for a change.

So, what inspires me to post? My son and I have finally started the rejuvination of our 1970 model 20 footer. I've had the old boat now for about ten years. Got if literally for nothing. My brother wanted the old Johnson and hydraulic steering it had on it when I first bought it. He paid the purchase price for the rig and gave me the leftovers. About six years ago I modified the transom raising it to twenty five inches and removed the splashwell. I then mounted an old Johnson 200 horse enine and took it for a spin. That old engine guzzled gas and the boat only had a thirty gallon tank under the console. It was really impractical. It hasn't been in the water for around four years now.

But, it has not been forgotten. I now have a Johnson 150hp for it and I've got a new forty nine gallon tank to install under the floor, and I've got a twenty one year old son who's just itching to learn how to restore a boat. So, over the weekend I showed him how to remove the floor. Surprisingly the wood coring was mostly intact with only spotty rot. The section of the floor I replaced six years ago when I removed the splashwell was still solid, but the fiberglass I laminated on the bottom side of the plywood was already coming loose and the plywood was waterlogged. So much for encapsulating the wood in fiberglass. Once the floor was removed we had good access to the stringers. The glass is in surprisingly good condition, but the wood coring is completely gone. Nothing left but hollow fiberglass stringers. Not such a bad thing though. I think we'll cut some holes in the top of the stringers and inject them with foam, then maybe re-inforce the stringers with some new glass and klegecell coring. That will make it better than new. Then we'll put the new fuel tank in.

The tank I have is from a Key West Oasis deck boat. It fits like a glove, except for the height of the tank. The stringer going down the keel of the boat prevents the tank from settling far enough down to allow the floor to go back to it's original height. We need another inch and a half, or so.

Brainstorm time. The boat is barely self bailing at best. Why not raise the floor a bit? This would allow the tank to fit and make it a better self bailing cockpit. I'm getting excited just thinking about the restoration, and I've got a young back to do the work. Life is good.

The boy has decided that he'd like to do the exterior in a dark blue, accented with gold. Sounds pretty to me. The original color was the Fighting Lady Yellow, but that's been done to death lately. Seems every boat and it's brother has a yellow hull these days.

We've taken a bunch of pictures already as we've done major surgery on the old hull. I'll get the boy to figure out how to post some of them for all of you folks to see. It might be worth a few laughs if nothing else.

By the way, before we started I asked him how much work he wanted to put into the project. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "I just want it to look like new Dad".

No problem. Right?