Bottoms Up 23 Build

[Old'sCool]

Stoner Boatworks is building glass ones.

[Kraken]

A lot of work has been done. It’s hard to balance work family and boat. It will be better when I can combine family and boat for a few fun keys trips. Maybe swordfish?

I finished installing the tanks and fuel lines. The deck is bonded down! We used Arjay vinylester bonding compound. A good bead around the lip of the old deck and a 6” wide glob down the middle of each stringer. I had a friend help. He went down the port side, starting at the bow. I did the starboard side. The 5 gallons of Arjay bonding compound was split into two buckets and mixed with a drill. We only used 4 gallons. The rest was wasted. The deck is rock solid. Need to add tabbing but waiting to finish the transom and do it all at once.

[DonV]

Good move on the Arjay! Nothing to worry about as far as anything coming apart!!

[Kraken]

Now starting on the transom cap. I want to have a 40 gallon live well in the middle and two hatches that hold 5 gallon buckets on the sides. There is a 2 1/2” curve to the top.

I started by making a template of the cap out of foam. I’m going to try to do this in one piece out of a mold. I used 2x8’s and melonine to create the curve. The scrap melonine was used to create the sides and slight curve in the rear wall. Modeling clay a made the radius in the corners. I ran a small socket across them to get them smooth. The live well and hatch forms are mdf that has been sprayed with duratec primer and sanded. Here is a pic of the partial assembly.

My plan is to paint in two layers of gelcoat and layin two layers of 1 1/2 oz mat then two layers of 1708. I’ll add scrap cossa as reinforcements then one more layer of 1708.

I’ll mold up the live well also the same way then glass it in. I hope everything fits. I measured three times.

[castnetcracker]

the layup schedule for your stern cap will be rock solid. I did the same but with Divinycel H80 and it was plenty.

[Kraken]

I laid up two hatches as a learning process before tackling the big job. The layup is rock solid and the hatches fit great.

Today my son helped with the transom cap layup. We started spraying partall mold release. Then painted two coats of gelcoat. With all the small cavities the layup was hard. Hope we got all the air out. Two layers of csm and two of 1708. Took all day. Glad I had help. Also took 3 gallons of vinylester resin.

Tomorrow we will add the final layer of 1708 over the cossa reinforced. Then we can pop it and see how we did.

[Kraken]

I popped the transom cap. It released from most of the mold but got hung up on the bucket plugs. I had to destroy them. There are a few blemishes that will need fixing. I did the entire layup as a continuous wet layup. I think that adding the 1708 over the wet csm caused the issue. If I were to do it again, I’d let the csm kick before adding additional layers. Overall not a bad part and should save me time.

[SnafuFishTeam]

Just a heads up. Armstrong is very busy and about three month lead time for a new bracket. Ordered mine in December. Pricing went up as well. Cost now is $5k.

[KNZ911]

Stoner bracket is approx. 3500 with a 3 week build time. Talked with Josh about building one last month. Plus his platform is higher allowing for placement of tabs on outside chine.

[Enyar]

Do those moeller tanks have baffles?