Boat Builder Central - Builder Forums

Hello everyone,

We successfully launched our C21 in the Illinois river on June 27th 2007. Here is the link to my gallery and a short story of our build.

http://gallery.bateau2.com/thumbnails.php?album=648

The boat was built by Richard (my 77 year old Dad), Merrich (my 11 year old son), and me, Sam, in a 23'x23' garage in Eureka Illinois. We don't have any center console boats around here (only bass boats or ski boats) but we love to watch "Salt Water Sunday" on ESPN and love the center console boats they use. Last year coming home from Hilton Head, I followed several boats for miles and got to thinking, maybe I could build one of those. I got home and started looking on the internet on how to build a boat, found several boat building sites like Glen L and Bateau. I liked the Bateau designs the best because there were no screws in the hull. Then I told my wife that I was going to build the C19 and she said "19 ft, thats not very big" so I decided on the C21.

My Dad and I built a lot of things together over the years, but nothing like this. We started in August of 2006 making the jig, cutting and assembling the plywood pieces. My Dad is retired and is always looking for something to do or fix, so he was over at 3:00 everyday when I got off work and we worked on it for 2-3 hours a day. By November, we had the hull painted and flipped over. We worked through the winter building with a heater ($3.99/gal karosene), painted it in May, and put the motor on in June.

My Dad and I were regular readers of this forum, so we thank everyone who posted the same questions that we had, and the answers that we needed. We learned so much on this forum and would not have been able to figure it out on our own.

So thanks everyone at E-boat and all the boatbuilders on the forum, we had a great time building this boat and hope to build another in the future (not near future, my wife needs the garage back for a while).

I'd like to here your comments, answer your questions and post some more pictures.

That is an awesome looking boat you have there..... I wish I had the time you have had to build yours. I also wish I had the help.

How about telling us a little bit on how it runs. It looks like you have a 115hp on it. How fast does it come up on plane and how fast is it at different RPM's?

What a great job

Sam what a great job, you your son and Dad will get a lot of use out of the boat. How do you find the Suzuki 115 is it as quiet as they say, what is your top end and best fuel economy and range.

Tom

Thanks for the compliments, we are very happy with the way it turned out.

We only had it out for about 6 hours and it used about 12 gallons of gas (I don't know if that is good or not, I'v only had a 40 hp with 6 gallon tank and it would last all season because we would troll most of the time). I didn't pay a lot of attention to the details about speed, tach, and planing because we were having too much fun.

I love the Suzuki 115, it is a 2004 with 200 hours on it. It's my first 4 stroke and it is so quiet, you can't hardly tell its running at idle. Wide open it went 40 mph (it was a bit choppy so we didn't stay at that speed long) most of the time we drove around 30 mph (around 4000 rpm) and pulled the tube around 20-25 mph. The boat gets up on plane very fast, cuts through the water and waves with ease, turns great, and is very stable just floating (with people walking around). Everyone was very impressed on how stable and roomy it is.

The boat weighs 1900 lbs with the motor (420 lbs). I was a bit skepticle that the 115 hp wouldn't be enough, but it is just right. I really like the swim/fishing platforms we put on the back, they really make it easy to get in and out and they are great to stand on and fish. I also like the carpet on the inside walls (my Dad's idea), it saved on so much sanding and really cuts down the glare of an all white boat.

We still have to make the cushions, buff and polish it so it shines a bit more and I think I will make a topper for it for some shade (next year I think).

Sam

Great job and from another C21 Builder I know you will love your boat.

Ernie

Congatulations. That is a beautiful boat!

That is a nice looking boat for sure. I'm really impressed with the build time. Only 11 months total, working just 2-3 hours per day is great progress. You must have spent very little "dream time" during the build and just kept at it. Congratulations!

Great looking boat. You guys should be proud.

Nice job! The transom mod looks good, perfect for getting the tube riders in and out of the boat.