OB15 coming together in Central Texas

[Murry]

Man I really missed this one.

Great looking boat Adam.

Daniel

[AdamG]

Nice boat! Another OB15 soon to be on the water. If you are looking for decent prices on a 40 horse, try the outboards section of iboats.com. They seem to have some decent prices there at times.

I've got a big 'ol honkin yamaha 60 2 stroke on my Ob15 now (a little overkill, but it always pops right up on plane even when I'm loaded to the gills), and the transom floats its 225lb weight just fine.

Look forward to seeing your OB on the water. Maybe we can get a group of Texas builders together and do some fishing sometime.

[wadeg]

Nice boat! Another OB15 soon to be on the water. If you are looking for decent prices on a 40 horse, try the outboards section of iboats.com. They seem to have some decent prices there at times.

I've got a big 'ol honkin yamaha 60 2 stroke on my Ob15 now (a little overkill, but it always pops right up on plane even when I'm loaded to the gills), and the transom floats its 225lb weight just fine.

Look forward to seeing your OB on the water. Maybe we can get a group of Texas builders together and do some fishing sometime.

Thx Adam. She is almost done. I am working on rigging right now and once my trailer is done, I will get the game warden to inspect it. Thanks for the tip on iboats, but I found a local guy that sell's Tohatsu motors. He beat the best online price I found and includes the install in the price. I bought a new 2010 model 40 hp TLDI Tohatsu tiller motor (206 lbs) and the guy also gave me a decent price on a custom built galvanized trailer. He already got the motor, so now it looks like I will just be waiting on the trailer. Since it is a custom built, there is a lead time, but I should receive it in one to two weeks.

I agree that we should get a group of Texas builders together and do some fishing (I really don't need much convincing if coastal fishing is involved). Right now I just hope I can get my OB15 in the water in time to catch the flounder run. Once I get the rigging done, I will post some more pictures of the finished boat.

The one piece of rigging I am debating about putting on right now is my CMC setback plate. I am not sure if I should mount this before taking my OB15 to get the motor mounted or not. The man I bought my motor from loaned me a transom drilling template to drill the mounting holes ( these are over drilled to one inch, filled and re-drilled), so I am pretty sure they are accurate. I just don't know about which hole to use no the setback plate. There are three at the top and a slider like on most motors. This two piece setback plate is adjustable, but you have to loosen two very large bolts on each piece, adjust the height, and then tighten the bolts to 100 ft/lbs. I am probably over thinking this, but I don't know if I want to torque something down to that amount while it is mounted on my transom. I am pretty sure the transom would be OK, but am just not so comfortable doing that while it is mounted. I am going to use one some 1/4" aluminum as stiffening backers for all of the transom motor mount holes also.

Your's and FlyOnWall's OB15 influenced my decision on which hull to build a great deal. The deal was sealed when Shine posted the pictures of the flats style OB15 that was launched outside of Miami. I would like to thank all of the builders that posted their entire build. I followed a few of them closely (Cracker Larry's OD18, Shine's FS17, Cape Man's OD18, Plumber Tucks...I can't name them all, so please excuse me if I don't mention you) for quite a while before starting this OB15.

[topwater]

I would'nt worry about torqueing the bolts to 100 ft lb youre engine weight is 206 lb
100 lb of torque is really not that bad on the transom.

[AdamG]

If you consider the forces your transom will be under when smashing through wakes or big chop at 30mph, there's not much to worry about with cranking down on a couple of bolts.

[wadeg]

If you consider the forces your transom will be under when smashing through wakes or big chop at 30mph, there's not much to worry about with cranking down on a couple of bolts.

I am sure you and topwater are right. I guess what I need to decide now is which mounting hole to use. This two piece setup back plate has three upper holes and a slot on the transom side. Once again, it probably does not matter because it is adjustable, but I am curious if any of you have any experience with these things. Here is a link to the one I have.

http://cook-mfg.net/cart/index.php?main ... ucts_id=11

[wadeg]

Well, the wiring and rigging is almost finished. I got the set back plate mounted today, now I am only lacking running the fuel line and mounting the grab bar (still waiting for this to get finished). Here are some pictures of my OB15 in her current state.

You can also see the 2x3x1/4 stainless backing plates I used for the upper bolts.

Here, you can see the 2x13x1/2 aluminum that I used as a backing plate for the bottom bolts. I should have cleaned up the bilge more, but no one will see it anyway. You can also see my two bilge pumps. One is directly wired and controlled by a float. The other is switched.

In the motor well, you can see the rigging boot. The wires coming out of it are for my anchor light which I plan to mount on top of the motor (then moved to the poling platform if I ever get one).

You can get an idea of the cockpit layout from this picture

Gotta love the shark eye lights!!

[Cracka]

Bloody beautiful...........

Yep those shark eyes look very sleek and the rubrail looks good with the insert in place, very clean.

Where you extended the deck past the sides of the boat, from the rear view you can see a gap between the boats side and the back edge of the rub rail, is it like that all around, or are there blocks between the 2 for strength?

Mick

[wadeg]

Cracka,

The gap is present all of the way around. Before putting the upper decks on, I installed a 3/4" "rub rail" around the sheer. I then epoxy glued the upper decks on. After trimming the edges of the gunwales, I installed another 3/4" rail along the outer edge of the gunwales and layered fiberglass over the edge of the decks and down the face of it for added strength. This serves as both a mounting surface for the flexible rubrail and reinforcement for the overhang of the upper decks.

I am a little concerned with only using 3/4" for this outer rail, but needed the flexibility. Anything thicker would not bend well enough to make the curves. If it does give me problems, there are no mechanical fasteners in it, so I can take it off easily using a powered hand planer and install something else.

I debated for a while about bringing the flexible rubrail around the corners and onto the transom, but decided against it as I would need to install a 3/8" strip along the top of the transom due to the lower lip of the flexible rub rail. I already had paint on the boat at this point, so that would have to wait till a repaint.

Adam

[Dougster]

Jeez, those pics are down right intimidating! The paint, decks, kiwi, everything, it just looks great. Better than that, you can just see it on the flats with tailing reds all 'round. I can't say I get even close. 'Course my Nina never hears a disparaging word from me

Home on the range Dougster