FS17- Extended sheer

[whosmatt]

Congrats again on the splash, looks great. I'd not worry about the paint too much... it's just paint after all. Give it a while and a few run-ins with the dock, trailer, another boat, etc and you'll forget all about it. Mine's already got rash from the bow stop, a few scrapes from loading on the trailer, rubber from the docks, and a proper waterline (yeah, I know, it washes off) from all the drifting I do while fishing.

Oh, and get used to being asked about it at the ramp, it happens to me literally every time. If i can say one thing about it, it's that I have to keep spelling "bateau" for people. Apparently, most Americans don't take French in high school

[Bluefish2]

The boat runs fine but still working on the prop.
I had the following conditions this week end:
Bright sun, light breeze, 1-2 chop. breeze was on shore from the e-ne. in other words beautiful.
GPS showed 23mph and still increasing. Some what limited by the chop, and bad back that does not like bouncing. boat was just starting to come up on plane at ~3200 RPM's and fully up by 4500, flying by 5700. While I did go faster the boat traffic and sea state were making themselves felt, ouch!
We also had a close call with some fish, but they are safe. I told my buddy if there was no fishing moj we had to build another till we got it right. His comment was, been nice knowing you.

Made some additions to the boat.
Put in an electrical panel and wired for:
1. fish Finder
2. anchor light
3. Bow light, LED.
4. (my personal favorite) Bilge pump 450 Rule. Is this to small? The boat shop owner thought it was plenty. I am beginning to have my doubts.
Things I am plannning to do:
1. Add more foam
2. quite possibly adding a rear deck, A winter project.
3. more rod holders
4. definitely some 12volt power outlets.
5. The arch enemy of every fisherman, a 4' ruler glued to the side.
Mark

[Cracker Larry]

4. (my personal favorite) Bilge pump 450 Rule. Is this to small? The boat shop owner thought it was plenty. I am beginning to have my doubts.

If you ever really need that pump, then yes, it's too small. Good enough for nuisance water but not a catastrophe. In my OD 18, the bait tank pump is twice that size, and is rigged to double as a bilge pump if needed. The main pump is a 2000 Rule. I used the same size (2000) in my GF16 also. Don't screw around with little pumps, when you need one, you need a really good one, or 2 Boat size doesn't matter much in relation to pump size, because when you are sinking, you are sinking, and a big boat takes a lot longer to fill up and sink than a small boat does. Large boats often give you time to diagnose and fix the problem before it takes on enough water to sink, but small boats can fill up quick Use that 450 for a bait pump, and get a real pump for the bilge.

[Bluefish2]

Hi Larry,
Good information, thank you.
I actually have another pump installed that is twice the size. Not as fancy and has a float switch instead of being automatic. Just have not hooked it up yet.
I think the 2000 GPH will have to wait until Xmas. Just to much to do right now.
Mark

[Bluefish2]

We finally caught some fish! After four tries I told my buddy Jim we either catch fish or build a new boat!
There were four fish caught three on fly and one on spinning, the wind picked up and jim would not give up the flyrod.
His three fish, 23", 29" 32" out weighed mine by about 12lbs! Mine was a keeper, 28" minimum here.
Sorry about the picture quality.

[Bluefish2]

After a mechanical failure of the plug in the boat I removed it, plugged the whole and waved the thing goodbye.
I was really shocked when the bige pump did not work. The day before it worked fine in a test bucket.

The other thing I did was add foam. which proved much easier than expected. Per Jacques instruction I drilled whole in the deck poured in foam and closed with bung and epoxy. Still need to dress things up a bit but quite useable. Will post pictures of solution at some point. There are definitely going to be some improvements over the winter
BF2