FS17 in Connecticut

[remedy32]

At last done spraying the hull and topsides!

Seemed like an unending project but the Off White Awlgrip is finally done. Perfect 2 days for priming and finishing.
A small amount of brush and roller work to do the deck and hull inside faces and it'll be time to get wet before fall gets here.

Bill

[Cracker Larry]

Sweet. Don't be bashful I think you'll make the fall splash.

[Lower]

She'll be done just in time to chase those albies!

[mjsands77]

I'm happy with the way the extended sheer/bulwark has worked out but still am not a fan of the bow "droop" in the forward most 24" or so.

Your boat looks good to me man

If I were to start over again I would surely refair the sheerline from just in front of frame "C" to produce a single upward curve ending at he bow. Take a look for pictures of "JimMac's" FS17 done about 18 months ago.

I did-wow...that's it. I think that is where i'm leaning. 5" bow lift like yours, but starting at C.

You boat is amazing. Color, lines, just awesome!! Waiting on the weather to ease up a and work to simmer a little-thinking you'll be splashin' in the fall and I'll be just getting started. Keep it up - your lighting the way!!

Mike

[mjsands77]

Bill-

The more i look at your boat...the more i really am intrigued by the lines. I read and re-read trying to find exactly how you did your extension...but it still puzzles me. I have the plans for the FS17-waiting for work to settle a little before i begin my build-which give me plenty of time to ponder...

Following Steve292 in the UK helped a lot and I decided on rocking the gunwale extension to raise the sheer more at the bow than the stern. I would up with an 8" extension which raised the bow sheer by 5" and the stern by 2.5". Happy to say that I like it!

Me too!! But how did you set your sheer line???

when you cut molds A thru E plus the transom what did you add to each station?? did you use the given sheer line of the extension and just go from 5" to 2.5 straight back?? or??? im just confused, yet really pleased with you results.

While i like JimMacs extension as you suggested(the extension lift, curve-from C to bow) the more i think about it, the more i like the lapstrake apperance your boat has with the full length extension. now if i could just figure out how in the $%^& you did it????

Mike

[remedy32]

Mike,
I'll try to explain better........

There's no need to change the frames except for the transom and "A" since these both all stay in the completed boat. The height of "E" should be fine as shown I think. Yes, I know I left it out! (or part of it that is). I will be adding some form of bulkhead eventually between the two aft lockers, promise! I made the transom 4" taller and trimmed the excess off once I flipped the boat the first time because I wasn't sure how much I was going to raise the sheer at first. I built the final A frame much later since I had the boat right side up for all of last winter in the garage. I realized that I was more concerned with raising the sheer line at the bow than the stern. This led me to make a 8" extension bulwark using the method on pages 24 & 25 of the building notes. I think I did this after the hull was started making it more work than while the long side panels were laying flat on the floor; but still doable.

The building notes suggest that the bulwark overlap the side by 1/2; so 4" in my case. I decided to attach the extension with about a 5" overlap at the transom and just a 3" overlap at the bow. By "rocking" the extension I made the boat a bit "deeper" at the bow. If I were to do it again I would fair the extension differently to get rid of the bow "droop" which is a bit more pronounced than I like. There was some discussion of this on the thread about a month ago and a few others seemed to agree. Even done this way the panel is very rugged.

Overall I'm very happy with the way the boat has turned out. It's strong beyond anything I could have imagined and is pretty good looking considering the simplicity of construction. I'm hoping to get into the water this week or next weekend for at least a test run or two. I'm so antsy to go that I may rig up something to fill in for the unfinished console or just rig some sort of tiller.

Let me know if you need a bit more help.

bill

[remedy32]

Wow, it's hard to imagine that this has taken fourteen months but that's what the calendar says.



Was pretty windy but after endless fiddling it was time to head to the (very nearby) launch ramp and get her wet. For those who've been following you can see that this is not the molded console I've been working on for months. I made the decision to just bang some plywood together quickly so that the boat could be rigged and used before another season ended! The bigger console will be ready for spring along with the mold allowing me to make more quickly. I'll also finish the hatches and a few other things over the coming winter.

What about the boat? About as I expected; we left the dock with 2 full sized adults and a fair amount of extra junk. I plan to get an accurate weight one day this fall but I'm betting the rigged boat is 750-850# all up. We were in a no wake zone all around the ramp. Motored about 10 minutes into the wind (chop) and turned back south with at about 3/4 power I'm guessing. GPS recorded 17 kts. against about 2.5kt. current. I'm guessing that she'll do in the low 20's at this weight in flat water and properly trimmed. I'm liking the old Yamaha 25 2 stroke a lot; simple, light and well matched to the boat if you are not in need of huge speed.

More pictures and stats to follow later this week (with a bit of luck).

Thanks to all for the continued encouragement.

Bill in CT

[gstanfield]

Congrats on the splash She looks mighty fine sitting there where she belongs. I'd also be pleased with 20's from a 25hp. That should be great on fuel and there's seldom a need to go any faster in a fishing boat. Of course most of us want to go fast, but my Dad has been fishing successfully for years and years and has never owned a boat that would go over about 30 with his primary boat for the last 20 years being one that tops out at 24mph Enjoy it and that fuel you'll save by not feeding a bigger engine

[whosmatt]

Congrats! How did you attach the temporary console?

[Hope2float]

great looking paint good luck with her.
Dave