Mostly just me working on it, did get some help with painting recently and other big tasks earlier in the build.
I finished up the painting by getting the first coat of bilge paint in the storage areas, under the side decks, and on the back of the inwhales.
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After all the painting it was nice to take a few boats out to a nearby island and camp with some friends.
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Alright back to the boat. I still don't know where my waterline will be, I'll test that in the water before final paint. To do that I will need a drain plug installed, so I bottom painted where the drain plug will go to be ready to install it.
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After that took the exciting step of having a motor put on! Dropped the boat off for the weekend, I may have driven past once or twice to make sure she was safe.
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Worked on the console in the mean time, building in the partition that will keep the fuel fill and vent separated from the rest of the space with a removable cover. The pipe is to pass through the wires to the switch panel since they are fixed length.
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I cut a slot in the back of the console shelf and added a wall to it. the wiring will run in this slot and the wall will stop things rolling off the shelf, I hope.
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Glued in inwhales in permanently.
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Then came back with my brand new 60hp suzuki. Looks great on there to me.
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The anti cavitation plate is about 1/2" below the bottom with the motor mounted in the lowest hole so I think a good starting point, and I have room to adjust higher if I want to.
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Had to build a motor stand out of my old strongback to take the motor back off. It works but is a little unstable while you are moving it, have to be real careful. It's very stable when down.
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In addition to the g10 backing plate on the inside of the transom for the motor I wanted to put g10 rod around the mounting bolts. I needed to enlarge the holes while staying on center which is hard with a hole saw. I ended up putting a smaller rod around the pilot bit on the hole saw. A little strange but worked well.
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While the motor was on I had checked clearance for the swim platform, that it would allow the motor to fully turn and tilt. So I now screwed the swim platform to the transom and tested it. Worked well, I'll glue it on after it's primed. I was planning on adding a handle on the transom for it but I think just grabbing the top of the transom will be fine.
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On an evening boat ride we found a boat in the color I'm going for. For a while I thought I wanted claret red, but I saw it at a boat show and it's too purple. I think I actually want vivid red? It sounds scary like it's fire engine or something but it seems to be the right color. Anyway, this boat is the color I want to paint my hull whatever color this boat is. Any guesses on if vivid red is the right awlgrip color? Always hard to tell in pictures.
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I glued in some plywood to give the appearance that the inwhale wraps onto the transom.
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Cut the ancor hatch hole out of the bow deck and glued the deck to the frame. I had constructed a curved hatch for this opening previously.
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