Boat Builder Central - Builder Forums

It might be a stretch to call this boat "Finished" but she floats, and goes. So she gets posted here. My wife and I took her out for a little social distancing and supporting the local private boat ramp that was hit hard by the wildfires this year. The main store where you used to pay your fees is completely gone, they are posted up in a 8'x8' Tuff Shed for now.

To say that everything went well would be an understatement. It was a fantastic little trip out on the water. I knew the only way i was going to get good pictures was if i had my wife drive the boat and drop me off on shore. She had never driven a boat before today and she did really well, so that is another awesome bonus.

Anyway. Onto the pictures.

The Waiting

She floats:

All smiles




Apparently my phone went into potato mode and couldn't focus with all the water. lol.

Nice work man, she looks great! No feeling like the first launch.

Congratulations on both the launch and having things go right. It does not always go well the first launch, at least for me
The boat looks like it is really light in the bow. I suppose when you get all your "stuff" up there it will set down some.

You made Yoda proud! Congratulations!

Congratulations on making key decisions and executing them right so quickly. Impressive progress. Looking forward to her getting a lick of topsides paint.

Your smiles say it all.

Thanks all.

She is super light in the bow. I climbed up front while underway and it took all 180lbs of me hanging off the front to get the bow down where it should be. As a result the stern is too low and the outboard was a little lower in the water than I would like. I need to figure out how to get a bunch of weight up front to get her leveled out.

Performance wise, top speed was 6.4 knots as read on my Lowrance GPS/sonar. I dont have the tachometer hooked up, but it seems like about 3/8 to 1/2 throttle gets you up to 5 knots or more pretty easy. Going over 5.5 knots seems to just burn extra fuel. Barley over idle gets her up to 4 knots real quick.

GB, I am also excited to get some proper paint done on the hull. However, my garage is much too small to fit the boat inside so I'll have to wait in till April or May for the weather to become agreeable to outdoor painting. This will allow me some time to get all of the little details worked out between now and then without having to worry about touching up the final paint.

Phil

Congratulations CowBro, well done!!! Jeff

Update: "The Waiting" has been out two more times since her initial trip. Once to the lake, I added 130lbs of ballast to the very front. It helped out a bunch keeping her level. I could probably add another 50lbs. I also brought my pupper along. He approved.




The third trip out was to the Sacramento River Delta with my parents, so there was 3 of us on board, the most weight so far. It was a windy day, so we got to test it out in some ~2' wind chop. It handled it all like a champ. First we headed south with the wind/against the current and we were moving about the same speed as the waves which made it seem like we were standing still, slightly disorienting. On the way back we were going against the wind, but with the current, so we were doing a solid 7mph and smashing waves, but the boat hardly rocked. I normally hate heading out to the delta because the wind chop is so nasty, but this boat didn't even notice it. I took some video of the chop, it is posted on my instagram if anyone wants to find me there "Cowbrofab" is my handle.

These pictures were taken in a protected area away from the big waves.





Tomorrow, weather permitting, i hope to get out and try to slime the boat for the first time. I hope everyone had a happy new year. You'll notice I got the windows installed. I'll keep posting in the build thread about those.

~Phil

Rockin' start to 2021 Cowbro. Congrats. Looking forward to future reports.

Hi,

Glad to hear that you're mostly happy with the performance of the boat. I did assume a moderate size anchor at the bow (15#), anchor roller (~5#), a bit of chain (#15-25), and rope rode. As well I assumed there would be junk / important stuff stored under the V-berth. Anything stowed forward of the middle of the boat trims the bow down. It doesn't have to be right up forward.

Is a portable head fitted ? Is there a mattress?

Was the fuel tank located as per the plans? Is there a big cooler filled with ice and beer under that towel in the back of the cockpit ?

What motor (brand/HP) are you using? It doesn't look too heavy (I think)

Windows look nice and as they are forward of amidships they also help a little with bow down trim.

As you might imagine outfit details and gear / food etc. weight can all vary between builders, so weight estimates are trickier for smaller boats because such a small weight difference matters more.

Looks outstanding Cowbro, she should last you a last you a long time.

Tom

Very cool Cowbro... this is great to see

Good to know about the trim issue. I reinforced the forward anchor and chain locker in front of the berths.. just in case It needed trimming with weights. The two anchors, chain is all forward with a pile of other gear, chemical head etc... I will fill the 5 g water tank between the seats. Also I planned for 2 coolers under the seats, those can be filled as required.

Chicagoross said she rides best when loaded down. Glad to hear about your plowing into chop, comforting to know.

While surfing I saw water ballast bags on Amazon, very clever product.. check it out. I'll get a few, if not I'll use those regular disc weights if I need to more.

Marc

Happy birthday Cowbro, and congrats again on your savvy HMD 19 completion project. Have you repainted her topsides yet?

Happy Birthday Cowbro!!!! Jeff

Thanks Jeff and GB.

GB, she is painted, I ended posting all the updates in the regular build-thread. She gets compliments everywhere she goes, and the EFI Suzuki is the best $3K i ever spent. lol.

This year has been busy with a bunch of work flipping a house/rental property, but i got out last Saturday for the first trip of the year chasing diaper-stripers, nothing big enough to keep.

Luckily my fridge is still stocked with lingcod and rockfish from last year so no worries there.
'

Phil

She looks good Cowbro!!! Jeff