Kurt's Phantom 18

[tobolamr]

Kurt,

What kind of rub rail is that? It doesn't look like laminated wood to me hehe

[JimW]

Very Nizzze! I like the "pinky toe friendly" console corner!
Nice building dolly too. Boat looks great.

[gpratt]

Nice job Kurt. The boat looks great.

[Kurt]

Tolbar, I purchased the Rub Rail from Hamilton Marine. The best way I can describe it is that it reminds me of the same material that a escalator hand rail is made of. It is a heavy duty black hard rubber. It is a fairly cheap solution.

[Kurt]

Jim, The pinky toe freindly console was a add on feature after I realized that the spinning rods would not go into their starboard side holders. I decided to lop off some of the console to get a better angle. It did not work. The bottom line is that the fly rods will be going on that side of the boat broken down in their two piece sections. However the console looks pretty cool in my opinion. Live and learn.

[Kurt]

John, I e-mailed you.

[Kurt]

gpratt, Thankyou very much. I appreciate it. I am looking foward to warmer weather so I can power it up, toss it in the water, give it the old test ride.

[jasonmcintosh]

Kurt,

I'm in the process of designing a console for my GF18. I'm putting it in the same location as yours (rear right side). What I've sketch so far is much higher than what you have, and I've got the steering wheel more vertical than yours (30 degrees from vertical to be exact).

With yours, I'd be concerned that the wheel would be too low to be comfortable. How do you like it?

Could you tell me how high yours is and how high your benches is from your floor?

Jason

[Kurt]

Jason I will post the numbers for you on monday( I am in NYC at the moment and away from my boat). However I can tell you that the steering position seems pretty comfortable to me altough I only have been able to test it out in my garage( I have not splashed the boat yet). I have seen and been on flat's boats in the Keys with side steering and starboard controls where the steering wheels come up at 90 degree angles and the console is no higher than the deck. Actually I would not even call it a counsle but a tab that sticks out from the side deck. My design is a hybrid of that aforementioned and a center console. It can only be steered while sitting down unlike a true center console where you can operate sitting down or standing up. Also I do not think my way offers you much protection from the elements(I have a second boat that i will use on the not so nice days). If you plan on standing up and are looking for protection than I would not go for the side mount option. The upside to the side mount is that I belive I created more cockpit room which is more important to me .

[jasonmcintosh]

Thanks for your comments. It will be at least few days before I start cutting out my console, so I'm not in a big hurry. I'd appreciate the dimensions though.

The upside to the side mount is that I belive I created more cockpit room which is more important to me .

This is what I'm after as well, but what I've sketched so far is tall and narrow, rather than short and squat as you have.

The rough dimensions that I"m thinking of are:

30" out from the side (call this its width)
33" high
12" along the length of the boat (call this its length)

The about half of the top will have a 30 degree surface where the steering wheel and throttle will be mounted to, and the rest fo the the top (about 6 of the 12" length) will be flat for a depth finder, etc. The 12" length is very narrow, but it's just wasted space in there so I want it as short as possible.

It looks like you have about a 70 degree slope where your wheel is mounted. That gets the wheel away from you knees, but it seems like you'd have to bend over to turn the wheel around.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Jason