"La Flaca" FS18

[cottontop]

That is one cool looking boat. She sure is pretty the way she is. Congratulations. John

[Cracker Larry]

Very nice

[tech_support]

very nice I like that box and cooler set up.

[Pro Wader]

Excellent!

I hope I get a chance to meet you on the water. I just finished cutting out all of my wood for my FS18. If you are ever around the Galveston/Freeport/Matagorda area, give me a buzz. I would sure like to see her on the water.

Congrats.

[sitandfish]

She is a bad looking boat. Especially with her bottom wet.

[doubleup]

Ok, I'm sure I'm going to forget a bunch on info but I'll try to summarize what happen over the holidays.

When I first got back to Texas I went to a friend of mines house who had trailer that would work. Luckily he had air tools and torches, so we stripped everything off the trailer and put new hubs, bearings, rims, tires, and tongue on. The next day I got it legal at department on trans. Then brought it to Austin and my build buddy, Dave, and I put bunkers on it and fitted for "La Flaca". Still need a few mods and rollers.

I flipped the hull and painted the sides Sea Mist Green Sterling roll and tip style. Did 3 coats and well, it could use some help but looks good to me for now. I think my rollers were falling apart cus I've got tons of tiny bumps all over it and some brush marks didn't flood out. Step back 5 feet and she looks gorgeous. What I do like is that the Sterling seems like a very strong paint for the outside.

Flipped her back over after she dried and went to Dave's cabinet shop to make a little tiller console out of okume and make new rod holders out of Bamboo that he has been making all his cabinets out of. They look super cool and they're super strong. Plan on accenting the bamboo on the tiller console and poling platform as well. Then glassed the inside of the console. To attach the console I glued and glassed two 1x 2s to the sole that would fit snuggly inside the console. Then glued console to sole and glassed outside of console and glassed to the sole. Seems super stout. Shown in previous post. Just made a small cutout for now. I'm going to have a hatch where the cutout is and have switches above that.

Installed pvc rod tubes going forward and back. Also figured out how I wanted to drain the sole. I cut a piece of pvc down the middle and glued it onto my raised bilge area under the aft deck. Water will run through it and fall into the square bilge area that you can see in previous pix. Also ran fuel line and wiring to the bow. Installed livorsi led nav lights. Hooked up fuel vent and fuel line, but did not use it on the splash. I cut out a stuff hatch in the bow hatch that will allow me access to the build in fuel tank and also allow for hooking up and back up fuel supply if needed.

Next I glued down the plascore decks. I put two layers of glass on the bottoms of the plascore previously. My decks weren't very flush so instead of shaving everything, I went with where it lied. I would have to create a beveled edge with filler. The next day I made some strong filler and filled the edge. I really liked how it turned out. Little different look. Routered the inside edges of the walk around gunnels and sanded a little turn over on the rubrails and then glassed the top decks to the rubrail. The plascore got super strong once glassed on both sides. ended up doubling the glass on the front deck. Dave who is big dude can jump up and down on it! Next cut out the spots for hatchs.

Faired the decks, sole, and console the next day and started sanding.........more sanding......I new that I only had a few more days in town so I just sanded my first layer of fairing which turned out pretty good and then put a primer coat on her.

The primer dried and we started installing trim tabs, jack plate, then motor. Went and bought a small cheap 12v battery to run the tabs and plate for test run.

Strapped her down and took her away from her Austin home for the first time. I've got a some good friends that I grew up with that have lake houses on Lake LBJ in Kingland, Tx and were having a New Year's party. Plus we could take her up the Llano river that flows into the lake and is mostly a sand bottom in most spots and see how she floats in the skinny.

I didn't hook up the main 12 gallon tank thats under the deck and just put a portable 6 gallon tank up in the forward hatch that was hooked up to our main fuel line. That means I can have the 12 gal full and bring a 6 gal along and not have and fuel cans on deck. For those super long camp trips!

OK, the launch. So with what was said and still needing to do some more fairing, non skid the decks and paint decks, install rubrail, pushpole holders, removable trolling motor mount, yeti cooler, and getting a poling platform made, "La Flaca" was ready to go!

Brand new motor fired up. Running her super rich for the first 6 gal and break in period. The sea pro isn't very loud and seem perfect for my rig. We did the breack in and didn't mess with any taps or plate positions. I also don't have a stainless cupped 4 blade yet. Just ran the aluminum 3 blade that came with the motor.

She is solid as can be, quiet, takes chop nice, tracks well (I didn't do a skeg on the bottom on the hull, like the plans call for) and performed awesome with tabs up and plate down. And with the motor in a little tilted position, since i don't have trim and tilt, did not bight at all. Might change with the cupped 4 blade. I could let go of the the tiller, stand up and surf the damn thing!! Just lean to one side and she would start tracking that way!

Now for the fun part. With the trim tabs all the way down, she pops right up and planes at a ridiculous slow speed and the tabs start throwing water up like a tunnel hull. I was then able to come up with the jack plate about 2-3inches before blowing out and she was running skinny and pissing plenty of water. Once i get a better prop and maybe a custom cav plate, I think she will perform like a tunnel hull skiff. I know i splurged on the tabs and plate and thought that they would not be worth it but now I'm convinced that they make this hull do some amazing things. The only down fall is that I have to be very careful how much weight is forward when I throw the tabs all the way down. With Dave and full fuel way forward, the bow digs way down with the tabs all the way down. But when your by yourself they're perfect. And when some boat wakes came, I pulled the tabs up and went over some good size wakboard wakes with ease and little manuevering.

In the skinny water at idle speed I can jack the motor all the way up on the jack plate and put around in a foot of water without having to manually tilt the motor up. I wasn't able to get precise drafts but She floats plenty skinny. With Dave and I and 6 gal of fuel and a cooler full of beer she was drafting 5in. The skinnest she floated was with one person in the boat standing on the front hatch. She floated across nothing. Blew my mind. Can't wait to pole her. You can push her around with a pinky finger.

All in all I am one proud and stoked boat owner/builder!! I've been in a bunch of productions skiffs and this thing can don what they do plus more! Thanks Bateau for the help and inspiration!

[TRC886]

Looks great

[hooter]

Looks great!

Makes me want to go fishing!!

hOOt

[doubleup]

[doubleup]

I've been doing fish prints for while and decided to get one made into a decal for the back corners of the boat and then have "La Flaca" across the forward bulkhead under the hatch lip.