Texas Flats Boat

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cape man
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Re: Texas Flats Boat

Post by cape man »

My policy is with Castle Key. Never heard of them till Allstate dropped me and my Allstate agent found them.
The world always seems brighter when you've just made something that wasn't there before - Neil Gaiman

TomW1
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Re: Texas Flats Boat

Post by TomW1 »

Found these guys https://www.markelinsurance.com/boat/thebalance What ever you do not use the word wood. Use fiberglass composite as the hull type. Don't use home made use custom built. We have to find away around these insurance guys without being dishonest. :D Good luck on finding insurance.

Tom
Restored Mirror Dinghy, Bought OD18 built by CL, Westlawn School of Yacht Design courses. LT US Navy 1970-1978

wwsmith
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Re: Texas Flats Boat

Post by wwsmith »

Thanks, Cape Man. Have not tried Castle Key yet, but will soon. Have one other lead that I'm waiting to hear back on as well. Will keep yall posted as this has turned into quite the ordeal. Would love to save others the same hassle in the future.

Tom, thank you. I had tried Markel and they declined. Regarding the weight, powertech didn't ask. They just wanted to know what I was currently running and made adjustments based on that. I think we're all expecting this to still be iterative and I'm planning for at least one more try before we get it right. We'll see!

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cape man
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Re: Texas Flats Boat

Post by cape man »

If it continues to be a hassle, you may get somewhere if you get it surveyed.

https://yachts360.com/how-to-hire-a-boat-surveyor/

Looks like Castle Key may only be in Florida. Part of Allstate for personal property insurance...
The world always seems brighter when you've just made something that wasn't there before - Neil Gaiman

wwsmith
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Re: Texas Flats Boat

Post by wwsmith »

A few updates - I think we have permanent insurance...still not confident enough to say for sure, but it has been over a month and we haven't been dropped like two times before. This one is through an allstate agent and one of their subsidiaries.
Ordered a prop from power tech. They have been good to work with, but they have long lead times at the moment. They're going to custom build a prop for the boat (one they have been wanting to try out but haven't made before?) but I bought a current model 16 pitch triple cup to figure out the correct pitch before placing the other order. The current prop took 6 weeks to get. They said the other one will take 3 months or longer. My previous prop was a mercury rev4 and it didn't perform very well with the tunnel. The current one grips much better and we still get the same top speeds as the mercury prop. Currently we get about 30 MPH at 5000 RPM with the tunnel primed. In a moderate chop or in a following sea, the tunnel tends to lose it's prime when running over 25 MPH. I don't mind this because at those speeds, we're usually traveling long distance anyway. When the tunnel loses prime, the speed jumps up to about 37 MPH at 6000 RPM. It handles totally differently, but I don't consider it to be worse. Just different. It would bother me if it happened when running the flats, but that never happens in calmer water. My takeaway is, I'd vent this tunnel if we build another one (and we're thinking about doing it) to be able to change the performance when we want to.
We ran an 80 mile loop a couple weekends ago and used about 20 gallons of fuel.
Here's a couple photos of how she sits on the water. I was worried about the weight distribution but it turned out just right. Next on the list will be to raise the motor a couple holes on the jackplate and install lower water pickup. This will probably be a winter job. Our tunnel is about 5" tall and in these photos, the water is just barely above the tunnel.
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Jeff
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Re: Texas Flats Boat

Post by Jeff »

wwsmith, beautiful boat!! Really well done!!! Jeff

wwsmith
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Re: Texas Flats Boat

Post by wwsmith »

To follow up on last post (a long time ago!), the lower water pick-up/nosecone and new prop were installed over winter months. Bobs and Powertech were both great. This is a entirely new prop from powertech (they actually built the mold based on a conversation about what we were looking for). They only charged a little extra for this, which I thought was a bargain. The low water pickup doesn't help with hole shot, but once on plane, the boat will run with the prop and skeg about 3/4 above the bottom of the boat. Only a few inches extend below the boat. This gives me a little more confidence when running in very shallow water for longer distances.

Hope everyone is doing well.
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Jeff
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Re: Texas Flats Boat

Post by Jeff »

Nice!! Jeff

txtrout
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Re: Texas Flats Boat

Post by txtrout »

Absolutely beautiful boat!!!

I am curious about how it rides. Especially in a chop. I mostly fish west matagorda; I need to get shallow but also need to cross a big (sometimes rough) bay.

You mentioned the shallowsport in your early posts. Ive definitely thought a 21 shallowsport would be a good match for the type of fishing I do. Do you have any idea of how your XF22 ride compares? I honestly think your boat LOOKS better than the shallowsport you mentioned. If the ride is similar or not too much worse, I think I might have to build one of these myself.

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