New member to the forum and I’m liking what I’ve seen so far! I’m pretty new to the boat building world although I’ve been a pretty avid fisher my whole life, just never had the notion of owning a boat. Well that changed as most things do and I ended up buying my first boat, a 1992 19’ Carolina Skiff. After the first day out with just me and my wife, I was debating who I loved more lol. Long story short, the boat was great for us for a couple years before the 1989 90hp merc gave out “for the last time” as my wife said it. So, into the garage it went for what was supposed to be a new motor and rear deck.
I started doing some research and decided if I was going to do any glass work, why not just do the whole boat how I would build it. So, thats the plan. Its been almost 2 years now I think of working on it a couple hours each weekend and I’m almost to the point where I can glass the cap! Another thing that I’ve been getting some slack on is my choice of using only epoxy. Being new to the fiberglass world, I went with West Systems Epoxy because 1) The pump system is super easy and the thought of measuring out portions overwhelmed me at first (not sure why now) & 2) West Marine was the only local place I could find that readily had epoxy near me (no poly). Looking back, I could have saved alot of money and time going with a poly resin. Anyways, below is the design I came up with. I wanted gunwales and I wanted a newer skiffs interior layout and lines.
Then before I purchased my first batch of foam coring, I mocked it up with scrap wood. The foam was not cheap by any means so alot of the mock up became direct templates.
I guess I gotta post a bunch of individual posts before I can do a full photo dump so stick with me;
The first thing I did was install the front curved wall that eventually would have two front coolers, an anchor locker, and two battery storage compartments or mounting area for trolling motor, etc. I left the mock up of the cap and gunwales on and made sure everything was level. Then I used a plumb bob to run along the edge and mark a direct copy onto the hull. I then recessed it 2.5” to give an overhang.
I used to be a metal fabricator and cardboard is like gold when making templates. At this stage, I had the wall and stiffeners epoxied in. Also, noobie mistake but I should have glassed everything before epoxying them in. It makes it 100 times easier.
This is after adding additional stiffeners, two cut-outs to access electronics from the anchor locker, and on either side of the locker are two coolers that will be lightly insulated. I also poured a portion behind the wall in the anchor locker to reinforce that area. There are also two drains that drain in each corner of the anchor locker to the front of the wall and there is a drain in each of the coolers.
I used stainless steel drain caps and used PVC as the drain tubes. Way cheaper than the $100+ drain kits they sell and will be easy to replace if they get damaged.
Part of my genius design was that I wanted to have a big live-well where I could store a bunch of bait and I wanted a it to be part of the leaning post. I’m glad I started this relatively soon in my learning process because it was a pain in the ass/still is a pain in the ass (but the body of work is done). I made every mistake possible looking back on this part and it taught me alot.
Again, this was before I realized It would have been easier to glass the panels before doing it this way but I didn’t know at the time. Alot of misery and screws went into this thing.
Eventually, everything for the most part got a layer on either side of 1708, then a minimum of 2 layers of 10oz and the top and area’s where the seat and lid to the live-well got an additional layer or two of 4oz (it leaves a really nice finish).
I needed supports for the gunwales so I made six of them out of 1/2” Divinycell epoxied together. I incorporated rod holders into them too and will add bungies to them once I get to the outfitting stage.
Then I cut a big trench in my deck (foam was dry thank god) and installed 4” pvc for the cabling from the battery and motor to the center console. Then I poured it in place with 6lb closed cell foam (I love this stuff).
Carving it was fun. I didn’t wait long enough in one area and I had to dig it out and repour it. Then I sanded down the deck around the foam to create a taper and glassed the foam into the decking. I think I did 2 layers of 1708 and then an additional 2 layers of 10oz. I made sure to recess the foam approx. 1/8-3/16 below the deck to account for the glass.
Next I made and epoxied the two side walls to the livewell. I recessed two speaker pods in them as well. Then I laid out and drilled holes through the walls and the gunwale supports to run a pvc pipe from the back to the front on either side to run wires.
The waves in the glass are actually due to the original decking. It doesn’t look like it because there was soo much paint but the deck slightly sags in between the ribs. Good thing the center console and livewell will cover alot of it. Surprisingly though, the deck is not soft. Not sure if its just due to age or what.
I also enlarged the bilge area for a raw water pick-up and added a trough that is going to allow water to flow from the deck, under the livewell, and into the bilge to be pumped out.
I took packing tape and ran it between the PVC and the hull of the boat slightly tapering in towards the hull and then poured it with the 6lb expandable foam. This stuff goes a long way.
Afterwards, I carved them down flat ontop, removed the tape, and then glassed them in. By now, I’m pretty good at glassing vertical and overhead surfaces lol.
I created pads that I am going to use as a base for a backrest (that I gotta fab up eventually). Its going to be a low profile rest that allows me to reach around and get bait out.
Heck yeah! My dad is on his third Carolina skiff. Been fishing off them my whole life. Wet as hell but get the job done. Great platforms for skinny backwaters and family friendly. We’ve had an early 90’s semi-V with 90, late 90’s 18 with a 70 and now my dad got a 23 liner series with a 200. Looking forward to updates!
This is after I sanded down everything and then dropped the cap from the ceiling. It gives an idea of everything hidden under the cap. The caps gunwales are also wide enough to where I can install rod holders on them and not hit the PVC routing.
Then I dropped the cap for a mock up of how it looks with the livewell and center console (both of which will be glassed into the hull and surrounding parts).
