Cockpit Mezzanine & Tuna Tube Winter Project

[rustybucket]

 

[rustybucket]

 

[Avenger]

Am I seeing correctly that those cabinets are all molded with foam-cored fiberglass? I need to redo my tackle center and I'm trying to get away from glass over wood. I was just wondering how the factory did it.

 

[rustybucket]

Am I seeing correctly that those cabinets are all molded with foam-cored fiberglass? I need to redo my tackle center and I'm trying to get away from glass over wood. I was just wondering how the factory did it.

I think everything we saw was balsa core or just solid fiberglass (no core). Surprisingly we only found one wet spot which was the bottom of the tackle center and appeared to be compressed fiberboard or something similar. The rest of the coring we cut out was essentially in like-new condition.


On a side note if anybody needs some hatch lids or cockpit freezer we salvaged as much as possible.

 

[Avenger]

I was mostly thinking of solid glass for mine. Thanks for the info.

 

[rustybucket]

Had a few days to work on the Mezzanine this past weekend. Made some good progress on laying the 2" divinycell for the floors/walls of the refrigerated compartments

This is the fishbox. Should be able to hold almost a 9' long fish in here.

 

[rustybucket]

I know I'm a dork, but one of the things I'm most excited about is the fishbox drain. This is not the actual plug we will be using, it will be recessed so as to not be a toe grabber lol.

The opening is 3" pvc, on the lowest corner of the fishbox and will have a fillet around it making it essentially the lowest corner of the fishbox. No more having to wait for fishbox to drain while rinsing it out!! woot woot!

5gal buckets will be able to fit inside the lid of the fishbox, pretty excited about that too.

 

[rustybucket]

Twin 6" Gaff Tubes were dry fit. These will be cut off near the house, aft of them will be a cabinet with a door. You will open the cabinet door to access the gaffs. Inside the cabinet on port and starboard walls will be hooks to hang flying gaff heads, spare harpoon darts, lines for gaffs...etc These will be able to hold almost a 10' long gaff/harpoon.

FINALLY we will have somewhere to store gaffs/harpoons/boat hooks...etc.

 

[rustybucket]

 

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

Very impressive.

 

[rustybucket]

Very impressive.

Thanks Ron! Not gonna lie, feels good to see stuff start going back together! I'll be back down this weekend to hopefully get as far as I can on the mezzanine and get started on the transom baitwells/tuna tubes.

 

[Cricket]

Great start. Feeling itchy from the fiberglass dust in Philly.

 

[rustybucket]

Great start. Feeling itchy from the fiberglass dust in Philly.

It wasn't terribly bad really. I try to wear a tyvek suit when I'm grinding at least. I did somehow get a shard of foam in my eye at one point, had glasses on and we had been done grinding for a while, little gust of wind just picked it up and blew it right into my eye lol.

 

[finatic]

Are you going to keep the engine room vents located in the cockpit or will you install them in the sides of the hull?

 

[rustybucket]

Are you going to keep the engine room vents located in the cockpit or will you install them in the sides of the hull?

Future project will be to install hull side vents, next winter prolly. Even before this project engine room ventilation was marginal at best.

Once we had everything apart I realized that with the work we were doing we weren't actually closing the cockpit vents off, they will just draw air from under the cockpit from now on. So air will enter the cockpit, pass under the port/stbd gunnels, pass under the cockpit and into the ER vent openings.

Before we started this project i was very concerned with air flow, but after looking at how it is designed we will have the same air flow we had before the project. We even talked about putting a vent on the aft side of the ER entryway, but I don't even think we are going to do that now.

 

[rustybucket]

Been making good progress, but not much to show for it.

Got the transom wall soda blasted to remove all the grime and bilge paint. The harbor freight soda blaster did an absolutely amazing job, I was shocked how well it peeled everything off. We will be putting a layer of glass with vinyl ester resin along the back wall which will serve as the back of the baitwells.

If you ever need to sand a large area of non-flat fiberglass I HIGHLY recommend soda blasting. I'm still shocked how well it did. We did both sides with a single 40lb bag of soda. Super easy cleanup too, just hose/rinse everything off.

after blasting we started building the mold for the port baitwell.

Due to the odd shape of this piece and the fact that it will extend below deck considerably we built the top half of the mold in-place on the boat. We then removed it and extended it downward on the bench.

 

[rustybucket]

The mold was fabricated using 3/4" Melamine fiber board. Cost was approx $25/4x8 sheet at Home Depot. The radius was done using white glossy formica picked up at a cabinet shop for $10 for a sheet. Port side mold took 1.5 sheets of melamine and about 1/3 of a formica sheet.

 

[rustybucket]

The lid was the trickiest part. Needed to match the gunnel lip on the boat and also have a landing place for the baitwell lid. Think we accomplished both goals with a piece of 3/4" pvc foam board in the form cut to the correct radius.

This ledge allows the tank to clear a drain pipe for a hatch lid.

 

[rustybucket]

Hope to be back at the boat this weekend (weather permitting) to sand the mold and do one more coat of bondo/filler to smooth out a couple of air voids then we should start laying up the part.

Something I'm torn over.... Maybe you guys could offer opinions. Thinking of adding a 19" square glass viewing window on the front of the corner bait tanks. The baitwell lids will be solid painted fiberglass.

The cost to add the glass viewing windows will add approx $600 to the project. My brother thinks we shouldn't do them, I really like the idea of having them.

Even if just hanging at the dock with the kiddos, let them put pinfish, crabs, whatever in the tanks, turn on the baitwell underwater lights and they have a fish tank to watch/play with.

Thoughts?

 

[rustybucket]

Here is a really rough comp of a viewing window on the corner baitwells. This is of course the form, so other than general location the shape will be quite different.