Last Year's Boat Project: Part 2 of 2

Once both decals were applied, I had also purchased lettering for the Registration numbers.  After owning the boat for almost a year now, no one can tell unless they walk within ten feet of the boat that the lettering has reflective sparkles in it.  Essentially I paid too much for a lettering kit.  So skip the bass-boat glitz, and instead I recommend getting your basic 3" tall contrasting lettering from a hardware store and save the extra cash for something else. 

After finishing the plumbing for the livewell, and the second half of the decking, it was time for carpeting the deck.  I purchased a marine grade carpet, that has more of a vinyl surface as opposed to carpet fibers.  This type of carpeting looks nice and more importantly is easy to clean with a sturdy brush for when you get Northern Pike slime and fish blood all over it.  Pictured left, I set up "stationing" from the stern to the bow of the boat along the center-line of the boat's decking, and then transferred this center-line to the bottom of the new carpet.  I took a measurement from side to side at a one foot intervals, to create the basic shape of the decking platform.  I made all of my actual cut measurements wider so the carpet could run up the side of the boat, but not too much excess for ease of handling and installation.  Laying out the roll of carpet over two tables, I recreated the boat's decking center-line and measurements taken on the overturned carpet, and then simply cut it with a pair of scissors.  Now that I had the basic shape, it was ready for installation.  I used a marine grade carpet adhesive, adhesive trowel (one side flat, one with grooves), gloves, carpet razor, paper towel and water for removing spilled adhesive, and some spare pieces of wood to set the trowel down as needed, and something rigid to work the carpet into the adhesive.  Before slopping on the adhesive, I did a dry-fit of the carpet to make certain it would work and also to make the cut-outs around the live-well and storage box.  Beginning at the stern pushing the carpet under the seat was difficult since the fiberglass resin was extremely tacky, I probably could have got away by only relying on this and staples, but since I had the adhesive I was going to use it.  Because I had made the secondary cuts for the live-well and storage box, I only rolled the carpet back to the stern seat not moving the carpet at the rear of the boat.  Rolled up I applied the adhesive from the rear bench seat to the center boxes, do not put the adhesive along the metal groove save this for later.  Then you wait, and wait, and wait, and wait until the adhesive begins to set up, it will change color and become tacky.  Once tacky, I could pull the carpet above, blanketing the work area while standing ahead of the adhesive area. Then I moved to the rear seat and began to work the carpet forward kneading the carpet into the adhesive.  It is important to work it into the adhesive so that it binds to the fibrous under-side of the carpeting.  I repeated this process in sections to the front of the boat.  As for the tailings or excess carpet due to over-sizing the carpet leave them loose if you wish to conceal boat wiring for lights or fish/depth finders, using Gorilla glue to secure the final carpet edges to the aluminum concealing the wires.

Carpet Installed, leaving tailings loose for wiring concealment.

  Cosmetics & Function:  For any project like this it is important to know what you need in the boat and how it should function.  For example, located along the edges of the boat at the rear seat, and the center compartments were plywood braces that also acted as rod holders for two rods on each side.  I wanted to keep this function but also add oar holders so they would remain out of the way.  You are required to have at least one oar on boat with motors, but last I checked it is near impossible to row a boat with one oar.  I would make these out of king starboard, along with the new lids for the compartments.  Essentially PVC wood, they will last forever and are easy to work with.  The major issue with King Starboard is that it is marketed to boat owners who are way too accustomed to paying way too much.  I did, but I did find an alternative after dropping too much money for block of plastic.  Look up bulk cutting board, the stuff restaurants use in their kitchens is basically the same thing and it costs a third of the price.  After making cuts, sand all the edges to reduce chance of bodily harm while on the water and edges that could fray fishing lines.

The picture to the right, shows the cuts Evan and I made for the rear section of the oar/rod holders, and the PVC board lid on the storage compartment, as well as the seats remounted with the excess carpeting applied to the original seat bases (plywood).  From here, we made the front rod/oar holders, the live-well cover, and utilized the original hardware such as the latches, hinges, and screws as they were all in good shape.  I did also purchase a no-drill plate mount for a transducer that adheres to bare aluminum, we had to sand off a 3"x3" patch on the back of the boat and it was painful to do to that new paint-job.

Before even finishing the boat, the itch comes when you realize I have enough of this thing done to put it on the water.  So we quickly mounted some vertical rod holders, and said okay, let's get this thing wet!  What a great feeling!  With two adult anglers and two grossly over-weight tackle boxes the boat still pushed 25 mph.  Overall, it was a great experience to do the work ourselves.  I did add my hummingbird fish finder, navigation lights, a mounted fire extinguisher, LED trailer lights, and I have future plans to add a front mount trolling motor since the boat has a mounting plate on the bow already to help save on gas.  The total time invested was probably around 40 to 60 hours spread out over two months for both Evan and I.  We had a deadline of having a finished product before going to the Lake Champlain International Father's Day Tournament.  The boat, motor, trailer, registration with the DMV, and everything I mentioned herein plus gas for the summer cost right around three thousand dollars, which is a considerable amount but as opposed to buying new I saved at least three thousand dollars and I have an original boat I can call my own.

Docked for Lunch on the CT River.