Bought the boat, motor and trailer for $500 and was intended to be a little beater for the kids to putter around the nearby lakes. The boat is a 1970 Seacraft fiberglass boat made by Sebring Boat Company. The boat was powered by a 1970 Evinrude 25 tiller. We got it home, changed the impeller and everything checked out. We went fishing one morning and the engine started throwing parts and the boat had a leak. On top of that, I tried to stand on the front deck and fell in (it was winter and the water was cold!) Of course I had my cell phone in my pocket.

We had to get towed in. Great. Once we got the flat on the trailer fixed (dry rotted tires) we broke down the engine and found the head and one cylinder was destroyed by a small piece of metal that got sucked in through one of the cylinder ports (piece of ring). After a few weeks of discussing the future of the boat with my son, we started thinking what ifs and if onlys. Well, I bought a great little '03 Merc 25 off Ebay and we were committed. We decided to convert this little skinny generic fishing craft into a skinny-skinny water center console fishing machine!

We noticed a repair on the bow had small discoloration. A light push with a screwdriver revealed the hole that was not repaired correctly. This was the source of the leak. Since we could not access the hole from the inside, we poured 8-lb foam into the hole, let it expand and set. We then cut off the excess foam and ground it down past the fiberglass. We now had a solid base to lay a repair

Another view of what was underneath the previous repair.

This boat has a 17" transom which accomodated the '70 Evinrude 25 tiller. However, since newer motors mostly come in 15 or 20 inch lengths, and also since it sat pretty low in the rear (as a tiller), I looked and found a great deal on a 25hp 20" Merc two stroke that was light and with minor modifications, fit the boat. The transom will have to be raised a few inches. Should not be a big problem (so we thought).

After flipping the boat upside down and after repairing the hole we applied 5 barrier coats of epoxy over the entire hull. We tinted the epoxy blue as we wanted the final coat of paint to be blue and if it got a little scratched, it would not be noticable. We rolled and brushed and sanded each coat. It turned out pretty nice, almost the final color we wanted. See the water bead? Watch for the blushing! Once finished, we applied three coats of Interlux Perfection (Roll and Brushed), and it looked really good. The purpose of the paint was for color consistency and UV protection. Following the paint, we applied POR15 Glisten Clear coat. The clear coat was hard to apply and we put the second coat on too soon. It started to sag and after much work we got it looking fairly acceptable. We probably should have stopped at the paint or else the first coat of clear coat. This picture is after the barrier coats and before the paint and clear coat. Sand, Sand and more sanding! Also, there is no evidence of the hole repair.

This was a real low point and I probably should have started here. After removing the fiberglass cap over the transom, we noticed some soft wood which is indicative of rot. I thought that due to the age of the boat, the whole transom would be rotted and we would then have to decide whether to continue with the project or not. A few exploratory holes showed the rot was limited to the top part and was not too bad It was limited to a few inches down and on the outer piece of plywood. After cutting the plywood away, we noticed that the two peices of 3/4 ply that made up the transom were not glued together. Here we are prying the two pieces apart. We mixed up about 3 ounces of epoxy and poured it into the space. We used clamps and screws to join the plywood. Once dry it was really solid!

The new wood has been installed and just epoxy glued at this point. The top still needs sanding and leveling. Unfortunately it was a little difficult to fit as my skill-saw work on the outside of the transome was not too skillfull. One thing nice about fiberglass and wood, make it a little larger than you need and grind it down to size...

The transom is fixed. The engine strike plate (Thanks Jeff Hoover!) fits perfectly

Before the deck goes in, I used both rigid and flexible 1 1/4" pvc for the wire and control chases. (In the future, use 2". It was a little difficult to fish the control cables through the 1 1/4" pipe.)

View of electrical chase going from the location of the center console forward.

Test fitting of the deck where the center console will be located

Getting late but the transom is painted.

Michael putting first barrier coat on center console

Starting to Glass the Center Console

Picture of the relief holes for the pour in place two part foam. We ended up not needing all of these holes but what did we know at the time?

View from the stern. All the glass work is done. Some access holes to fix, electrical to install, interior paint. We are beginning to see the light. Console is installed and accessories have been fitted. We need a final sand of the interior, get the steering system installed and install the accessories.

View from the starboard side. The white thing sticking out of the side is the drain for the baitwell. The hole in the seat is for running control cables. This will be fixed later. Check out the cool grabrails! Once everything is painted, this is going to be a cool little boat.

The bow deck is in. The first hatch is for the trolling/accessory battery. The second hatch is for storage. A lot of room was created under the bow deck. It is really solid.

This is the center console. All the holes have been drilled and sealed. The door on the side has the bus bar and fuse panel attached to the inside. The top rectangle hole on the side will be the switch panel. The three holes on the side facing the driver includes an accessory plug, ignition switch and kill switch. The top panel was removed at the time of the picture but will include the steering, tach and bilge pump switch. The top part of this panel will include a compass and GPS mount. My son wanted a left handed binnicle throttle control. Why? 'Cause it was his choice.

We thought it would be cool to install shark eye bow nav lights. It was a little unnerving cutting through the hull but these installed surprisingly easy. To make sure there were no leaks, I put enough 5200 to seal the gash in the Titanic.

Crappy picture but this is a photo of one of two LED underwater lights that are installed about 1/3 of the way back from the bow. Why? They were cheap, easy to install and who else has them? Besides, they may come in handy while shrimping at Oak Hill.

A shot from bow to stern. The white access cover on the bench is a built in tackle box. The hole will of course be fixed, once the electrical is done. The front round port is for the anchor. Love those grab rails! The only original item left from the old boat is the cleat on the front. We left it to remind us of our first voyage.

Starting to look like a boat now. This is the first prime coat on the topside. We were really curious to know how it would look with a coat of paint. The paint usually shows the imperfections and we are going to splatter it anyways. However, we had to highfive each other because or glassing job looks no worse than the original! (Certainly not a factory boat!)

From the stern...First Primecoat

We are finished with the project. We were extremely happy with the results, except for the splatter painting. It ran a little on the vertical surfaces but it only took an hour to paint each coat. We will redo it another time.

We painted the interior using Interlux Brightside Seattle Grey. The splatter was Admiral Blue which matched the hull. We did not splatter the center console.

The front casting deck. The deck turned out to be sturdy without additional bracing underneath. My son did all the fairing detail and it looks like a factory install. The round hatch is for a small anchor, the second larger hatch is for storage and the third smaller rectangular hatch is the trolling motor battery access.

The rear seat had a storage compartment which we kept. We added bilge pump and a gas tank platform.

Here you can see the center console from the back. The console has an accessory plug, ignition, kill lanyard, binnicle, compass, tach, fish finder and bilge pump switch (auto, off, manual). Plus there is the accessory switch panel and the electrical fuse busses. You can see the small foot print Odyssey battery underneath the console. There is even room for a little storage. When installing the console, the glassed wood was slightly elevated off the floor and the gap filled with epoxy to minimize the chance for the wood to soak water.

This is the door on the starboard side of the center console. When open you can see two electrical buses, one fused the other not. The larger bus includes all the ground wires to basically everything. It is connected via a 4awg cable to the negative side of the trolling battery (Trojan). The positive side includes all the navigation lights. It is energized when the fused navigation light switch is turned on. The smaller panel near the bottom of the door is for accessories that are not switched. This includes the accessory plug in the front of the console and the bilge pump. They are fused here. There is the main switch panel on the outside of the console above the door. It includes aereator, nav lights, underwater lights, electronics (fish finder), front accessories. There is one switch that is not used. These items are fused there.

Well, that is it. The only remaining items are to finish a small area of painting. We tested the electronics and engine functions in a test tank. We still have not had it on the lake yet but we will do that when we get back from a trip to my dad's house. I am almost sad to see it done because of the fun my son and I had doing the project but at the same time can't wait to fish and boat with him. Cost: Boat, motor (old one) and trailer, $500, Rebuild $1,800, new motor $1,500. Total: $3,800. Time: 3 months. Was it worth it? You bet.

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Well, after some motor position tweaking, we got it running really well. With the two of us, tackle, supplies, food and six gallons of fuel, she runs 23 mph on the GPS. According to the tach, we can run at 7000 rpm which is too high. We have bought a used CMC PT-35 trim and tilt and once it is installed, we will look for the correct prop. Do I see 30 mph in the future? BTW, we have reds, snook, trout, lots of sail cats, ladies, flounder, puffers, large mouth bass, specs and butter cats to our credit so far. Look for future updates! If you have any questions, email me: reka12 at hotmail dot com.

Quick update: Put a new tach (a mercury). Engine running 5100 at wot. Sounds more like it. Also, put on the CMC PT-35 trim and tilt unit. Wow, what a difference. We used to run 23 at wot using the GPS. Now we are at 30.5! with both of us in the boat. Plus, the motor has been raised. The anti-cav plate (or splash plate) on the lower unit used to be 1.5" below the bottom of the transom and now it is 2.5" above. A gain of 4". The water is pumping fine, The boat corners well. Can't wait to get back out on the flats!

These two images show the before and after with the installation of the CMC-PT35. As you can see, the motor is much higher and sits back further. The speed increase is much greater than anticipated. It handles well, especially in the chop now that the bow can be raised out of the water. I will try to get running pictures showing how the cav. plate (or splash plate) now rides just above the water

This pictures is just about at bottom level. You can see the cav plate above the bottom of the transom. If I had taken the picture correctly, the cav plate is about 1.5" above the bottom.

This picture shows the back of the boat with the CMC PT-35 and the engine raised. I bought the unit off ebay for about 1/2 retail price. It did not include the switch but I found one at ACE hardware. It was easy to install and took about 2 hours. It would have taken only an hour if I new what I was doing but that is not bad. You can also see the back rest we added. I am looking for anyone that can take a piece of vinyl and add an embroidered boat name. Any ideas? reka12@hotmail.com . Thanks and that is it until next time.

We built and installed a seat cushion. We bought the vinyl at a fabric store (be careful though, we pulled a little off the roll and the weight of the fabric caused the whole entire roll of vinyl to unspool onto the floor!). I took the fabric to Bass Pro to get the boat logo embroidered and they said they could do what we wanted. When we went to pick it up, they apparently changed their mind. I talked with other professional embroidery shops and they were expensive. I just so happened to be at the local mall and the lady at the t-shirt embroidery kiosk said she could do it. She did a fantastic job. I sent the vinyl and frame to a friends mother and she completed the work. It looks great. The Skinny Gator is finally done.

One more note, we were in Mosquito Lagoon last weekend. We could run on a plane very comfortably in 1 foot of water. It was unnerving at first but did it feel good. We were able to access areas that we had to use the trolling motor or paddle before. The boat cruises at 28 mph, WOT at 31.5 with me, my son and a cooler, and will run all day on 6 gallons. Not bad for a 25hp. It has far exceeded our expectations.