Playroom Build Thread

[Sriver43]

Does anyone have the measurements for throttle cables handy? Ours are in rough shape…. Not sure how much of a difference it will make. We put new throttles in and got three more knots out of the top end…..

[Geebert]

Wow.
Your old throttles must have been really heavy.

[Carl]

It doesn’t hurt to change put cables in rough shape.


But if doing to see if you gain more cable travel…have someone manually goose the throttle at carb or throttle body / terminal end and see what if anything gained.


At dock, with motors off, pin the throttles and see how much additional travel you have at terminal end. Travel points are also adjustable.

[Sriver43]

So a few updates here. Over the winter time we built a frame around the boat in my backyard and had it wrapped in shrink wrap.

[Tony Meola]

Cole

The link is not working for me.

[Sriver43]

[Sriver43]

So the building survived the winter, this spring the winds really picked up around here and the tent blew apart and eventually blew off. So come time to spray paint and the building we built was completely useless.

[Sriver43]

We decided to use Alexseal paint with an off white color. Because of budgetary and time constraints, we decided to only paint the engine boxes, deck boards, bulkhead and combing. Took a lot of time to sand fill and fair but we are getting there.

The original plan was to roll the paint which was why we chose alexseal. Everyone we talked to advised us to try and spray if we can. So one of our friends had the equipment and skills to do so and kindly volunteered.

[Sriver43]

This is us spraying high build primer

[Sriver43]

Deck boards all sprayed

[Sriver43]

Lots more sanding and fairing, then we did primer and then topcoat this past Saturday and Sunday. I think everything turned out great given the givens. The finished product looks a lot like three guys drank a bunch of beers and painted it in the backyard but hey, doing the best with what we have!

[Sriver43]

The goal is to spray non-skid this weekend. Our friend with the spray expertise has left town for the weekend and left us with his spray gun and written instructions. How bad could it be?

Will post more pics upon completion of the work.

[Carl]

One of the most important things...clean the gun very well after your done.

From what I can see, looks like a great job!

[Amberjack]

Beautiful place to work on a boat

[PeterPalmieri]

Looks great

[John F.]

Nice job.

[Sriver43]

So the old exhaust Ys we had were very tired. Picture to illustrate:

[Sriver43]

When we pulled the old Ys out we also got a look up the tubes. One of the liners on the starboard bank coming from the starboard motor was coming up and blocking part of the pipe. We suspect this was causing a loss of power at the top end. We had been having some trouble with the starboard motor temps rising and being down on power when we were really hard on the throttle. Hopefully a new exhaust pipe solves the problem!

[Sriver43]

New Ys installed.





New Chevy small block helping old Chevy small blocks.




Non-skid turned out pretty nicely!

[PeterPalmieri]

Looking good

[Sriver43]

Thanks Pete! Made more progress got deck boards and engine boxes installed last night.

[Tony Meola]

Cole

Nice work. I see lights reflecting off of her.

[Yannis]

Do you have an opening hatch near the stern whereby you can check the tiller, the aft bilge pump, the flaps mechanism, remove bilge filth etc?

[Sriver43]

Yannis,

Thanks for the question. We have one hatch in the back above the drain plug and steering ram. We have not yet cut in hatches above the rudder posts. We changed the rudder post stuffing boxes last year and they are performing adequately. Given our work list we may not cut hatches in for the rudder posts this year, likely do it next winter.

Should we be prioritizing putting those hatches in? It didn’t seem like a huge issue for one year to me but would appreciate feedback if anyone has a good reason we should really focus on getting those hatches cut in.


Got her in the water yesterday and ran over to Libby’s for lunch.

[Tony Meola]

Cole

The only reason to cut them in is the just in case factor.

Just in case something happens back there that requires immediate attention. You know that old saying " I should have put that dam hatch in".

If you hit something and drive the rudder up into the hull and you have to get in there to try and temporarily deal with the issue until you can get home or get help.

Leaking rudder post is the least of your worries, but Murphy's law says that because you can't easily fix it, it will leak. Not so bad as long as you can just unscrew the deck and lift it up.

[DanielM]

Cole,

I would vote for putting them in sooner vs. later due to the ‘just in case factor’

Years ago, on a buddy’s boat we were on a shakedown/ booze cruise and we felt a pretty good bump, hit something in the intercoastal was our guess. Then the boat started getting sluggish pretty quickly and the bilge pumps all came on. We popped the engine hatches right away as we were on a shakedown cruise due to some engine work and expected the issue to be there. We didn’t see anything leaking at the engines but we had serious water in the bilge. I turned around and pulled the rudder hatches and one of the rudders was gone - just gone. Just a 1.5” x 2’ geyser coming out of the rudder stuffing box where the rudder had been previously.

I’ve been on the water many years and have never seen that before or after. But unless you can get that deck up very quickly in an emergency, I’d get the hatches in. Just a thought. YMMV.

The funny thing is, we had 2 experienced guys and myself in the cockpit, and the owner on the bridge (and all our wives) and they were like ‘what do we do?!’ I jumped down in the bilge at the rudder hatch as it was big enough for me to get into, yanked off my shirt and stuffed it in the stuffing box. Then the bilge pumps could start making some ground. I’m not all that smart, but I guess self-preservation kicked in. lol.

BTW, your boat looks great. I love the backyard paint crew. Looks like fun and she turned out well. Reminds me of the crew I had when I redid my Chris Craft many, many years ago.