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All my life i have hoped to be able to own a fully restored 31, well life and money or lack there of have not made that possible. I have found a late 60s hull that is completely stripped down and i am thinking of converting it to a true walk aound with outboards. Kipps boat has inspered me. What are your thoughts on making the hull a true walk around, taking out the cabin and glassing the floor. We do alot of fly fishing so the open font deck would be ideal i think. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Capt. Clint Kemp

unless you live in eastern panama im thinkin you will have too much draft for a lot of fly fishing. other than that as kipp has shown....it sure can be done , and done well.

I don't know where you are but I have done a lot of blue water fly fishing and a walk around 31 would certainly make fighting a fish a lot easier...especially if you do it alone or with an inexperienced second person on board. I have caught Tuna, Mako and blue shark and Pacific Sailfish and have had to have the boat kept stern to the fish. Striped Bass and Bluefish are also caught in deeper waters here where draft would not be an issue. A walk around would have been great as in my instances, we rarely back down on our fish. I like fighting my fish from a dead boat. You would probably want/need to build in some lockable storage areas or you'll be dragging all your stuff every time you go out. Let us know how you progress.

so whats the deal with the armada of "flats" boats i see taking fly charters?

The fly charters they take are for Bass, Blues and False Albacore in the shallower (but not offshore) local waters. They CAN (and do) have the capability of sight fishing our real shallow flats when the fish are there and can be silently poled to sneak up on visible fish. However in the fall when the migrations start, conditions at the point aren't always nice and deeper sided center consoles are a helluva lot safer than the shallow draft flats boats are. Although not publicized, several have fallen overboard from casting platforms and almost all come home wet from the spray and waves taken in by their low sides. More and more of them are changing to the traditional center consoles for that time of the year. The center console is the ultimate walk around with some inner height to brace your legs against when fighting a fish in rocking seas.

greatly appreciate the commments. We are in South Abaco, (Black Fly Bonefish Club) and will be fishing the blue water around Hole in the wall out of the new Schooner Bay Harbor. We will be using the boat for various kinds of fishing, just need a great hull and lots of space. One question was related to support up front without the cabin. Thinking the floor and elbows will do the job. any thoughts on a console? again thanks for the help.

Clint,

Again, welcome aboard...

A late '60s will probably still have the 173 gallon fuel tank so you could keep the deck height to a minimum. Strip everything out of the hull except for the stringers, including fuel tank, water tank, rudder ports & shaft logs. Remove all lateral bulkheads between the two center stringers. Remove the engine bed sisters from the stringers.

Fiberglass up all of the below water line through holes. Remove the transom deck joist and rudder shelves. Thoroughly clean the inside of the hull fore to aft, port to starboard all the way up to the gunnels and cap.

On the inside of the transom, epoxy bed a layer of 1/2" Coosa or Pensky Board. Epoxy glass over this with 12 oz biaxle fabric. Repeat this process 2 more times. Each layer of biax will be carried past the Coosa & onto the adjacent hull and bottom by about 4 inches. Once done, this will bring your transom thickness to around 2 1/4" and plenty strong enough for the OB weight and torque.

You'll move the fuel tank forward considerably. How far will depend on the weight of the OB engines you'll be installing. You have to change the balance point from what it was with inboard engines or you'll be way too heavy in the stern.

Once you've figured out the tank placement you can then figure out the minimum deck height and configuration. But this is already getting to far down the line to continue at this time. Just do the above mentioned strip out, patch in, and transom build up. We can go from there later...

If you don't already have a digital camera, get one & open an account with www.photobucket.com so you can post images along with your questions. (See the Links and Images Announcement on the General Discussion board).

Br,

Patrick

Thanks Capt. very helpful and will keep you updated.

Why can't you add layers of coosa and biax external vs interna

You can but whats the sense when you have a rub rail thats already fitted to the outside dimension and a finished and gel coated surface on the outside already existing. By glassing and building on the inside you save an awful large amount of finish work. Plus you have to grind and overlap onto the bottom and sides as you add thickness to the transom, the inside is the best place to do this.

Unless your into that kind of thing, but that's just sick.

My guess is this would be a project boat that would require lots of changes, not just a wax job, I currently have the bilge open and have pondered the outboard refit, Fitting the 10 ft plus single piece of coosa inside a multiple of times would be a challange. I just installed a teak transom set onto a 1/2 coosa lower transom shelf embedded with 1708 biax and found the process straight forward. When finished I installed the pvc rubrail systemI now have a 31 and 1/2 inch boat

On the inside of the transom, epoxy bed a layer of 1/2" Coosa or Pensky Board. Epoxy glass over this with 12 oz biaxle fabric. Repeat this process 2 more times. Each layer of biax will be carried past the Coosa & onto the adjacent hull and bottom by about 4 inches. Once done, this will bring your transom thickness to around 2 1/4"

The inside offers the ability to grind the hull down for the 4 " overlap after each piece of coosa board is in place. Remember this is 4" past each exisiting overlap. With 4 pieces that's 16" down the side of the hull and on the bottom. This is where the structural support is transferred into the existing hull.

If this was my project boat I would opt to keep the cost down and save time by working smart. Grinding 16"s of gelcoated sides and bottom down to fiberglass over because I didn't think to take the time and make 1 interior pattern is a bit like letting the gov't run your healthcare. It could be done, but its gonna take more time and money than you thought.

Also, I do not think that the Coosa board has to be one piece as long as you alternate the cuts from side to side.

I would love to see some pictures of these boats.

For a top end around 35kts you could get away with twin 200hp outboards on 31.