Project StressEliminator Restomod-23 Daytona

[RichL]

I have been waiting for this moment for a very long time. To see it come to fruition is quite satisfying.


While taking the pics when we were anchored, I must've gotten some wind blown sand in my eyes.....



Fer FUCKS SAKE ITS ABOUT TIME!!!!!





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Damn Dude. I'm excited for you guys and I wasn't there.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

I got a chance to scale the boat off of the trailer, with the help of my friend Roger.

The dry weight came in at 3200 lbs, just a tick heavier than anticipated. The LCG (Longitudinal Center of Gravity) came in at 69.2” forward of the wetted surface (rear edge of sponsons), which turns out to be ~26% of overall running surface length. Being that I was shooting for an LCG of 62”, or 22-25% of overall length, I’m not terribly disappointed.

Leaving the fuel tank CG behind boat CG was intentional to keep me out of trouble when the tanks are light, as LCG will move forward as the tanks empty out.

Here’s the washers I made to cover the slots on the clamp bracket.

I took some time to dial the crossover in on the amp and am very pleased with my relatively meager investment in stereo. It’s extremely clean and loud enough. Sitting in the cockpit I measured the sound level at 102-105 dBa. Tickles your feet if you’re standing anywhere but on the notched pod.

Took my wife and HeadlessHula out for a Saturday cruise to get the lay of the lake in Hula’s new home waters. Anchored in front of his place with tunes on while he walked over to his island property. Toured up to Winneconne to the Fin ‘n Feather mock houseboat for some eats.

Loaded up and went to Hula HQ 2.0 to rinse and dry the boat. With temps in the low 70’s, it was a great day boating overall.

 

[Toffen Gunnufsen]

Hi Johnny,

104 db is loud ! The max we are allowed at our festivals are 99 db... So in fact you can play more than twice as loud. 3db increase is twice as loud (which I am sure you know )

Thanks again for all your insight and details to learn from. THose washers are cool !!

Cheeers, Toffen

I got a chance to scale the boat off of the trailer, with the help of my friend Roger.

The dry weight came in at 3200 lbs, just a tick heavier than anticipated. The LCG (Longitudinal Center of Gravity) came in at 69.2” forward of the wetted surface (rear edge of sponsons), which turns out to be ~26% of overall running surface length. Being that I was shooting for an LCG of 62”, or 22-25% of overall length, I’m not terribly disappointed.

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Leaving the fuel tank CG behind boat CG was intentional to keep me out of trouble when the tanks are light, as LCG will move forward as the tanks empty out.

Here’s the washers I made to cover the slots on the clamp bracket.

View attachment 791459

I took some time to dial the crossover in on the amp and am very pleased with my relatively meager investment in stereo. It’s extremely clean and loud enough. Sitting in the cockpit I measured the sound level at 102-105 dBa. Tickles your feet if you’re standing anywhere but on the notched pod.

View attachment 791460

Took my wife and HeadlessHula out for a Saturday cruise to get the lay of the lake in Hula’s new home waters. Anchored in front of his place with tunes on while he walked over to his island property. Toured up to Winneconne to the Fin ‘n Feather mock houseboat for some eats.

Loaded up and went to Hula HQ 2.0 to rinse and dry the boat. With temps in the low 70’s, it was a great day boating overall.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Update:

I’ve been doing a bit of boating since we got it running, and have been trying to tie up things that weren’t “finished” when we put it on the water.

River runs/lunch runs with Hula have been a blast. So far I’ve put 470 miles on it, and about 23 hours total.

Ran across our friend Vinnie in his Outerlimits. He invited us to stop, we elected to put miles on while we had good weather.

Lunch run for Mexican on the Fox River. They were closed so we went to the next bar and had a delicious pizza!

Ran all the way to the Eureka locks.

Hula convinced me to get to the water by him early one day and we ran off a bunch of props. He offered to keep the props in his boat, change each one, take pictures and be my safety boat. What a generous offer, and I took him up on it. What a blast!

Took some video of the gearcase from the side while running. It appears that I may not have cut far enough ahead on the center pod, it touches occasionally above 65 until it finally cleans up, then it runs nice.

Decided to run the Wolf River up to New London.

Grabbed lunch at The Waters in New London and requested/listened to live music while we ate.

We put 204 miles on in two days, and I averaged 3.6 mpg over the two days.

Even with the center pod oddness, it’s still an absolute blast to drive, and I gave my face a break from smiling so much and from the sun, as I also had to get ready for a work trip.

Another extremely cool thing is that every time I get it out of storage, my family is ready to go boating. After all the work put in this project over the last 5 years, what more can a guy ask for?

I plan on boating until the water is hard, so there will be more updates.

 

[J.P.]

Boat still has a nice shine to it and the set while running looks right to me. Looks like it will haul ass!

 

[J.P.]

Thought I saw where you showed a gps speed of 102 that is impressive.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Thought I saw where you showed a gps speed of 102 that is impressive.

I believe my words were “I was able to take a picture of one of these today”, but I didn’t say what boat it was from

Haven’t been out since the random Tuesday night prop test due to work travel, family birthday stuff, and weather. Once September hits here, the wind shift and picks up here, making lakes tough to find spots to run hard. I did enjoy drinking water at 60 in 1’ to 1-1/2’ chop during that Tuesday cruise. As I was watching my buddy Nick negotiating each wave in his Hydrostream, I realized EXACTLY why I bought this boat.

I’m pretty happy so far, still learning the differences between with and without passengers. I’ve got way more time with passengers aboard than without, and I’m happy my family is enjoying the boat too, as that’s what I built it for.

Hula and I are due for our own “Hooky Day” (Well, for me anyway, he pretty much gives work the finger if there’s quality boating to be had), as the leaves will be turning here shortly, which gives us a very narrow window of extremely colorful boating, and I’ve been saving vacation for it.

My 86 YO FIL has asked to go for a ride on the Wolf River, which is in Hula waters. Since my FIL had to watch this thing morph as I worked on it for over 5 years, I don’t know if he ever believed it would float again, much less run under its own power, so I want him to have an enjoyable experience.

Taking care of an uncle’s estate this week in OK, but when I get back I intend to get some video of the underside and the gearcase to see what the water is doing so I can determine what to try down there.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Update time. I’ve had a couple of chances to go out and run the StressEliminator and get some video footage from front and rear of the boat, trying to diagnose the hop the boat has between 65 and around 80. Looks like I need to add some running surface back, as the hop starts the moment the tunnel breaks free.

Today was probably the last day of running in our home waters, as we head into November and there’s two days with snow in the forecast this week.

I borrowed some 4-1/2” setback extrusions and bolted them on, only having to change the fittings in the steering cylinder to make everything work. I lucked out as the rigging tube, wires and hoses were all long enough. I may have actually planned for that when we rigged it....

We also found a clamp off of the boost bypass hose before we launched today, and fixed it before launching.

Between the setback and proper amount of boost, it was a pleasure to drive, both planing and cruising. The acceleration is more on par with what I’ve expected. That clamp has been an issue since Labor Day, I believe. Now I have to rerun some of the props I’ve tried and scratched my head about why it wouldn’t pull them.

Today’s goals were: to get some more video, try running with the hatch off to get more air to the pod vent, and to plug it off.

Hula was gracious enough to be my safety boat and help with component changes, and had invited our friend John along to ride in HulaToo and StressEliminator to check out the experience and to have an extra hand in case something did happen.

It was interesting running with the hatch off. I had John ride with me to watch the water in it, as there’s about 8” of water in it at rest, then picks up a couple more inches when the bow rises getting on plane, then flushes the toilet as it rolls over, slipping some of that air to the prop and slightly blowing the prop out on some props, severe on others. We did it a number of times and it repeated consistently.

We then put a cap on the vent tube, and it planed and accelerated the best I’ve felt in this boat ever. Well, it’s official; the pod vent is a failure. It sure seemed like a good idea at the time, otherwise I wouldn’t have put the effort into it that I did. I’m also not saying venting in general doesn’t work, I’m just declaring that venting heavily in front of the prop just didn’t work in this case. We knew we were possibly creating a severe suction point with the pod notch and were trying to prevent a problem. Turns out that it planes with no problems, and we caused a slight problem with the air introduced, so for now I’ll put some expandable rubber plugs in the (4) 1-1/2” holes down there and experiment with adding some of the pod back and possibly add some spray rails over the winter.

That’s right, with winter right in our face, the engine, interior, batteries and fuel tanks will probably be removed and the boat flipped to do some bottom mods so I can keep my top end speed (minimized drag) and get some more hydrodynamic lift (sponson area/running surface) to carry the boat before the tunnel lift can take over. It doesn’t help that this old girl doesn’t have a very steep tunnel angle, so I have to work around that.

Special thanks to Hula and John for their help and support today, we all had a great day, and Hula put one of my borrowed props on the HulaToo and got his best speed ever, so he had a good day as well. I believe he learned that he can modify the barrel on his current prop and probably gain 1 mph as well.

I’ll continue to scheme and plot until I come up with another test plan, and as always, I’ll keep ya posted of the journey!

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Removed all the rubrail from the sides of the hull, got my 3/4” stainless rubrail in last week.

I’m going to cap the front between the inner sponsons and the sponson tips over the winter, but am taking the StressEliminator to a river run in FL week after next and am trying to get the new rubrail on for function and to look nicer in photos.

As you can see from the photo above, I got the new registration numbers on today as well. I had Sticker Lady make them in the same colors and font as my old timey Eliminator logo by the windshield.

I’m pleased with how they turned out, but am wondering if I should have her make the properly sized yellow ones to fill them out like the boat stripes.

What does the RDP brain trust say, leave them as they are or add the yellow?

 

[Shlbyntro]

I vote leave them as they are. Registration numbers dont need to be any easier for the cops to read as you blow by them than legally required

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Finally got the Seadek installed, and man, does it look nice.

Tuned on the amp crossover as well, my friend Dave suggested pulling some lower frequencies out of the front 6-1/2” speakers, as well as add some gain to the subs. I laid under the dash twiddling knobs while he sat in the cockpit and gave me direction.

The result is it’s pretty balanced with whatever music I choose to play. I played blues, 80’s rock, alternative rock, and big band through it tonight, and all I can say is Frank Sinatra hurts my ears while laying Seadek. I actually had to turn it down. Hopefully it fits my passengers tastes

After polling a few more friends, I decided to leave the reg numbers the way they are.

Working on rubrail tomorrow night.

 

[DrunkenSailor]

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Finally got the Seadek installed, and man, does it look nice.

Tuned on the amp crossover as well, my friend Dave suggested pulling some lower frequencies out of the front 6-1/2” speakers, as well as add some gain to the subs. I laid under the dash twiddling knobs while he sat in the cockpit and gave me direction.

The result is it’s pretty balanced with whatever music I choose to play. I played blues, 80’s rock, alternative rock, and big band through it tonight, and all I can say is Fank Sinatra hurts my ears while laying Seadek. I actually had to turn it down. Hopefully it fits my passengers tastes

After polling a few more friends, I decided to leave the reg numbers the way they are.

Working on rubrail tomorrow night.

The seadeck came out great. Looks really sharp.

 

[CLA]

Great thread and killer job on the boat. I think it's normal to have a hop at some speed.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Thanks much for the compliments, guys, much appreciated.

Finally got to put some rubrail on. The original rubrail was 1” blue anodized aluminum, and originally that’s what I wanted to install, but after searching high and low for it, all I could find was clear anodized, so I chose 3/4” stainless rubrail with no rubber backing.

Here’s the results on the port side.

I will cap the front in spring, right now I’m in Florida for work but heading to a screamandfly River Run & BBQ event on the Suwannee River. I’m meeting some friends there and they’re picking my wife up from the airport, so I’m looking forward to river running my ride in FL while there’s snow on the ground and the lake is frozen at my house.

Next update should have some pics of the StressEliminator in FL waters...

HeadlessHula is taking my wife to the airport and immediately heading to Havasu with the HulaToo. It’ll be interesting to see if we have RDP Midwest Chapter boats doing East and West Coast boating simultaneously

 

[HydroSkreamin]

This is the only pic I have of the StressEliminator on the water in FL. Boat ran good, weather did not cooperate very well, expected temps were 65°-70°, ended up in the mid-50’s.

This is my friend Paul’s 24’ Twister, imported from Europe. It’s a super light fast European race boat that runs 100 w/a single 200XS in race form. Paul’s 300X pushes this in the 125 range.

In the foreground is my friend Joe’s STV with a stroker 300X.

My friend John Hice’s Turbine-powered Warlock. Really neat piece of machinery.

Lotsa wet brought the covers out.

There were a lot of boats there, some really nice hardware. I’ve never seen so many STV’s in one place in my life.

 

[Brokeboatin221]

That interior came out nice!

 

[DrunkenSailor]

View attachment 819896

This is the only pic I have of the StressEliminator on the water in FL. Boat ran good, weather did not cooperate very well, expected temps were 65°-70°, ended up in the mid-50’s.

This is my friend Paul’s 24’ Twister, imported from Europe. It’s a super light fast European race boat that runs 100 w/a single 200XS in race form. Paul’s 300X pushes this in the 125 range.

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In the foreground is my friend Joe’s STV with a stroker 300X.
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My friend John Hice’s Turbine-powered Warlock. Really neat piece of machinery.

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Lotsa wet brought the covers out.

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There were a lot of boats there, some really nice hardware. I’ve never seen so many STV’s in one place in my life.

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really cool. Was this for an event? Bitchen lineup of small go fast boats. So much more fun going fast in a small boat.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

That interior came out nice!

Thanks! I’m very happy with it. Probably the only thing I’d like to do is put a plate on the bottom of the rotomolded seats; they don’t give a lot of confidence as they’re a bit floppy on the base. HeadlessHula’s Kryptonite had the same issue and he plated them and it went away.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

really cool. Was this for an event? Bitchen lineup of small go fast boats. So much more fun going fast in a small boat.

Yes, this was Tom Foley’s fall BBQ run. Not “organized”, but I did get an invite down from my friend Joe..

Usually I’m one of the smaller boats in my group. This time I was like the 4th or 5th largest boat there...

The Suwannee River has a bunch of springs on it and is very scenic and curvy. I’d like to see it again with warmer weather. Maybe next spring...

 

[AZMIDLYF]

Joe = JPEROG?

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Joe = JPEROG?

yessir

...I’m sorry, I just assumed your gender!

Actually, I’m not

 

[AZMIDLYF]

 

[HydroSkreamin]

^^^That’s funny every time you post it ^^^

maybe my last phrase wasn’t complete...I’m not sorry I assumed your gender; pretty sure you’re a dude

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Well, after a winter of slumber, I pulled the StressEliminator out of storage and washed all the grime off that was leftover from the return trip from FL. There was not an opportunity to take the boat to town to wash it over the winter, so although I didn’t do a full detail, I did get the majority of the grime off the boat and trailer. I can see that I’ll need to establish a system and tools for getting the boat and trailer clean.

Very soon, this will be derigged and flipped in order to cut the rest of the forward pod off, add a set of spray rails, cap the front, and repair some stuff at the transom while we’re playing with gel.

 

[footer]

You're making it a true tunnel?

 

[02HoWaRd26]

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Well, after a winter of slumber, I pulled the StressEliminator out of storage and washed all the grime off that was leftover from the return trip from FL. There was not an opportunity to take the boat to town to wash it over the winter, so although I didn’t do a full detail, I did get the majority of the grime off the boat and trailer. I can see that I’ll need to establish a system and tools for getting the boat and trailer clean.

Very soon, this will be derigged and flipped in order to cut the rest of the forward pod off, add a set of spray rails, cap the front, and repair some stuff at the transom while we’re playing with gel.

Why do you have to completely derig the boat? Why not just the liquid holding appliances and engine.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Good point.

I won’t completely derig it, but fluids, batteries, and interior are coming out and engine and windshield are coming off.

So that means I’m leaving the power steering and jackplate pumps, stereo and amp, steering and wiring in the boat.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

You're making it a true tunnel?

More like finishing the job I should have earlier.

With the hull on the jig when I cut the pod, I neglected to see the relationship of the remaining pod keel to the sponson keels.

Video shows this blockage of the gearcase to be detrimental to performance.

Adding the spray rails will add hull lift/support before tunnel compression carries the boat. That’s the expectation anyway...

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Decided there’s no time better than the present to make some bottom changes I’ve been wanting to do since last fall.

Actually, I wanted to start on it in April, but COVID-19 kind of shattered those plans.

Removed engine, interior, steering wheel, windshield, batteries and all fluids before flipping it.

The bottom still has a good shine to it from blueprinting.

Used a forklift on the front and 2 chain hoists on trolleys rolling on an I-beam in the rear. Crossed the chains so flipping was a breeze. Put protective rags on the chains to prevent gel damage.

Put cribbing on moving dollies, with 2” styrofoam on top of the cribbing. Made sure to place the front supports directly on the front bulkhead for best support.

For the rear, styrofoam directly on the dollies supporting right at the transom seems to do the job.

Marked out where the spray rails are going to go. Spray rails are a newer addition to smaller boats, although my buddy’s 24 Skater of the same vintage as my boat has them. The StressEliminator did not have them from the factory. Some smaller tunnels are still produced without spray rails, but they generally also have wider sponsons as well.

They are additional running surface, partway up the side of the tunnel, offering multiple benefits. Planing is usually more level, the boat usually turns flatter due to added lift, it helps divert the water off the roof of the tunnel, adding lift and stability in turns, as well as better acceleration.

The black marker line is the height I’m shooting for as the running surface. It’s kind of faint in this picture but if you expand it you’ll see it.

I tried getting fancy and using math to generate a curve for the leading edge of the spray rails. I failed horribly, and resorted to using tape and my eye on the fly. It’s basically an ellipse.

This is absolutely the worst time to be doing this project, as we only get about 120 days of comfortable weather potential for good boating, minus the windy and rainy days. Not a very popular decision with my family, but the hop this has is extremely annoying, and I want it fixed once and for all.

The center pod will be getting an extreme makeover as well, so stay tuned for updates.

 

[lenmann]

Holy cow! Those seem like pretty substantial changes.

I sense that Itchy and Scratchy Phase II is coming! Cant wait to follow along.

 

[J.P.]

The new mods will make it a complete new bottom,. following..

 

[Warlock1]

Any chance you would post the videos and explain what you are seeing? I love the science and engineering as it speaks to hydrodynamics...

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Any chance you would post the videos and explain what you are seeing? I love the science and engineering as it speaks to hydrodynamics...

The videos are crappy and long, but I can tell you what I saw in them from the front camera was that just as soon as light would show in the tunnel from it clearing the water, the hop would begin. It's at that point there isn't enough air packing to carry the boat, and the running surface isn't carrying it either. The remaining pod section was hitting the water and coming out, generating the hop as well.

From the aft camera, you can see the water being blocked to the gearcase from the remaining pod dragging in the water, causing the engine to starve for water unless being driven in an arc. This allowed the water up the side of the pod and I could actually raise the case and let the back squat. The gearcase was essentially acting as a wheelie bar.

By me notching the pod like I did took running surface away. If you read back in the thread, the reason I notched it was because it had a 3º down angle in relation to the keels. This drives the nose down and keeps the sponsons wet, something we don't want. I was also made aware by one of my racing buddies that I screwed up the tunnel compression when I notched the pod, because right where you would be getting compression, I enlarged the area, therefore losing the compression I was building.

The current plan is to have a V-shaped pod that dries out at speed. We shall see...

Thanks for your interest and question!

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Time for an update.

The goal of this exercise is to minimize/eliminate the hop by adding more running surface and lift. Ultimately, it will be a hybrid 23 Daytona/30 Speedster bottom, using the pod from the 30 Speedster.

Photo credit Eliminator Boats

I got some Divinycell foam relatively locally from a major hull manufacturer. To keep the valuable foam intact, I practiced cutting using 2” insulating styrofoam. Here’s the proof of concept...

I just set the table saw at 45° and 22.5° and figured out where I needed the fence set for each cut. I wrote each dimension right on the saw table top for easy reference. The foam I got was 1” thick, and we’re making the rails 2” thick, so I ripped pieces just a tick wider than the widest point I needed, then squared them up on the table and pinned them together with 4-6 1.75” roofing nails. This allowed me to cut the 3 angles I needed to start the radius form necessary.

I was struggling in my mind how to blend the cut lines out consistently and quickly. One of my friends that messes with boat bottoms a lot suggested I get 3” and 4” PVC and quarter it lengthwise. What a brilliant idea, as the inside radius of the 4” matched my boat perfectly. I’m guessing it was probably tooled using PVC to form the radii, as PVC is cheap, plentiful, consistent, and comes in long, handy lengths.

Check out how well it matches after gluing longboard paper to the quartered sections. I made an 18” one for a full sheet and a 6” one for doing the curved pieces at the front of the tunnel.

Here’s the pieces all fit to both sponsons

I knew what height I wanted the running surface to end up at, so I drilled some scrap wood to hold the marker an 1/8” past that to allow for the thickness of the laminations.

After marking both sides, I removed each piece and cut it freehand on the table saw. It turned out pretty much like I had envisioned.

Next is grinding all the gel off where lamination will be taking place. Fun times...

After the surface is prepped to satisfaction, it’ll get fully vacuumed and blown off with high pressure air, then we’ll laminate the pieces on with 2 layers of CSM (chopped strand mat) between the hull and foam, and one layer between each foam section bonding them together. The entire thing will get vacuum bagged onto the boat to get all the voids out in order to have the best bond possible.

More to come...

 

[n2otoofast4u]

SOB you are a craftsman! My skill set would never allow for a project like this!

 

[lenmann]

The entire thing will get vacuum bagged onto the boat to get all the voids out in order to have the best bond possible.

More to come...
[/QUOTE]

Nice work and I like the way you problem solve, very crafty. I am really looking forward to seeing the vacuum bagging process. There were a bunch of times I thought this would be the right process on my heap. Just never took the leap. Lots of questions but I will wait patiently...

 

[HydroSkreamin]

SOB you are a craftsman! My skill set would never allow for a project like this!

Thanks for the compliment, but I’m just putting common skills to use in different applications. That’s just good ol’ American ingenuity as I see it. I like to try fixing things with the tools available. That’s why it’s always easy to justify more tools!

We try to think things through, and I bounce ideas off colleagues and friends. It’s awesome when you hang around with people smarter than yourself

BTW, your boat is one of the inspirations for this one. I’ve been following that thing since it was built. Hope you’re enjoying it.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

The entire thing will get vacuum bagged onto the boat to get all the voids out in order to have the best bond possible.

More to come...

Nice work and I like the way you problem solve, very crafty. I am really looking forward to seeing the vacuum bagging process. There were a bunch of times I thought this would be the right process on my heap. Just never took the leap. Lots of questions but I will wait patiently...
[/QUOTE]

I can’t take credit for the bagging idea, it was strongly suggested by my trusted friend Roger. It’s his pump and knowledge that will be utilized and learned from. See that thing about hanging with people smarter than yourself? Roger has been so generous with teaching me since I was 21.

Here’s a picture that hangs in my garage of one of the F1 boats we worked on together

Roger told me what to obtain for components for vacuum bagging, and I ordered them from Express Composites in Minneapolis, MN.

Roger wanted me to see the power of vacuum on a part, and wanted to see what the foam would do under different levels of vacuum, so we took a piece of scrap foam and instead of digging out the entire rolls of bagging materials, we just used a Menard’s bag taped down over the foam onto the notched portion of my pod. At 20" of vacuum, you can pull on that part with all of your weight and it won’t move a bit.

There will be a PVC reservoir to catch any resin that might get past the bleeder cloth, so it can’t get into the vacuum pump.

This will definitely be another learning experience for me, and I’m excited and nervous for it to happen.

 

[lenmann]

Nice work and I like the way you problem solve, very crafty. I am really looking forward to seeing the vacuum bagging process. There were a bunch of times I thought this would be the right process on my heap. Just never took the leap. Lots of questions but I will wait patiently...

I can’t take credit for the bagging idea, it was strongly suggested by my trusted friend Roger. It’s his pump and knowledge that will be utilized and learned from. See that thing about hanging with people smarter than yourself? Roger has been so generous with teaching me since I was 21.

Here’s a picture that hangs in my garage of one of the F1 boats we worked on together

View attachment 887786

Roger told me what to obtain for components for vacuum bagging, and I ordered them from Express Composites in Minneapolis, MN.

Roger wanted me to see the power of vacuum on a part, and wanted to see what the foam would do under different levels of vacuum, so we took a piece of scrap foam and instead of digging out the entire rolls of bagging materials, we just used a Menard’s bag taped down over the foam onto the notched portion of my pod. At 20" of vacuum, you can pull on that part with all of your weight and it won’t move a bit.

View attachment 887788

There will be a PVC reservoir to catch any resin that might get past the bleeder cloth, so it can’t get into the vacuum pump.

This will definitely be another learning experience for me, and I’m excited and nervous for it to happen.
[/QUOTE]

Are you going to stick with ester based resin or jumping to epoxy? I couldn't figure out how to deal with layup + the time to bag it + pull a vacuum versus the ester gel time. Are there resin systems for bagging that give you more working time?

 

[HydroSkreamin]

This is an 8-grit Zek wheel. Previously we’ve used 16- and 24-grit wheels. This thing looks like they dipped it in tar and then went out in the driveway and stuck it in the gravel. It’s a bad bitch.

The trusty 7” Makita is an awesome tool to have in your arsenal.

14 hours later, it looks like this, and I cannot hold onto it any longer. But it’s ready...

 

[Sleek-Jet]

I always thought these projects were the reason someone invented winter.

Stumbled across one of your videos on YouTube. Boat turned out great, even if it needs tweeked a bit.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Are you going to stick with ester based resin or jumping to epoxy? I couldn't figure out how to deal with layup + the time to bag it + pull a vacuum versus the ester gel time. Are there resin systems for bagging that give you more working time?

We’re sticking with the polyester resin, but my concerns are the same as yours. I’m planning on having 3-4 people doing this process, and obviously we’ve all done fiberglass laminations together multiple times, so I’m not too worried.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

I always thought these projects were the reason someone invented winter.

Stumbled across one of your videos on YouTube. Boat turned out great, even if it needs tweeked a bit.

I don’t have a YouTube account ...
If there’s videos posted of my boat, I’d love to see them.

Thanks much for the compliment. It turns heads wherever it goes. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy it, I just wanna quit playing leapfrog all the time. This ought to do just that.

I had planned for this to happen March-April, but it is what it is. Giterdone!!

 

[Sleek-Jet]

Let's just say the channel belongs to a good friend of yours... that is where it is posted.

 

[JUSTWANNARACE]

SOB you are a craftsman! My skill set would never allow for a project like this!

Your skill set bearly allows you to breath on your own!

 

[HydroSkreamin]

I cut 2 layers CSM for bonding the port spray rail to the inside sponson face, and one layer for between the foam layers.

Things went pretty fast after that because I had a crew show up to help, so I didn’t get as many detailed pictures of the process that I wanted, but got the highlights.

After wetting out the layers of CSM, sandwiching the foam pieces together and setting them in place, a layer of peel ply was laid over the part. Peel ply is basically structured like a shower curtain, and it’s job is to allow resin through it, but not let the bleeder cloth stick to the part.

This is what the peel ply looks like

Bleeder cloth looks kind of like a really cheap fleece blanket. This is what bleeder cloth looks like

Next pic is the bag taped down and vacuum being pull

Here’s the vacuum system:

Aluminum vacuum port, 3/8” polyethylene tubing, PVC reservoir to catch any resin, more tubing to the vacuum pump on the floor.

Pretty cool that you can see the grinding marks in the bag.

We let it kick for 2 hours with vacuum on it, then pulled all the bagging pieces to uncover the rock hard foam. It’s incredible how stiff that panel is now.

 

[lenmann]

I cut 2 layers CSM for bonding the port spray rail to the inside sponson face, and one layer for between the foam layers.

View attachment 887922

Things went pretty fast after that because I had a crew show up to help, so I didn’t get as many detailed pictures of the process that I wanted, but got the highlights.

After wetting out the layers of CSM, sandwiching the foam pieces together and setting them in place, a layer of peel ply was laid over the part. Peel ply is basically structured like a shower curtain, and it’s job is to allow resin through it, but not let the bleeder cloth stick to the part.

This is what the peel ply looks like

View attachment 887991

Bleeder cloth looks kind of like a really cheap fleece blanket. This is what bleeder cloth looks like

View attachment 887990

Next pic is the bag taped down and vacuum being pull

View attachment 887923

Here’s the vacuum system:

Aluminum vacuum port, 3/8” polyethylene tubing, PVC reservoir to catch any resin, more tubing to the vacuum pump on the floor.

View attachment 887924

Pretty cool that you can see the grinding marks in the bag.

View attachment 887925

We let it kick for 2 hours with vacuum on it, then pulled all the bagging pieces to uncover the rock hard foam. It’s incredible how stiff that panel is now.

View attachment 887926

Awesome work man! It looks great!

So was it close on working time? Even with four guys that do this stuff all the time that's a LOT of work to get done in a 20 minute window.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

Awesome work man! It looks great!

So was it close on working time? Even with four guys that do this stuff all the time that's a LOT of work to get done in a 20 minute window.

Lenmann, we’re lucky to have the cooler temps right now. That lam took about 35 minutes and it kicked the center layer resulting in heat in about an hour.

That’s why we didn’t have the pieces prepped for the outside lam, because we knew we couldn’t pull it off. It’s also why we have everything measured, precut, and laying in order so there’s minimal wasted motion.

I will say, having supplies laid out in order on a work table near the boat and making everyone aware of what is all there and why we might need it is also helpful.

I don’t have time to update today’s activities right now, but I will tomorrow. There’s some tidbits in there that will answer more of your question.

 

[HydroSkreamin]

After we removed the bagging materials from the port sponson on Saturday night, I stayed and cut CSM for the starboard sponson, and laid everything out for the next day.

Sunday, the entire crew from Saturday plus a few more showed up to lend a hand. I forgot to mention that @jb600 came down from West Michigan (pronounced “Minnesota”) to see the Four Horsemen Poker Run that took place on Saturday, and was gracious enough to bring some clothes worthy of fiberglass work and gave us a hand both days. I’m sure we validated our insanity for this boat stuff. That’s him standing at the front of the sponson handing me tools and resin when needed, as well as holding parts while I coated them in resin. We’re laminating the two halves of foam together in this next pic. Notice the bag material is already taped to the bottom of the sponson and we’re using it as a layup table. If you look closely, you’ll see the tape in place on the vertical surface and tunnel surface as well. The tape is still on it until we’re ready for the bag.


After all the individual chunks were mated with their counterparts, we wet out the two layers of CSM that would bond the pieces to the inner sponson face.

Once fully wetted, the guys handed me the pieces and I bed them in place into the wetted CSM

Once all the foam pieces were bedded into place, we put the previously described peel ply and bleeder cloth into place and installed the bag.

Here you can see the resin being pulled through the part.

At this point, all you can do is go around the perimeter of the bag and check for leaks. The less leaks you have, the more vacuum you can pull. We did a half dozen laps around the bag and were capable of pulling 26” of Hg (vacuum) on the part.

It was only 63°F out, so we kicked on the furnace to 75°F to help the chemical reaction happen.

The resin was catalyzed at 2% MEKP Saturday, and we had some reasonable heat between the two layers of foam, and Sunday we catalyzed at 1.5% MEKP and had a slower reaction, but still resulted in a rock hard part.

I took everyone to lunch and when we came back, everything was finished and had sat for two hours. At this point, we pulled all the bagging materials off and inspected our work. It came out really nice.

At this point I’m looking forward to getting the new 30 Speedster pod reconfigured and cut to fit. While I had extra hands there, I got the rear-most piece marked and ready to cut. I’m looking forward to fitting it and seeing it come to fruition.

I’d like to thank everyone that helped, including taking pictures to help document all of this. It wouldn’t be possible for me to pull this off without your help, and I appreciate it.

 

[lenmann]

Very damn cool! Nice write up and you guys do really nice work.

Here's my usual barrage of questions: (sorry to be such a p.i.t.a.)

What is the sealing tape like? Is it thick? foamy? how much surface irregularity will it accommodate?

Is your resin to glass ratio about the same as open layup or can you glob it on expecting the bag to squeeze out the surplus?

I saw that you rolled the glass out to minimize any trapped air, does this have to be perfect of will the vacuum pull the air out?

Are you going to bag the glass encapsulating the foam rails?

Is that really a 30' Speedster center pod? Where do you get one of those? Pick-a-Part for boats?

Thanks! Again, great work.