Splashed the modified South Bay ( pic heavy)

B Garman

B Garman

Member
Finally got a chance to get it in the water,after roughly 4 months working on it. It was not in great shape to start with, but I like a challenge.
I had to remove all the floor supports as they were cracked and water logged, glassed in replacements made from azek and added extra floor supports. New plywood floor boards 96" long with 3 coats of epoxy before paint. I used azek for the grass rails, only wood now is the new motorboard and front handle both from black cherry. After opening up and raising the cockpit, I made a plywood mold for the front spray shield and the flaps (15") those are fiberglass with coremat, Removable hinge pins to remove while towing, 1/4 shock cord for attaching grass.
It handled well with the 15hp evinrude empty will see how it does loaded with gear and dog.
I "clipped" the lower corners of the sponsons about 3 inches to clear the prop while in shallow drive.
Lots of room with the modified cockpit for 1 and the dog,decoys ect. I can sit comfortably sideways on a cut down crate and momarsh seat. There should be room to hunt 2 people
Few things to finish up, gun holder, canvas cockpit cover and mounts for Nav lights, get it grassed up. Planning to use a mix of natural and rafia.
first pic is what I started with
Thanks for the help from board members and being able to search there boat builds and modifications.
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Wow! Just finishing up my south bqy refurb and now I'm jealous of yours... would like to get the chamce to look it over and bring mine for comparison.
 
Good morning, Brian!


Very nice! Truly creative - real customizing at its best.


Great photos, too. Did you happen to notice that ol' Black Duck snoozing on your bow during the shoot?


Any advice on Azek. It seems like a great choice for numerous applications on duckboats and other vessels - but I have never used it. How does the stiffness compare with wood? Will it hold fasteners securely?


All the best,


SJS

 
Steve, there's a guy down in Chesapeake area that builds work boats out of the PVC boards, (Atek)
claims its a better material for old designs that were planned for wood.
I've used recycled 2x material from old soda bottles that is very similar in weight to the atek, for splash rails, rub rails etc. it cuts and holds fasteners as well as wood and no rot to worry about. unfortunately it's no longer made so atek is the new go to material for those applications.
 
Jason, let me know we can get together and compare notes.

Thanks Steve, the fun part about boat work is you can make it your own.
I hope to have a couple other black ducks "resting"on the bow this season.

For the azek it works similar to pine, so its soft but it shapes well and is easy to work. Not really for structure work, it does flex well and shape to the floor. For floor supports its mostly a spacer to glass over. Hold screws fairly well but you could draw a screw head through it if you over tighten. I think the advantage is you dont have to worry about rot.
Brian
 
B Garman said:
Jason, let me know we can get together and compare notes.

Thanks Steve, the fun part about boat work is you can make it your own.
I hope to have a couple other black ducks "resting"on the bow this season.

For the azek it works similar to pine, so its soft but it shapes well and is easy to work. Not really for structure work, it does flex well and shape to the floor. For floor supports its mostly a spacer to glass over. Hold screws fairly well but you could draw a screw head through it if you over tighten. I think the advantage is you dont have to worry about rot.
Brian
Click to expand...

I'm really interested to know how you modified the tails to enable use of shallow water draft
 
Jason, I cut mine specifically to fit my motor (1988 15hp evinrude)in shallow drive set in the second trim hole. I still cannot get a full turn on the motor in SD but what I did keeps the prop from hitting/damaging the hull, and is enough to turn the boat in SD.
As you can see from the pictures there were drain plugs in the sponsons, I repaired those holes at the same time. Haven't decided where or If i want to reinstall drain plugs.
There was nothing really scientific about it, I just kept cutting and grinding to get as much clearance and turning radius as possible. I cut the lower section of the sponson below where the hull is joined together. I also cut/ground the joint/seam as much as possible on each side between the sponsons to get clearance for the cavitation plate.
I cut it to give the prop 1/2 inch of clearance before glassing back. I didn't take pictures of every step. I put duct tape on the inside to hold the first part of the repair. The first part on each side was a 5 layer stack of biaxel/matt/biaxel/matt/biaxel first layer was the size of the hole cut out and each layer was 1/2" larger. I wetted this stack out on a piece of poly before fitting it over the hole. I used a piece of peel ply to smooth out. Next day I removed peel ply sanded lightly to remove any edges then added 2 more layers of biaxel, first layer about an inch bigger than the last, last layer about an inch bigger, more peel ply, lastly a couple layers of thickened epoxy to smooth out. Sand and paint.
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Big help, thank you. I see now that you only took the bottom outside corner off, makes sense. I am also running a Johnson 15, 1983. I do not have any drain plug holes on my boat though, trying to decide whether or not to replace flotation foam in the tails. I have a bulkead installed even with the transom and left an inspection hole (extra ducks hiding holes? haha) in each.

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There are no bulkheads front or rear in mine. Decided not to install so far anyway. I like having the extra space. After reading Bills post not sure how much they would help without other spray foam under the decks like the newer models.
Brian
 
I agree. Mine has the foam with glass over it under the top deck, but the foam I removed was doing more harm than good. Since removing the boat performs much better.
 
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