The New Vessel

[Walleyes]

So after much deliberation and thought I decided in the end to go used instead of new. As some May know I was looking at getting a new Kingfisher built and I have to say the price was not all that bad. But it just didn't feel right for me. To spend $110,000.00 on a boat that I would only have out on the coast maybe twice a year just didn't  make sense. All the while I was still looking and keeping an eye out for a good used boat. This one came by me, I actually had a chance at it this spring and passed it up but the guy phoned me this week and asked me if I was still interested in it and I jumped at the offer. I had my Lund for sale and as it turned out he wanted to down size, so we did a trade and I gave him a few dollars on top.

It's a 1996, Wellcraft 264 coastal. With twin 2009 175 Suzuki's with less than 150hrs on them. Yamaha 9.9 kicker on power trim with less than 50hrs. 2 Scotty downriggers, Raymarine radar, 2 gps / sonar  combos, She's ready roll just needs some love and care. Mechanicaly and functionally it's in great shape. The fellow bought it in 2006 when he retired from Esso it had the original engines on it they read 197 hrs but they were 2 stroke engines in 2009 he put on these 4 strokes and he put less than 150 hrs on them so as far as anyone can tell the hull  only has about 500 hrs on it and it shows. It's needs a good buff and bottom paint but thats about it. Gave it a heck of a good cleaning today and ran some of the electronics through their paces, did a wet run in it yesterday ran great. For those that don't know Wellcraft have a reputation of being very solid built boats. This boat and to this day all the glass is hand laid and there is no wood in them, the stringers are composite filled fibreglass and the transom is solid composite so no rotting. She is a heavy vessel it comes in at around 7500lbs loaded

The bottom paint needs to be redone my big concern is not so much prevention with new bottom paint but just looks, that old stuff as you can see looks like crap. I didn't spend to much time on the bottom with the pressure washer but what I did it was coming off quite easy so it was not a proper job. In the spring when things warm up I will hit it hard with my pressure washer and after clean it properly and new paint. like I say for looks as much as prevention reasons. Also there are a couple fairly nasty scrapes in the gel coat one side so over the winter I'll strip all decals, do gel coat repairs, power buff the whole boat and buy new decals and pin striping, she'll look new by the time it hits the water next spring. Yesterday I stripped the whole entire boat of contents all cushions out of the cuddy. Sprayed the entire vessel inside and out with a good degreaser and pressure washed every nook and cranny it really freshened it up. Placed fans and a space heater down in the cuddy dried it out overnight and all today. I was quite worried about some of the top and deck as it was quite heavily black spotted and mildew dew to it being stored out doors summer and winter. There was even moss growing along some of the crevices in the back of the deck. Let me tell you that degreaser and my 3500 psi pressure washer made her look like new. I guarantee this boat has not looked this good in years, pulled all the black off her. Now it will just take a good power buff and she'll be like new. I am amazed how good a shape she is in, not a bad hinge or loose bolt she really is a tight vessel. A few minor modifications to some small things like replace hose clamps on fuel lines with stainless crimps just because I'm fussy. By spring she'll be ready for a new show and tell.

[greylynx]

Congratulations Captain Walleyes.

Obviously you did your homework in shopping for a new boat.

Hope you didn't shed a tear when you traded off your trusty old workhorse.

Best Wishes

[Sooner]

Looks good Walleyes, cosmetic is peanuts & can be easily redone, a good solid boat and engines are what counts. Should be some nice new pics next summer from the coast.

[LeverAction]

Nice boat Walleyes. Lots of good fishing years ahead.

[sonny]

Nice boat.

Just don't hire a first mate called Gilligan.

[W101]

Very nice ride ...I'm pumped , I was just told ,our next
familly gathering is in Cold Lake ...Fish on !

[Walleyes]

Thx Gentlemen.

Yes she'll be fun out on Cold Lake for sure, as always with me guys any time you find yourself up in the area or you want to come up to the area and experience some great Trout fishing there is always an open invitation out for members.

[Walleyes]

Getting a few things done on the boat. Lots of the none visible stuff like going through wiring and checking things, pulling lines / pumps cleaning and servicing. Lots of minor repairs. like stereo wasn't working, got it going. Moved one of the GPS antennas up onto the canopy. Put rubber gromets through all the holes so as not to wear wires. Lots of cleaning and cleaning, not that if was real bad but I'm a fussy guy. Put in a couple new through hull vents, got rid of the plastic ones and went stainless eventually i would like to do all the through hulls to stainless, just looks better.

I removed all the old decals and buffed her 3 times top to bottom with compound and then a buffing agent.

The old look.




And the new,, looks much cleaner.





Also installed 4 new stainless rocket launchers on the back of the canopy.



The 2 fish boxes on the floor had no hinges on them they were just pop on pop off type lids which i didn't like. Ordered some stainless hinges and with some minor adaptations to the lids I installed hinges,, much better now.




Did lots of work on the helm, I really didn't like the way it was set up. The big Raymarine was up on the dash and was really in the way it was blocking a huge part of the view and caused a huge blind spot. The Glove box had the VHF and Lowrance  in it and was just a big mess of wires and a dust hole. Got it all cleaned up and flush mounted my electronics using 3/8 puck board, looks real nice matches the black of the cuddy door. Also the throttle for the kicker for what ever reason was down at your feet, you had to lean over to the point of hitting your face on the steering wheel in order to operate it. Got that moved up into operating range

The original helm, the Raymarine up on the dash in the glove box was the VHF which you cant see its under that bag in the pic and the Lowrance beside it.



And the updated helm. Radio is moved down in font of the throttles, there was an old non used mic plug n base there that i removed and cut it out for the VHF.




The new kicker throttle position.



So just an update on the project, still have to tackle that bottom paint job soon, thast going to be a dirty job, have to sand all the old stuff off and repaint.

[greylynx]

Hi Walleyes.

Are you going to have to manually sand the bottom? Or, can you do the job with a light type of buffering tool?

As for the repaint job, are you going to do it in your shop, or have it done by a professional painter?

Just wondering.

Thanks.

[Walleyes]

The bottom will be sanded using a vibrating sander. I'm not sure if I'll try and go all the way down to the original gel coat and buff and shine it or sand it until it's smooth and re paint with bottom paint. It will depend on how it goes and in what kind of shape the gel coat is in. I don't need a bottom paint it won't be in the water enough to have it but I may not be able to get it back to a nice finish. Bottom paint is not hard to apply it can be applied with a roller I will be doing it myself if I go that rout. I think more than likely that's what I'll end up doing. 

[LeverAction]

Looking good Walleyes. Lots of work but the fun kind, she’ll be proud to own for sure.

[Sooner]

Looks nice.

As an ex body man, you can buy a 8 inch round orbital sander that will make short work of that bottom paint/gel coat vs a vibrating sander. We called them mud busters lol. Buy any sander with a velcro backing pad, same as the paper discs. You can swap them out from coarse to fine repeatedly. The glue backed ones are done after you peel them off once. FYI Pic. Mines from Snap on, still use it 30 yrs later.

I assume you cant "hang" the boat since you mentioned a roller to apply. Endura makes some strong Ind paint that would stand up to salt water and road rash well but needs a paint gun.


Looking forward to the next batch of pics.

[Walleyes]

Yah I never thought of an orbital sander sooner. Here I went and bought a new sander just yesterday. My son is in body work maybe he can bring one home for me to use for a couple days.

I have to get it on stands overnthe  next while I won't be able to do a good job with it sitting on the trailer. I have a plan in my head for putting in on stands. I'll make sure and take pics and share the process.

Thx guys for  the encouraging words.

[sonny]

That's one sweet rig.

[agritech]

Holy hell, you went from a boat to a ship, should be a great rig for the coast and Cold Lake .

[Walleyes]

Holy hell, you went from a boat to a ship, should be a great rig for the coast and Cold Lake .

Lol thanks agritech. Yah she's a big tub, measures 30'6' from the pulpit to the back of the engines, 28' to the engine bracket. Going to the west coast is a big part of my life I really enjoy it. Been going out there since I was a kid and as an adult on my own with my own gear for the last 18 years pretty regularly. There's getting to be a lot of closures out there and a guy has to be prepared to go farther out and out to the farther reaches. I'm going to start to concentrate on the west side of the island more and Lord willing in the coming years i hope to do some week long trips up along the coast into places like Rivers Inlet, Shearwater and Calvert Island. More than likely in the next couple years I will start leaving it out on the island for the summer in dry storage and go out there 2 or 3 times a year. Take the boat out in the spring and bring it home in the fall. So I'm rigging it up right makes life way easier out there.

[agritech]

Lol thanks agritech. Yah she's a big tub, measures 30'6' from the pulpit to the back of the engines, 28' to the engine bracket. Going to the west coast is a big part of my life I really enjoy it. Been going out there since I was a kid and as an adult on my own with my own gear for the last 18 years pretty regularly. There's getting to be a lot of closures out there and a guy has to be prepared to go farther out and out to the farther reaches. I'm going to start to concentrate on the west side of the island more and Lord willing in the coming years i hope to do some week long trips up along the coast into places like Rivers Inlet, Shearwater and Calvert Island. More than likely in the next couple years I will start leaving it out on the island for the summer in dry storage and go out there 2 or 3 times a year. Take the boat out in the spring and bring it home in the fall. So I'm rigging it up right makes life way easier out there.

Ya, never do enough prep for a fishing season, more so for out there. When you had your other boat did you ever go after sturgeon on the Harrison or Fraser River?

[Walleyes]

No I haven't made it for them out there yet. It's definelty on the to do list though and soon. One of these years I'm going to just book a day or two with a charter boat out of the lower mainland, its a have to do.

[OL_JR]

Nice lookin boat Walleyes should last a guy a long time.  Great job shining er up looks mint.

[Walleyes]

Well it’s finnaly ready for the water. It’s been a lot of work to get her up to snuff and up to my standards but I’m darn a happy with the outcome. Lots of elbow grease, lots of cut knuckles, some trial and error but she’s looking sexy and is running sound, wiring has been gone over and is up to snuff. Might take her for a spin tomorrow not too sure yet.

Still haven’t come up with name yet, we will see. Still have to put her numbers on just waiting to get the right ones I like.