To give some background; I found a 24 Hydra-Sport on "boartraderonline.com" I have been looking for a project boat with real potential for a long time. What I wanted was a boat that needed some cosmetic work that is structurally sound. I wanted twin outboards, not too old and I also didn't want to spend any more than $7000.

This boat was perfect, a 24 foot Hydra-Sport with 1995 twin Johnson 130's sitting on a 1998 aluminum trailer. All for $6900. Cosmetically the boat was a wreck but after very close inspection I determined through core testing that the transom and stringers were OK. The engines were also cosmetically a wreck but ran perfectly and had really good and consistent compression with all cylinders within 5 lbs of each other. So I decided to buy it and brought it home to my shop.

Here is a copy of the original ad in boat trader....

Where to start was the first problem. I decided to give it a good bath , unload everything and remove all the miscellaneous crap. This took several hours but let me start with a fresh palette.

The cockpit was in the worst shape of everything.

   

The throttle controls were warn out and so loose that they barely stayed in place. Structurally it needed to be shored up, so That is what I did. I ended up rebuilding the entire thing and glassing it in. I got lucky and found a new, still in the box set of Morse throttle controls on Ebay for $80.00 wet marine wanted over $400. Take a look at the progress on the cockpit so far.


 

One of the first things I wanted to do with this boat was to rid myself of the low transom. I have never understood why so many of these boats cut the transoms so low. Its been my experience that whenever 1 or 2 people are bottom fishing from the stern a wave will invariably wash through the cutout drenching the feet of everyone. In winter this can make for a miserable trip. I decided to make a transom dam. As you can see from the pictures I also raised the baitwell opening off the floor. I hate getting on my hands and knees to catch bait. Its also dangerous having a deep hole in the floor. I think in the floor baitwells are a broken leg waiting to happen The transom dam is a real simple project. Simply sandwich a couple of pieces of 3/4 ply, cut to fit the opening, glass the unit in and gelcoat.

A quick note on using gelcoat: Don't let gelcoat intimidate you. Gelcoat is very user friendly. You can get very good results even hand brushing it if you thin it slightly with lacquer thinner. I like to hand brush it first because its less bother than applying several coats with a paint gun, the clean up is easier and the whole process moves much faster. I then do use my paint gun to shoot a gelcoat / webbing solution pattern over the entire area. Webbing solution is a cheap additive that causes the gelcoat to shoot a stringy pattern out of any paint gun. You use a darker color than the base gelcoat. This puts that nice webbing look to the project, hides any brush marks or imperfections and gives it a real professional look. It is extremely easy to do and yields excellent results.

When fishing with 3 kids and my wife, seating room has always been a real problem on my old boat. I decided to solve this problem once and for all on this boat. What I did was to build in and glass a 3 kid and one adult bench seat on the port side. I built it with room underneath for general storage and a 9 gallon freshwater wash down. It turned out great and only cost me 30 bucks! I made it with wood scraps and glassed it in. Thank God for fiberglass.

I have been at the helm of several boats. I've stood up behind the wheel, sat in expensive captains chairs and in rough weather I have managed to rip several fine captains chairs right out of the floor. The problem for me has always been that sometimes I like to stand and sometimes I like to sit. I also need something that is comfortable in all sorts of weather and will hold up to pounding.

The answer to this problem is a leaning station. Unfortunately they are expensive and hard to find. Commercially made leaning stations are will run at least 400 dollars. So I decided to design and build my own. Once again utilizing wood scraps plywood and fiberglass I was able to make this one for under 30 dollars in materials. It has 4 drawers for tackle storage and when finished will have a removable back and a locking door.

During the restoration of any vehicle, be it a car or a boat nothing causes more potential anxiety and stress than the painting phase of the project. This phase was the most trying yet rewarding part of the restoration for me so far.

As with a car the surface prep of the hull was most important. I sanded and wet sanded the top side and hull for 2 full days. As I mentioned before the hull was pretty rough cosmetically. This presented some real challenges in producing a slick paint job. There were at least 50 small holes in various places resulting from snaps above the waterline to several screw holes in the transom. The above the waterline fix was easy. I did as I had done in my last project. I used automotive Bondo.

People will tell you that automotive Bondo shouldn't be used on a boat but I have never heard a good reason why not. I have found that if what you are patching or smoothing is above the waterline and not a huge hole or something, automotive Bondo works just fine. It was fine on my last boat and I didn't have any trouble with the stuff over the 3 years I had it. It is cheap and much easier to sand than some of the "For Boat" fillers I have used. I would not however use it below the waterline.

The second way to seal holes in the transom is harder but the last owner had every sort of gizmo you could think of attached to the transom and there were at least 15 holes. Fortunately he did seal it up good so I didn't have any rot If I used the screw method it would looked pretty bad with all those screw heads showing. So I had no choice but to grind it out and glass it back in.

After all was said and done I came out of the deal with only a $75.00 outlay. Now for the repainting of the engines.

Being a graphic designer has its advantages when it comes to engine decals. What I did was to go to the OMC web site and grabbed a Johnson logo from it. I brought the logo into my vector illustration program and traced it. I then took the file to a local sign shop with a vinal cutter and had them cut me some new decals for only $75.00. OMC wants a couple of hundred per engine. Take a look at the finished product, I’m very happy!