23' Fish Nautique Restoration Project

when having two tanks..are they conected or run parallel? or they work as 2 diferent units..with 2 filler etc? how do you work the weight distribution?

Be careful with the material you use to make the tanks. I have heard some problems with ethanol and fiberglass tanks.


Tim

jzarski wrote: The Tanks are being made out of Alum. I will build bulk heads forward and aft of the tank and fill the remaing empty area with foam. Most of the structure that I am removing is going back in, just in the way of composite instead of wood. Main stringer will be the exact same location and size. The secondary stringer is being lowered for Gas tank fitting reasons. It will be made out of carbon skinned composite.

Glad to hear that you have given this some thought. I found that our v-hulled Barefoot Nautique oilcanned fairly significantly once the glass from the old stringers had been removed. We did not refoam, so we spaced our new structure much more closely (~12" between ribs instead of ~30") in order to keep the structure solid. I think the foam played a major role in keeping the hull shape in tact.

Dads '85 Shamrock was a 20 foot conwalk with a PCM 302 and 2 25 gallon tanks. Best cruising speed got 4 miles to the gallon.Both tanks fed into one Fram filter/water seperator with valves at the filter to select tank.The tanks on his '77 were just held in place with foam and the floor screwed down over them.The fill pipes are in the area of where your rod holders are in the gunnel with fiberglass covers over the fill and vent hoses,which I can get pic's of if you need.

SNobsessed wrote: JZ - If you need that kind of range, maybe you want to consider diesel power. Not a popular option with ski boats but you have a whole different need.

You know, I did look into that. One major problem, the cost is outrageous. You can find like a 5.9 cummins for 2000 but after you make it marine ready your in the 6000 range. Good friend has a Dusky that he put a diesel in and he loves it but he did complain about the cost. I think with 100 gals of fuel I will be able to do what I want. The real range issue is I want to be able to goto the Bahama's and fish for a weekend and know if the tank is full when I leave I will make it Other then that all my fishing is inside 30 miles of the coast.

Jzarski, I got your email but cant reply- you didnt include your email address in your message and you have it set to "private" in your profile. Just FYI!

Regarding the "oilcanning", Im referring to the deformation of the hull when pressure is applied to it. Kind of like the bottom of an older oil can.



When we had our BFN stripped down to the bare hull, it would flex quite a bit under the weight of one person. Actually, when sitting on the trailer, it would flex under its own weight- to the point where we decided to support it better to keep the shape in tact as we rebuilt it. The ribs go a long ways towards keeping the v-hull in the proper shape, and the hull-foam-floor sandwich everywhere else keeps everything stiff and prevents deformation. Just make sure you dont decrease the rigidity of the structure with your new additions under the floor.

Like I mentioned earlier, you may want to take a look at a few of the Barefoot Nautique rebuilds, as it appears the structure is pretty similar to the Fish. "The Grinch", "Hasbeenskier", "BuffaloBFN" and myself have all documented rebuilds of these boats- lots of pictures to look at.

jzarski wrote: So what do you suggest for supporting it in order to keep the shape? Can I doing one stringers at a time or will that cause more problems?

John,
You need to start reading some of the very good threads on stringer replacement! But, here's a recent thread on home made boat stands

Ignore the metal ones. They are just stabilizing the trailer. It was a misunderstanding.

BTW, I'm serious about you taking a look at the stringer threads. We don't want you to go off in a bad direction.

Welcome to the site, here is a little inspiration.






Good luck, post lots of pictures.

I forgot to post these here. I put them up on m blog, just forgot to do it here.

Well today with the help of a great friend Rob, Who must have lost 50lbs in sweat today, we got alot of the foam up. The bow section is done the bottom is done and we only have about 3 feet remaining on the starboard side.

Foam War is over...
Today I got the rest of the foam up and some what cleaned out. There is still a few areas in the corners that I have to dig up. I also have to peel the foam off the side walls. I even had some time to cut a few of the front bulk heads. Almost made a big bobo when I was cutting the port front area, thought I was cutting the wall but I was cutting the bottom hull..... Thank god I realized and stoped. Well have to work bell to bell for the next few days so no work is gonna get done until Thursday..







Here is the link to my photo bucket gallery. I am posting all the photos here. There are more photos in the gallery then I am posting.

http://s576.photobucket.com/albums/ss210/jzarski/23%20Fish%20Nautique/

tuna_tugger wrote: I am considering taking on the same project with my 1980 fish. I have a few questions. Do you plan on replacing the foam and the existing gas tank is about 75 gal. It just seams like a lot of work to make a new tank and relocate it for 25 gal. Do you have plans for the space where the old tank was? Keep the pictures comming they are great. You are answiring a lot of questions that has been running through my head with the pictures. Thanks

Hey Tuna_tugger, the tank thing was more of a design issue I had with the boat oppose to the amount of fuel. I did not like the 2 ft of fishing area that there is behind the leaning post in the boat. By removing the tank and putting it under the floor I now will be able to cut that back area out and have more fishing room. I plan on taking detail pictures of the rebuild once the tear down is done. I have a favor to ask of you. If you could email me some pics of your bildge/engine area. I have no clue what it looks like all put together. When I bought the boat it was not assembled so I am kinda scratching my head about where things go under there. Thanks, I hope we can both help each other.

John

Ya I like the idea of some more fishing room and that would be a good place for the tank. Plus on my boat I have a 40 gal live well with tuna tubes on the swim platform so the boat sits a little low in the stern and when we are at rest and two guys are standing back there water tends to come in the scuppers. I would probibly put bait wells in the corners this would stiffen the transom and I could get rid of the swim platform. Good idea.

I will definatly take pictures for you. I got rid of the original mufflers and had quiter ones made I also had check valves made because I got water in the engine once through the exhaust because those flappers are not very effictive.

I was talking about putting the live wells above the floor and between them I would put the rectanglar compartment that is on the aft deck now. We use it a lot. When you have the tank made make sure they put a couple of baffels in it. I saw a drawing of your new lay out but can't seem to locate it again. I'm just getting used to using this site, I'm not a very good computer geek.

firefight-n wrote: hey bud nice job so far! im new to this site also but saw your rebuild so far. Im in the process of rebuilding an 1980 FN and have been doing the rebuild so far in the last 3 months. On my boat i stripped out to nothing inside the hull but where the step up is in the front deck, i left about 5 inches of it in from Starboard to port to keep its integrity. I saw the composite stringers also and loved the idea so build my own molds and made my own stringers for about a quarter the cost. The bulkheads i made out of marine Okouma marine grade ply glassed in then put a 175 gal fuel tank down the center of the hull. My boat im turning into an outboard boat though, thats why i can do that but i would def use the saddle tank idea... Where are you located in FL?

I am in the Melbourne/Palm Bay area. Do you have any photos of your build. I like the the stringer idea of doing it myself. I think I am going to go all composite when it comes to the bulkheads. There is a honey comb produce called Nida-Core that is awsome for doing bulkheads and supports. after seeing all the rotten wood in that boat I don't want anyone to ever have to do this again if I sell the boat. Are you supports the transome with wood also? If you haven't done it yet the compay I stated above make a composite pour transome product that I have used and it is great. They will send you a free gallon to play with and try out. Well if you have some photos email them to me or drop me an email maybe we can pick each others brains..

John

The Nida Pour Transome is $100 for 5Gals. not to bad for what you get. As for pics I just signed up for photobucket and uplaoded my Pics there. Its a free service, then once uploaded there you just post the link in your respnose on here and it will show the photo.