What Did You Do To Your Boat This Week?

[Corey_lax]

I took some plexiglass and cut it with a 60 tooth chop saw. The first pic is fitting it up and as I was drilling the top holes it shattered and dislocated my elbow. Very easy to Crack so you drill bit has to be semi new but not so sharp it catches. What you want to do is melt it. I fitted the third sheet lol. Dremel works good to enlarge the screw holes. So I have 6 2" screws going through the glass and into the 3/4 ply behind the console.

Some people template the console and recess a fish finder into it. What if you change finders? This way I can put my main vessel view mobile behind the glass. Smokes fishing licenses as well. Even put a few stickers on the glass.

Last picture is a tug towing a smaller tug by grace Island from my house.

Hard no to dull bits and melting through it to get your hole. Just put a piece of wood on the backside so when your drill bit goes through, it hits the wood instead of grabbing the sheet, smacking it and cracking it

 

[prodjsaig]

Hard no to dull bits and melting through it to get your hole. Just put a piece of wood on the backside so when your drill bit goes through, it hits the wood instead of grabbing the sheet, smacking it and cracking it

Ya a piece of ply behind it. All the covid plexiglass gave me the idea. Difficult to work with so ill cut a spare sheet and that's the only place on the boat ill use it. Better would be to Grove the wood pieces on the table saw and slide a piece in would work but the saw is too heavy to move with the broken arm

 

[Foxsea]

Installing a 200 watt solar kit above my bimini. Less than $300.00! Should help with the batteries when we are on the hook for a few days. The older system on our motor home worked well but often sites were shaded. Not a problem on the boat.

 

[sly_karma]

Got the fire cranked up in the shop and made a bait table.

 

[Rain City]

I removed snow and ran the taps a few times. Couldn't start it up though because it's still just a floating home waiting for all kinds of expensive stuff to be put back together.

 

[daddystoy]

Put a new steering cable and helm in to replace an old one that was at least 21 years old. ( that's how long I've had the boat. It was many years older than that!)
In the process of replacing an axle and springs on the old trailer. Second time for this!

 

[Brando]

Hard no to dull bits and melting through it to get your hole. Just put a piece of wood on the backside so when your drill bit goes through, it hits the wood instead of grabbing the sheet, smacking it and cracking it

Friend that works with acrylic a lot has a separate set of bits cut at a different angle than your standard hardware store ones.

 

[Corbin]

Installing a 200 watt solar kit above my bimini. Less than $300.00! Should help with the batteries when we are on the hook for a few days. The older system on our motor home worked well but often sites were shaded. Not a problem on the boat.

Love it. 400 watts on top of bimini on Commander 30. Run two freezers and everything else with abandon. If in direct sun I'm fully charged by noon. House bank has never been below about 89%

 

[Rain City]

Love it. 400 watts on top of bimini on Commander 30. Run two freezers and everything else with abandon. If in direct sun I'm fully charged by noon. House bank has never been below about 89%

I only have 200 on my rear eyebrow roof. Would love to get more but it's all that fit. I got rid of my bimini to avoid windage plus didn't love the look. This is the only reason I'd like to put one back up.

 

[Corbin]

I only have 200 on my rear eyebrow roof. Would love to get more but it's all that fit. I got rid of my bimini to avoid windage plus didn't love the look. This is the only reason I'd like to put one back up.

Really like the fixed bimini. Considering the mass of the boat I don't think windage is much of an issue. When running into a 20 knot breeze at 24 knots it make a little noise, but for the ease and comfort I can live with it. The bimini has only a little over 6 feet two inches of clearance, I'm 6 foot. I don't like the really tall biminis either. Has no effect on the 4G radar.

 

[Rain City]

Really like the fixed bimini. Considering the mass of the boat I don't think windage is much of an issue. When running into a 20 knot breeze at 24 knots it make a little noise, but for the ease and comfort I can live with it. The bimini has only a little over 6 feet two inches of clearance, I'm 6 foot. I don't like the really tall biminis either. Has no effect on the 4G radar.

Yours does look nicer than most I'd say. I like the slight forward rake on it. Racing stance
Mine had full glass on it with a crazy cutout for the radar tower. I sold it for good money because it was always more than what I'd want. I have considered doing something simpler like yours. Can I ask how much it ran you?

 

[Corbin]

Yours does look nicer than most I'd say. I like the slight forward rake on it. Racing stance
Mine had full glass on it with a crazy cutout for the radar tower. I sold it for good money because it was always more than what I'd want. I have considered doing something simpler like yours. Can I ask how much it ran you?

I honestly don't know how much the bimini cost. It was part of a refit that included all new interior upholstery and canvass. I had the boat home for six months doing a ton of stuff. My guess would be about 3 or 4k for all new 1 inch stainless and custom canvass.

 

[Corbin]

I honestly don't know how much the bimini cost. It was part of a refit that included all new interior upholstery and canvass. I had the boat home for six months doing a ton of stuff. My guess would be about 3 or 4k for all new 1 inch stainless and custom canvass.

Just redid the acrylic too.

 

[Rain City]

Just redid the acrylic too.

Awesome! I really want to do that. Can I ask who did it?

 

[kaelc]

I removed snow and ran the taps a few times. Couldn't start it up though because it's still just a floating home waiting for all kinds of expensive stuff to be put back together.

I swapped the cabin heater for the bilge one, apparently the bilge one isn't quite up to keeping her warm! 7 degrees here today so back to work!

Love it. 400 watts on top of bimini on Commander 30. Run two freezers and everything else with abandon. If in direct sun I'm fully charged by noon. House bank has never been below about 89%

That is pretty bloody good so basically no power worries at all. I’m getting some rewiring done, I better order a few panels.

 

[Corbin]

Awesome! I really want to do that. Can I ask who did it?

I did it. You can get one out of a single sheet of 4x8 acrylic. I used 2074, dark gray smoke. I looked into getting a 4x10 sheet with which you could get 3 of them out of it. With covid the larger sheet would have taken weeks to source, at best, and I couldn't find anyone willing to cut them on a CNC waterjet. I cut mine with a jigsay, two inches large initially to take the stress out, then trimmed down with the jigsaw. Then lots of wet sanding and a little polishing. Whole this took about 4 hours. As for the holes I used a unibit, these works very well on acrylic and don't cause any chipping.

 

[Rain City]

I did it. You can get one out of a single sheet of 4x8 acrylic. I used 2074, dark gray smoke. I looked into getting a 4x10 sheet with which you could get 3 of them out of it. With covid the larger sheet would have taken weeks to source, at best, and I couldn't find anyone willing to cut them on a CNC waterjet. I cut mine with a jigsay, two inches large initially to take the stress out, then trimmed down with the jigsaw. Then lots of wet sanding and a little polishing. Whole this took about 4 hours. As for the holes I used a unibit, these works very well on acrylic and don't cause any chipping.

Awesome. Sounds like you could make mine up in no time then!

 

[Corbin]

Awesome. Sounds like you could make mine up in no time then!

Haha, you would have to fight Sir Reel for it.

 

[Corbin]

I swapped the cabin heater for the bilge one, apparently the bilge one isn't quite up to keeping her warm! 7 degrees here today so back to work!

That is pretty bloody good so basically no power worries at all. I’m getting some rewiring done, I better order a few panels.

I guess I should quantify my idea of "running everything else with abandon" I will run anything and everything without issue, but it's all closely monitored. I use a Victron BMV 712 and the app to monitor things on my phone. It's fantastic, you can track any amp draw anywhere in the boat.

Best case I produce 28 amps per hour. My usual overnight draw is about 80 amps, so it only takes about half a day to get back to full charge. In pea soup fog it still puts out about 7 - 8 amps, which really surprised me. All in all, no power issues. If I were on the hook for days in crappy weather I would start to get behind, but I have two 115 amp alternators should that ever happen.

 

[Corey_lax]

@Rain City if you don’t want to pay custom prices for a Bimini, go onto iboats.com and you can order a Bimini based on the dimensions you want. I put in my dimensions and was given a part number that was for a mid-90’s master craft ski boat but i liked the fit on my boat. I basically put in 68” wide, 48” long, 30” high and it spit out 10 options with all different qualities of fabric. It was around $400 CAD. They have larger ones for your boat.