Heads up, this will be a slow ongoing thread.
The boat is a 1987 Dargel Skooter 16', on a home built 1985 trailer.
The boat hull had a bunch of scratches, chips, and such on it. None took on water though so that was good, you can fish it for 8 hours and drain out less than an oz or two of water, and thats going in through the hatches I'm sure.
When I bought it the deck was only 2 years old, it has safe floor on it now. nice Leaning post with rocket launchers on the back, front cooler holder and 30" light bar on it. Best part is the 08' Etec 115 with a Jack Foreman custom prop, has spare 4 blade and the factory viper 3 blade as well. All of the upholstery is only a year old. Also came with a Garmin GPS and sonar. Pop up duck blind, and push pole too. Overall a good started and functioning project.
I love fishing this boat, it rides dryer and smoother than you would believe, more so that I thought it would when I went to get it. Drafts shallow, gets up in 8" if I have someone on the front of the boat leveling the load, not sure how shallow it will run yet, I have run in about 4.5" and didn't kick mud or sand the skeg, so I'm guessing maybe 3-4" is the limit there, I don't want to test that and the one time I ran that shallow it wasn't planned, I prefer to stay in a foot or so if I can, I was cutting through an area as other boats were coming and I had to push out further than I had before, after I got through it I went back to walk it to see how shallow, it barely covered the top of my shoes.
Now on to what I've done. I removed all of the stickers from the side of the hull. I filled all of the hull imperfections and I will be re-gelling it this winter (shallow sport sea-foam green) after fishing season. Cut off the rusty fenders and welded on some new fenders, been working under the trailer with a wire wheel on my drill getting all of the cancer off of it. Galvanizing it as I go. I changed out the rear uprights, old ones were completely rusted out, and moved them closer to the boat so it guides on better when trailering.
Today, I will be adding side bunks to keep the boat from moving side to side on the trailer while in transit. The trailer was laid out with only bottom bunks and the boat just slides freely unless ratchet strapped across the deck, but I don't want to damage the boat by ratcheting it down like that. I will be adding eyes in the transom for transom tie downs after the new side bunks are on the trailer. I will be using treated 2x10 with all SS fasteners. Outdoor carpet on the bunks.
Next phase of the build will be rewiring some things, adding a nice switch panel with a volt meter. It looks like a rats nest under the center console right now. Some old push pull switches being used, other switches aren't wired, some are missing the button in the middle of the switch, its just a mess in general. Thankfully its a functioning mess though so its not the #1 priority.
After that a nice burn bar set up, with a windshield, so I can get up on the top of the console to sight fish without the bar hitting me in the knee like it does now.
Im sure I'll think of other things as I go, but this is the plan for now.
Here it is the day I bought it.
Step one scrub off years of neglect. lol
Here are some of the chips before and after
This is what happens when there are no side bunks and it slides over and gets eaten up by a tire or something. Before I bought it.
Another nasty one from trailering it and getting on the exposed metal edge of the trailer.
The new side bunks
Step one mock it all up.
Covered in carpet. Glued on front, stapled across bottom of front and top, the back is just stapled everywhere. Ends are folded over, glued and stapled down.
Installed
The boat is a 1987 Dargel Skooter 16', on a home built 1985 trailer.
The boat hull had a bunch of scratches, chips, and such on it. None took on water though so that was good, you can fish it for 8 hours and drain out less than an oz or two of water, and thats going in through the hatches I'm sure.
When I bought it the deck was only 2 years old, it has safe floor on it now. nice Leaning post with rocket launchers on the back, front cooler holder and 30" light bar on it. Best part is the 08' Etec 115 with a Jack Foreman custom prop, has spare 4 blade and the factory viper 3 blade as well. All of the upholstery is only a year old. Also came with a Garmin GPS and sonar. Pop up duck blind, and push pole too. Overall a good started and functioning project.
I love fishing this boat, it rides dryer and smoother than you would believe, more so that I thought it would when I went to get it. Drafts shallow, gets up in 8" if I have someone on the front of the boat leveling the load, not sure how shallow it will run yet, I have run in about 4.5" and didn't kick mud or sand the skeg, so I'm guessing maybe 3-4" is the limit there, I don't want to test that and the one time I ran that shallow it wasn't planned, I prefer to stay in a foot or so if I can, I was cutting through an area as other boats were coming and I had to push out further than I had before, after I got through it I went back to walk it to see how shallow, it barely covered the top of my shoes.
Now on to what I've done. I removed all of the stickers from the side of the hull. I filled all of the hull imperfections and I will be re-gelling it this winter (shallow sport sea-foam green) after fishing season. Cut off the rusty fenders and welded on some new fenders, been working under the trailer with a wire wheel on my drill getting all of the cancer off of it. Galvanizing it as I go. I changed out the rear uprights, old ones were completely rusted out, and moved them closer to the boat so it guides on better when trailering.
Today, I will be adding side bunks to keep the boat from moving side to side on the trailer while in transit. The trailer was laid out with only bottom bunks and the boat just slides freely unless ratchet strapped across the deck, but I don't want to damage the boat by ratcheting it down like that. I will be adding eyes in the transom for transom tie downs after the new side bunks are on the trailer. I will be using treated 2x10 with all SS fasteners. Outdoor carpet on the bunks.
Next phase of the build will be rewiring some things, adding a nice switch panel with a volt meter. It looks like a rats nest under the center console right now. Some old push pull switches being used, other switches aren't wired, some are missing the button in the middle of the switch, its just a mess in general. Thankfully its a functioning mess though so its not the #1 priority.
After that a nice burn bar set up, with a windshield, so I can get up on the top of the console to sight fish without the bar hitting me in the knee like it does now.
Im sure I'll think of other things as I go, but this is the plan for now.
Here it is the day I bought it.
Step one scrub off years of neglect. lol
Here are some of the chips before and after
This is what happens when there are no side bunks and it slides over and gets eaten up by a tire or something. Before I bought it.
Another nasty one from trailering it and getting on the exposed metal edge of the trailer.
The new side bunks
Step one mock it all up.
Covered in carpet. Glued on front, stapled across bottom of front and top, the back is just stapled everywhere. Ends are folded over, glued and stapled down.
Installed
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