16' build from down under

[xt4v]

Hi all, newbie on the block.. Been lurking for a while but thought I'd throw a post up to say gday.

I've pretty much picked up a bare 16' hull - half cab, taking delivery tomorrow and have a few Q's and hopefully get some answers to help plan my build which be detailed in this thread (over a long time - no time frames, whatever it takes lol).

This hull was supposedly built/setup with a Aussie Holden commodore v6 engine in mind, connected to a stern drive.. Its had new transom, stringers and floor, and also had the hull painted.. looks nice! getting it really cheap and have wanted to build a boat for ages, so thought this would be a perfect start. The cheap part is a real bonus too.

Engine wise, the local V6 commodore engine (buick built, think they're different to the USA ones though?) are easy to come by but bits to convert it to a boat engine are not that easy to come by.. another bloke shoe horned one of these into a 20' (thread - http://forums.iboats.com/mercruiser-i-o-inboard-engines-outdrives/buick-v6-conversion-369819.html) and he's pretty much done a lot of the fab work.. Looks trick and seems to go well but I dont have the capacity to do half of what he'd done, and no idea who could help me around here also.

I have contacted a few places that sell supposed conversion kits but never heard back.. So already on the back foot with this whole v6 going into the boat

Having said that, I've done some research and from what I can see and would love some advice on this, the ford 5.0/302 was used by volvo at some stage? If so, I could easily locally pickup a ford 5.0 efi (mid 90's from a v8 falcon) and get it in the boat with a lot of after market support

My concerns? The extra weight/power of the V8.. its about 35-40kg difference in engines (buick v6 -> ford v8) from what my research is bringing up.. That extra weight, can I offset it by adding a lot more foam to help with buoyancy?

Another concern would be the sub deck work, dont know how strong it is and would worry something would perhaps fail with the extra power of the v8.. May drill inspection holes and look? What would you guys do? Pull the deck and rebuild for strength at worst case?

With regards to the size of a boat, 16' too small for a v8? I've done a bit of googling and found a few that size with small v8's, so thought it may not be out of the question? Boat would be dual purpose fishing in our local bay (salt water) and also in some lakes with the family pulling a skier or whatever.

Whats more enticing about a ford 5.0, I'm a ford nut so a nice v8 would be kick butt to me

Would love to hear what you guys think about the idea, crazy? doable?

Btw, great to officially be part of this community, lots of great info and like minded people who are willing to share knowledge.

Pics of the boat will come in the next few days when its here and I get some spare time.


Cheers,
Rob

 

[Bifflefan]

Re: 16' build from down under

My concerns? The extra weight/power of the V8.. its about 35-40kg difference in engines (buick v6 -> ford v8) from what my research is bringing up.. That extra weight, can I offset it by adding a lot more foam to help with buoyancy?

Welcome aboard.
I too am a Ford guy. But marine parts for a Ford in the USA are hard to find and expensive when you do.
16' seems to small for a V8 to me. There are strict guidelines in the US about weight and foam and so on in boats. Most can be found in a book call "Safety standards for backyard boat builders" Have you considered a transom platform and adding an outboard? Just a thought.
I am sure there are rules that your boating authority has. You need to find out what they are before you start. Don't trust google for this info. Get it from the ones that are going to tow or impound your boat if you do it wrong.

 

[xt4v]

Re: 16' build from down under

Welcome aboard.
I too am a Ford guy. But marine parts for a Ford in the USA are hard to find and expensive when you do.
16' seems to small for a V8 to me. There are strict guidelines in the US about weight and foam and so on in boats. Most can be found in a book call "Safety standards for backyard boat builders" Have you considered a transom platform and adding an outboard? Just a thought.
I am sure there are rules that your boating authority has. You need to find out what they are before you start. Don't trust google for this info. Get it from the ones that are going to tow or impound your boat if you do it wrong.

Hey there, thanks for the welcome!

Yeah I did some looking around and you're right the ford parts are expensive.. And after speaking further with the seller and reading your feedback, I think the whole idea of an inboard may just be a thing of the past! (The seller was also thinking of putting a pod on it himself and put an outboard on that)

Any good leads or links on some well designed/built home made pods? I like the idea of having a boarding platform, and I understand the pods can be built into them?
BTW, thanks for the tip on the book, I'll give it a read. I dont know if we've got anything similar down here, but I'll do my research.

I ended up getting the hull today, its basically a bare hull sitting in my driveway on a bunch of blocks hehe... Wife likes the look and style of the hull which is a bonus.. it needs literally everything, but I'll give it my best.

Turns out its a bit over 16', according to the old owner its 5 meters, which converts to 16.4041995 feet (16' 4 27⁄32") according to the big G.

Project wise, I wont be diving into this straight away, need to finish off some of my landscaping around my yard (near new house) so once thats all done, I can make a start... I guess the beginnings of this thread will be planning and ideas and a lot of questions. I will however build some sort of dolly system to make the thing mobile in the next few weeks.

I got a couple of shots of the outside, will give it a clean on the inside and take some of the inside.. few spider webs in there and I hate the damn things so give me a bit of time with that haha. Didnt have much time to spend with it as was out in the backyard restoring an old table - marine grade stainless framed table and chairs, giving it a rub down to bring it back up and need to replace the timber inserts.

Few Pics of the new pride and joy (and yep I need to cut the small patch of grass lol) -

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: 16' build from down under

Welcome to iboats! Happy Australia Day. We have a moderator from down under (achris) who knows ALLOT about what is available in your area and MANY other members from your area.

What previously powered that boat? What does the transom look like? The exterior looks to be in great shape.

 

[xt4v]

Re: 16' build from down under

Welcome to iboats! Happy Australia Day. We have a moderator from down under (achris) who knows ALLOT about what is available in your area and MANY other members from your area.

What previously powered that boat? What does the transom look like? The exterior looks to be in great shape.

Hey Bob, thanks for the welcome and yep, Happy Australia Day - great day to be scoring a boat thats for sure. Dreams come true.

Yeah, I've seen many of achris' posts, really knowledgeable person who I'd definitely love to hear from in this thread.

It was previously powered by an inboard apparently a holden v6 (holden / gm / buick 3.8 local v6) and what looks like a hole for a volvo stern drive? (pics below) This guy I bought it off, purchased it off the original guy who had it running, he eventually sold everything in pieces and I've landed up with a bare hull and a lot of time to work it out

Transoms thick and sounds solid, cross member/front engine mount brace is de-laminating might be able to see it in the pictures... makes me wonder whats under the deck.
Pics from owners ad, sure he wont mind -

 

[xt4v]

Re: 16' build from down under

So I did a bit of research and came across a few formulas to work out the max HP a transom can take in Aus.

Australian Standards Calculation AS 1799
Length of boat X Waterline beam width at transom X 16 less 67 then X 1.34 = HP you can use on your boat.

With my boats numbers, I've come in just under 85 HP without the pod/hull extension, and about 101 HP with it. I think that sounds about right, 90-100 HP outboard for a 16.5' ?

My concerns about a pod/hull extension there arent many good write ups on the internet.. lot of old outdated stuff from what I can gather and a lot of 'differing opinions'.

I guess my other option of converting my existing hull to an outboard would be to cut down the transom and build a well etc.. Downside of that is losing valuable deck space.

Side by side, out of the above two options ( 1. hull extension or 2. cut existing transom down and build well) which would perform better all round with the same motor etc, the only difference being the extension of the hull?

Been reading a few good resources on building a boat stand.. I like frisco's one he built with the castors, great idea and I guess it would mean I could buy a trailer last, or when a "buy" pops up! (just like this hull hehehe).

Other thoughts are cutting down the length of the cabin, or making a cut out for/void in the roof for some extra room.. Will need to post some photos in the next few days of the inside so you guys can get a better picture of whats there now and what could be done.

Man, there are so many options and ideas I have, just got to make sure I stick to one plan so I am not chasing my tail chopping and changing etc.

 

[xt4v]

Re: 16' build from down under

Anyone have any experience or feedback on with Porta Motor Mounts?

In action -

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 16' build from down under

Carp that's an expensive lift assembly. $3-6K in the US, plus shipping. Wow. Looks nice though & LOTS of models to choose from.

 

[xt4v]

Re: 16' build from down under

Yeah it is quite costly. According to their site the price for the smallest which will hold up to 200hp its priced around 2300 plus the shipping.

I like them and wouldn't put it out of the plan just yet. the $ is the only crappy thing but I guess you get what you pay for and a lot less mods to the hull.

Food for thought.

 

[xt4v]

Re: 16' build from down under

So got some time this arvo to get a few pics, most turned out but the shot from the stern has a bit of glare.

Been thinking I'm going to probably gut the existing interior work and redo whats in there, I dont know how long its been exposed and some of the glassing job aint the best from what I can tell.

The deck feels solid but worst case it needs to be redone along with the stringers.. I'll be cutting it up at the rear anyway to convert the transom and stringers over to outboard so I'll do some really good inspections of the existing work thats already in there.

Anyway, some pics.. Will post some more thoughts or questions as they come up.

 

[xt4v]

Re: 16' build from down under

Been busy around the house finishing up my landscape but at night time I'm madly researching all things boat building.. lots to read about.

I am most likely going to buy an alloy pod locally, found a bloke that does them in Aus and they are fairly reasonably priced.

Outboard Motor Bracket Custom Built POD Bolt ON in Dayboro, QLD | eBay

Thoughts on the above? (He also offers other options, check out his ebay store if you've got a minute.)

One of them hydraulic porta motor mounts would have been ace, but the Company cant even get back to a simple email enquiry (still waiting a couple of weeks later) so I'm not too confident about them even having something shipped half way across the world successfully... or without some sort of major drama hehe! I manage a customer service team, I loathe sloppy service... anyway, enough of that rant.

In the next few weeks I'm going to build some sort of dolly/cart/stand for the boat.. Been looking around at a few good examples and will use some of the ideas I've seen and built something to suit my purpose. Will update you all once thats done and if some other random thought or idea pops up.