The Fish Licker - 1989 Cobia Odyssey spring restoration

[vetting]

The boat is a 1989 Cobia Odyssey 265 FC that I used for salmon fishing on Lake Michigan. The boat is named the fish licker due to that fact that my jack russell/dachshund goes nuts every time he hears a drag clicker go off on a rod. He then balances on the transom and/or the engine cover barking his head off until you get the fish in. Then proceeds to lick it until from tail to head and much on the gills once the fish in in the boat.

So I spent the last 3 years gearing up the boat with all of the salmon gear and slowly adding electronics and replacing mechanical items. This year I decided to tackle all of the cosmetic items that I've been putting off. The boat is built like a tank and has many years left in it. The transom is between 2 and 3 inches thick depending on the location. The spring list is a long one, but it will be nice to splash down in the future with only minor work in the spring after this one.

Some of the projects:
- New speaker install and full stereo/speaker rewire
- Completely strip all of the vinyl stripes and decals
- Remove all of the fittings on the side of the boat
- Fill/fair/finish 25 years worth of dings and scratches
- Wrap sides all in vinyl
- Rebuild a live well/cooler and the gelcoat
- Regelcoat any holes that arent going to get covered by vinyl
- Replace all of the switches
- Complete cabin redo
- Blue Sea add a battery kit with ACR
- 2 new AGM batteries with battery boxes
- New fridge
- New rubrail
- Add a washdown
- Complete new binimi windows and aft curtain
- New rocket launcher
- Full set of new gauges
- Surface mount 2 fish finders and autopilot controller
- Add another fish finder
- New bottom paint with a barrier coat (not sure if Im going to do the entire bottom this year)
- 10 other random things

I started a bunch of the projects at once and will post pictures of my progress as I go.

First up is the stripping of all of the old decals, hardware, fittings, and stripes from the side where the boat will be wrapped in vinyl. I chose not to paint it this year because I wanted to see how the vinyl would look first before I get into painting the sides. The grey gelcoat has seen its better days and I'm tired of putting a ton of work into it and then having to redo it again year after year. Its just one of those things when you have a dark gelcoat and have a boat that sits in a slip all summer. I started by stripping everything off the sides of the boat and then sanding any of the major gouges and scratches with a combination of a 80 grit sander and dremel.

Here is a sample of the gouges




Gouges sanded out and then cleaned with wax remover and acetone



I plan on filling all of the holes and gouges with TotalBoat TotalFair Epoxy Fairing Compound. More pics and update to follow.

 

[vetting]

Was delayed a bit by the cold weather but made some progress. Fishing fairing/filling all of the holes and scratches over the entire boat. Dug out 25 years worth of piled on calk at the hull joint. Replaced and rebedded all of the hull joint screws (110 of them). Calked the joint with 4200.

The started on wrapping with the vinyl. It is a little more difficult to apply than I thought it would be, so leaning it on the fly.

Here is a shot of the transom all wrapped. I wrapped the top down to half way over the lip for the hull joint and then also the bottom.

Here is a shot of the side where I'm going to have a seam. Here you can see the difference between the old gelcoat and the new vinyl.

 

[vetting]

Its been some time since I've posted updates since I've been so busy getting it ready to put in the water. I still have a bunch of inside work to do, but all of the outside work is done and the boat is in the slip for the summer. Here are some pictures I took before she got put in the water.

Bow hook before. It was pretty nasty and covered in years of bad caulk jobs.

After bow hook. Ground everything down, relocated the drain hole to a different location, and redid the gelcoat. The gelcoat turned green once I added the MEK, but it was my first time gelcoating and looks good enough for this year.

 

[vetting]

The inside of the anchor locker was a disaster. The wood block was complete mush since the old drain hole went right through the middle of the block.

Before picture of the anchor locker

Everything ground down

 

[vetting]

New wood block put in and everything coated with epoxy

More epoxy added and then redrilled the holes. Then epoxied all of the holes to prevent rot and then painted.

 

[vetting]

The engine cover insulation had seen its better days. I ordered B-Quiet Ultimate after doing hours of research. B-Quiet Ultimate is the best sound deadening product available when it comes to vibration reduction, resonances and noise traveling through the boat. It also has the highest heat rating which means it can go closer to the engine. It has a nice sticky backing on it but I sprayed some adhesive just to make sure it sticks really well.

Before the layer over the insulation was falling down and sitting on the engine.

I was able to save the foam. I applied the new sound insulation over the foam and extended it up to the edges.

 

[vetting]

Vinyl wrap all done and new rubrail installed. The rubrail is Uniflex and the vinyl is 3m 1080 gloss anthracite. I did the back but paid a pro to do the sides.

Before and after shot

 

[Acpics80]

Looks great vetting, nice work. I'm going to tag along if you don't mind.

-Acpics80

 

[Isaacm1986]

Keep it up!