[204Angler]

I don't have any pictures of 'er to put up yet. However, some of you may (or may not) remember I have a 1983 Wellcraft 250 Sportsman (actually a 248 Sportsman) with a 3.0L Sea Drive.

I got this boat in December of 2009 and since then have done extensive fiberglass work and every minor thing you can do to an outboard. The powerhead was a fresh rebuild when I got it (0 hours). I had all the glass work done in June of this year and JUST got the running gear (motor/controls etc...) working well together and so after a lot of B,S & T she is finally ready for the big pond.

In between deployments, other various TDY's, house renovations and life I fully built a transom from scratch (all that is original is the exterior ply's of fiberglass), much of the stringers and a large portion of the deck. I had so much torn out of the boat I put hull in a "cradle" and made a couple support jigs so the hull wouldn't move. I rewired the boat also and got a 2008 trailer for it. Much better than the factory roller trailer. This doesn't sound like much work but, when you are new at fiberglass, half of my time was eaten up by reading and researching "how to's" and consulting a former boat builder. I had no paperwork from the previous owner so I completed that process too. I just received my registration and "17" decal in the mail yesterday

There is still a lot of work to be done on it but it is all aesthetic work such as top side gelcoat, hardware replacement etc... This would all have been done already at some point in the past 5 years had I the option to have a regular hours job and come home everyday and plug away at it.

This was a labor of love--overall. There were moments where I wanted to give up and just go buy a properly functioning boat but, that's just not my style I guess. Anyone with any sense would have carried this boat off to the dump years ago. Fortunately (or unfortunately, not sure yet) for me I don't have any sense

If my wife and I like the way this boat runs and handles the ocean we will have it for many years.

I guess the only point of this was to have a thread to post her pictures to and say how exciting it is to finally have the ability to go offshore! Yes, I have SeaTow

 

[Brenardo]

Awesome man. I understand the pains and triumphs of a project like this. Congrats on all the hard work and I hope it serves you and your wife well for many years to come.

 

[204Angler]

Thanks bro. Yeah there were definitely lots of pains involved! However, nothing like the feeling of that first few voyages.

I will get pictures up tomorrow! I am unable to find the "before" pictures.

 

[lewisfishing]

Very nice! Congrats! How about them Hawks!

 

[204Angler]

Here are a couple "before" pictures. Basically, the wood between the inside and outside fiberglass laminates was mush. I am surprised that big 'ol Sea Drive didn't rip off when I towed the boat home.

The liquid nails that you see on the outside of the transom is from a piece of 3/4" plywood and you'll notice large bolt holes in some of the pictures from where they had bolted the plywood to the transom to "reinforce" it.

 

[204Angler]

A couple pictures of the inside of the transom after the first layup. You'll also see I cut the aft deck out...exposing more of the stringers too. I ended up having to pull a larger portion of the deck out later and replacing the wood in that and re-glassing. I am still looking for more pictures of "in progress". Maybe then Drum Runner and some others can point out where I went wrong in my fiberglass technique's

After I cut the aft deck out I just cut out a large section of the old fiberglass which happened to be delaminated as well. I sectioned up the two layers of 3/4" marine wood that I bonded together in a laminate using chopped mat saturated with resin and West systems 404.