GA 28 built by Kachemak Skiffs Wasilla, AK

[Dan Boccia]

Pulled the boat out of Anthony's shop today and shoe-horned it into my back yard in Anchorage. Off to get the Suzuki 250 fly-by-wire and 9.9 hi-thrust engines hung tomorrow.

The big news is the boat weight. 3075 lb with fuel system (both tanks, fills/vents complete, fuel supplies coiled in bilge), deck cleats, anchor roller, bow eye, Seastar tilting helm and wheel, captain's seat with sliding base, dinette table and base, bilge and heater through-hulls, and a couple grab bars. Without all this, the bare hull weight would be 2784 lb, and that's with a 9 1/2 ft cabin full of cabinets, and quite a few cabinets on the back deck. I figure once everything is installed, dry, it will weigh between 4475 and 4625 lb. For comparison, Dave's 26-footer in Homer weighed 4700 lb dry and all outfitted. The weight savings comes from the foam-core we used in the cabin and parts of the cabinets, plus we stuck to the glass schedule without overbuilding anything except maybe the transom. I am thrilled with the weight, it's over 400 lb lighter than Anthony and I were figuring it would be.

We are not very impressed with the System Three paint - it gave Anthony quite a bit of trouble and seems a bit fragile. I would be hard pressed to recommend it to be honest. We called the company and worked with them to be sure we were using it correctly and they verified it was not a bad batch. I think I would go with Alex-Seal in the future, my research revealed lots of boat yards and individuals are happy with this paint, and you put up with the fumes.

Also, the Kokopelli trailer, while being some 700 lb lighter than the EZ-Loader option, has two things I'm disappointed with: One, the jack stand does not swivel because the I-beams are in the way, and two, the side bunks only attach to the outside I-beam, so they vibrate all over the place. I had to add some angles to the box beam to attach to the ends of the side bunk supports beneath the trailer, and that stiffened things up considerably at very little cost other than a few hours crawling around under the trailer.

After carting it around town for engine, upholstery measurements, and bow/roof rail measurements, it will be up to me to wire and outfit the boat. Looking forward to working on it myself!

[Brian.Dixon]

What a beauty!  Congratulations!!!

You may be impressed with the S-III paint more as you own the boat longer - my experience has been that it's pretty tough, but it cures tissue-thin and shows every defect (which doesn't bother me any).

On the port side, what is the 'hole' midway down one side?  Vent?  Bilge pump outlet?

Brian

[Dan Boccia]

Brian, that thru-hull on the port side is the Wallas forced air furnace exhaust/air intake. They are strict about having a 12" drop in the stack, and since the stack topped out just below the gunnel, this is where it ended up. They said that's common, and they've never had any problems. I can imagine side slop getting into the hole occasionally, perhaps when pulling a shrimp pot in a blow or something, but they don't seem worried about it.

Off to the engine shop...

[Brian.Dixon]

Brian, that thru-hull on the port side is the Wallas forced air furnace exhaust/air intake. They are strict about having a 12" drop in the stack, and since the stack topped out just below the gunnel, this is where it ended up. They said that's common, and they've never had any problems. I can imagine side slop getting into the hole occasionally, perhaps when pulling a shrimp pot in a blow or something, but they don't seem worried about it.

Off to the engine shop...

Gotcha ... I hadn't thought of that.  You'll enjoy that Wallas.... warm = good

Brian

[Rbob]

Dan,

Your boat looks awesome!  I just noticed you have foam on the cabin sides, bulkhead and I assume roof,  You had mentioned foam on the cuddy roof with 1/4 laminated on the top but I am curious if any wood is laminated onto the sides to the roof?

I am wanting to do foam and looking for all the info I can get.


Bob

[Djeffrey]

Dan, can you give me an idea what the outboard and controls cost you?

[Dan Boccia]

Sorry, missed your questions Rbob and Djeffrey...

We used 1/2" foam on the cuddy sides, forward bulkhead, cuddy top with 1/4" plywood laminated on top, cabin sides, window frames, top of aft bulkhead above the gunwales, and the roof. No extra lamination on the roof, but we did lay another layer of 10oz I think on the roof. Also used foam on almost all of the cabinet bulkheads. I love the weight savings. Costs a bit more, and is a bit more of a hassle to outfit since through bolts and washers need to be used to mount anything. In the cuddy, up high, we laminated a 2" strip of 1/2" plywood on either side so I can run screw eyes in to string up hanging lines for clothes, etc. If you think ahead, you can add bits of plywood here and there to mount things to and still get the weight savings. Also, you get some insulation value out of it, and sound deadening perhaps.

Sure, prices from Anchorage Yamaha/Suzuki:
$22,910 Suzuki DF250AP, fly by wire (electronic shift/throttle)
$3230    Suzuki DF9.9 BT, hi-thrust kicker, EFI (love that I have no carbs on board!)
$99        kicker throttle controls
$550      stainless prop for 250 -  18 x 19 (to start with, will see how it runs)
$700      computer for 250
$92        boots/rigging supplies
$1430    shop labor to hang engines, program 250, run controls, and install hydraulic steering (I supplied helm, already mounted to console)

$27,581 parts
$29,011 total

This does not include the kicker bracket I had fabricated, the Seastar tilting helm (about $700), or any of the hydraulic steering parts.
Bloody expensive, but what can you do? At least it's top shelf gear.

[Dan Boccia]

Got the pair of Suzukis hung finally after the shop took 3 weeks to do it. Such is the way it seems to go with engine shops, sigh....
The control cables are not in their final position, just hanging there for now.

Two things of interest to builders and Brian:
1. The drywell, at 36" wide, was too narrow to allow mounting the hydraulic steering tube, so the shop had to tear the engine off, mount the tube, and re-mount. If the drywell was 40" wide it would have fit. Otherwise, there is barely adequate room in all other dimensions, so future builders planning on a 250 might want to increase drywell dimensions all around a couple inches.

2. There is no good way to connect the kicker to the main for steering. The 250 has no good place to strap on a tie-bar on its back end, and the offset is too great for a Seastar kicker cable or tie-bar on the front. This is a major disappointment to me. Thankfully, we have products such as the Panther T5 electro-steer, which is an electronic control with a little keypad to steer with. I'll mount the keypad in the cabin and be good to go hopefully. I have heard of someone tapping into the hydraulic steering, valving the lines to the kicker or the main, and just switching the valves to go between the two. Sounds like a cool creative solution, not sure how it would work, and the Panther product looks clean and simple so I'm going with that.

Now I can finish the heater installation, mount the fridge, lights, nav lights, electronics, and electrical. Bunch of work still to do!

[Brian.Dixon]

Dan,

Thanks for the very useful feedback.  I'll add some notes to the construction manual and transom drawings about the steering v. fitting the narrow cut-out.  The dimensions provided in the plans are ABYC minimums, which means in some cases they may not work out (as you found).

As for linking the two motors together for steering, I have seen custom-fabricated hoops around the main with a rod attached that goes over to the kicker.  Not the prettiest, but still looks just fine.  Transom cut-out would need to take it into consideration as well.  Personally, I don't mind not having to steer against the weight of the main when steering the kicker, and I prefer the main to be out of the water when I'm using the kicker too, so not having them linked is not an issue with me ... but I do prefer having separate steering for it.  Brackets on kickers are harder to steer with a tiller handle and if doing it all day, it'll get old.  It's worth it to think through these things and to provide convenient steering.

Brian

[Dan Boccia]

Yep, the problem here is the Suzuki 250 bottom unit housing is very tapered, so there's no good place to strap to it, and no convenient bolts to use for a bracket, either. That said, I think the Panther T5 electro steer may be a sweet solution, so I'm moving forward with that and will report how it works.

[Brian.Dixon]

Yep, the problem here is the Suzuki 250 bottom unit housing is very tapered, so there's no good place to strap to it, and no convenient bolts to use for a bracket, either. That said, I think the Panther T5 electro steer may be a sweet solution, so I'm moving forward with that and will report how it works.

I've never seen or tried the Panther T5 - You'll have to let us know how you like it after giving it a whirl....

Brian

[Dan Boccia]

Got the heater fully installed today, along with some other bits and pieces. One glamour shot and one builder's special shot - spent a lot of time folded up inside that locker running ducts, exhaust, drilling huge holes in my boat and epoxying them, fiberglass exhaust wrap, etc. Many thanks to Scan Marine in Seattle, who I visited twice while shopping for heaters - they spent 1 1/2 hours with me when I purchased the unit, getting all the pieces assembled and recommending several things, including mounting it under the dinette, which I had not thought of and works brilliantly.

[Rbob]

Thanks for the update and photos.  I am also liking the Wallace heater, a friend of mine has one in his Thunder jet Offshore, it is amazing you can have the doors open and be warm..

You are doing an amazing job, cant wait to see when it is all done.

Brian,
I do not get notifications but I am subscribed, maybe something you could look into, in your spare time...

 

[Brian.Dixon]

Brian,
I do not get notifications but I am subscribed, maybe something you could look into, in your spare time...

Yeah ... the forums are a busted to some degree.  Tapatalk doesn't work either.  It got messed up when moving from one server to another an back again, trying to get it to work in a Windows Server environment instead of Linux (I failed).  At some point, I need to blow it all away and reinstall from scratch (note: "blowing it away" means the code infrastructure ... not the data/text/posts/pix etc ... the CONTENT will be preserved.  It's in a database separate from the code).

Brian

[Todd j]

I have used the panther T5 on my jet boat for trolling.  I used the wireless remote.   Very handy when moving about the boat.  Wireless is worth the extra $$.  As for the rest of it I think I would not use it again on another boat.  My problems were it did not allow the kicker to turn lock to lock.  Lots of room left to go the ram was too short to allow it.  It wasn’t any good in the wind at all.  Too slow to make turns.  It turned more one direction than the other.  The place I bought it couldn’t make it turn more equally side to side.   You need a threaded tilt tube to install.  Dunno about your kicker.  We were surprised how many did not have a threaded tilt tube.
   Anyway that’s my .02.   Maybe if you voice these concerns upfront you will have better lu k.  It’s super easy to install.