Re: Rub rail ends?
The closest I can come to their measurement in length is to measure from the tip of the bow, not counting the rub rail, and to bottom corner of the transom wall inside. This gives me 16' 9-1/8" I did this by standing two poles up next to the boat and leveling and squaring them up with the hull. The weight is pretty simple, it's just plain heavy. It sits pretty evenly on the roller trailer, the forward rollers actually contact the hull much further forward than the bunks on the old trailer did. The trailer it was on was a combination of roller bunks and wood bunks with a series of quad roller assemblies down the keel.
What surprised me was that it still felt so heavy after pulling out all the wet foam. I pulled out about 10 trash barrels of wet polystyrene that weighed roughly 40 lbs per cubic foot of foam. ( intentionally measured and weighed out one block of foam that measured 6" thick, 6" wide and 24" long weighed in at 45 lbs 3 oz. The center three sections of the boat was stacked full with these chunks of foam. Most were in varied lengths and the outer sections were tapered to fit the space between the hull and deck. The result was a boat that weighed more than my small truck would easily pull. I started stripping the floor out with a rake, the rear wood was so rotted most of it came out using a bent pitch fork. The foam was another story, I was breaking it up and tossing it into another trash drum, the result was a drum that was unmovable when it was full. I ended up bagging the foam and mixing it with regular trash a little at a time over the course of a few months to get rid of it. It was just too heavy to toss out all at once. I did lighten some of it by running it over with my tractor and trying to squeeze out the water. it also allowed it to take up less room. I figured I took out over 1500 pounds of wet foam in all, I was shocked when I added it all up. I knew it was heavy but would have never guessed it to be three quarters of a ton of water weight. The forward deck was in good shape with only a few soft corners so it will be used for templates if the deck does indeed end up being the exact same height after adding the aluminum cross members.
I feel that with the aluminum cross members the deck could be replaced much easier next time. I'd also like to figure out a better control set up than the jury rigged side console it's got. It would be nice to keep an completely open deck which could be pulled up without removing a console or any cables or wiring. I'm also not a fan of having all the cables burried under the deck in the bilge area. I think a stick steer is the right answer for this and then a couple of removable pedestal seats. The fold down jump seat and side console in the newer brochure would put me off to one side and thus unbalance the boat if running alone.
Besides, with the larger 70 hp Johnson motor and me being seated at the bow at the controls I think it would balance out better. I could also then built the rear deck with a compartment for a semi permanent fuel tank just aft of mid ship.
I'll make my final layout decision once I get all the aluminum cross members in place and see where the new deck will fall. I think that I could also fit a fuel tank up in the forward floor area but I'm not sure I'd want the 15 gallons of fuel and weight with me up in the bow. If I did a center console then I'd consider doing that, or maybe putting the tank under the console up front, and the drivers seating position just behind the step in the floor. The only issue I see with that is that the steering and control cables would have to pass through the aluminum bulkhead panel which separates the two levels of the deck.
I'll most likely add sheet foam for flotation, but am also looking at maybe some sort of trapped air idea, along the lines of soda bottles or sealed PVC tubes. I do know that what ever goes back in it needs to be water proof and not as likely to water log as the original foam did.
The theory of them weighing these boats prior to the deck being installed is a possibility but mine right now is a bare hull, no deck, no foam, no motor, no fuel tank, only the 20" x15" wide 1 1/2" plywood panel in the transom. The rest is all aluminum hull and structure.
From a fabricators view I look at the hull this way, it's roughly comprised of about 7 sheets worth of aluminum if we were using 5x12' aluminum sheets, if the aluminum at hand was .125" thick that would make each sheet 108lbs, then there's the rub rails, splash rails, 5 structural aluminum stringers, deck brackets, and mid ship bulkhead panel, plus all the 3/16" x 18" or so support brackets that stiffen the gunwales on the inside, and several aluminum supports under the bow section. I can see where this hull can be near 1,000 lbs. I don't get the 575 lb weight they give unless that was for the Penn Yan version?
I'd venture to guess that each stringer if removed would weigh in at nearly 40+ lbs each full length. They are much thicker than the hull material or the upper sections. Then you have to take into account the four strakes, the extra heavy duty breast plate on the bow, and the keel strip that caps the keel seam on the outside as well. These parts all add weight, an although they don't weight much individually they add up fast. I'd guess the actual weight at somewhere in the 950 to 1,000 lbs minus the deck wood, motor, and any liquids.
Maybe once the snow is gone and I get back to work on it I'll haul it over to the CAT scales and get a weight on it. I know the trailer weighs in at 710 lbs according to the ID tag.
(GVWR - capacity= actuall trailer weight). The trailer's GVWR is 3110 lbs and the capacity is listed at 2400 lbs. That gives me the weight of the trailer.
What are the chances of finding an end cap for my splash rail?