Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

Greetings from the Great White North.

I just purchased (read: Stole) a boat from my buddy for $500.00
Rotten deck seems to be the only issue along with faded/rotten seats.
I'm estimating quite a bit of labour and about $1000.00 for material/seats to get this thing up and running.

I THINK it's a 1980's Bayliner Cobra Outboard (more on this in a bit)
came with a new trailer, 115hp Merc outboard (runs but needs a tune up)
8hp Merc Kicker
Fish finder,
downrigger
4 skis
3 ropes.
3 gas tanks
Etc etc.
I think I got a smoking deal.

Here's the catches.
I really don't know what the boat is...I'll post a picture of HIN and maybe someone can help me out.

I ripped out most of the rotten deck just to see what I'm up against.
Too my delight the stringers are near perfect condition..Check them very carefully as I was expecting to have to redo them.
Transon is solid...very happy about that as well.
Seat bases were dust....for sure replacing those
The deck rotted out due to the ski locker and that's it.
so...looks like a simple deck replacement/patch without the locker.
Some seats, some apolstery and I'm good to go by spring.
(famous last words)

Here are some pics.
Again, if someone could help with the ID that would be great
***EDIT***
HERE ARE SOME BETTER RES PICTURES ON MY FLICKR ACCOUNT
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougsanderscalgary/sets/72157622869463904/

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

Welcome! First off, get yourself a free account at photobucket.com and upload your pictures there. As you can see trying to upload pictures right to iboats is a pain and is so restrictive in size you aren't left with much. You can resize your full quality pictures on photobucket to the forum-favorite size of 640x480 with a single mouse click.

Looks like a worthwile project for sure. Good luck!

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

Welcome!

Glad to hear the that strings and transom are intact! should be a reasonable project you have there.

Resize the photos to 480x600, gives us better detail to comment on.

Tim

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

timfives said:

Welcome!

Glad to hear the that strings and transom are intact! should be a reasonable project you have there.

Resize the photos to 480x600, gives us better detail to comment on.

Tim

Click to expand...

I will do that...may use my flickr account for the pics..
and I'll have to get out my GOOD camera for some shots..these are taken with an iphone.

Anythoughts on what this boat is..

Has "Cobra" written on it...no hint of manufacture name tho.
HIN seems to be in a bizarre format.
My buddy doesn't know as it was his father's boat.

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

I do not THINK it's a Bayliner.

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

ezmobee said:

I do not THINK it's a Bayliner.

Click to expand...

YEah I really don't know...
Google not helping me...

I know for sure it's NOT the Legendary Canadian Scooner "Bluenose"

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

Well, doing a bit of detective work on the hull ID, it looks like you might have a "Sidewinder" boat... made by a company called "Cowichan Fiberglass" originally in Duncan, BC. The company went out of business/licensed its ski boat designs or had them copied (one was supposed to be a really good design called 'super sidewinder') out to a number of other companies, one of which was named "Cobra".

If this is the right ID for your boat, it looks like it was supposed to be a well made high performance product. Here's a link to the sidewinder boats board that discusses sidewinder clones, including Cobra:

http://sidewinder-boats.com/portal/windertalk/forumdisplay.php?f=82

The boats I see pics of there are mostly older dagger type high performance boats, but the manufacturer ID fits with yours, as well as the Cobra name, so it seems to fit. I don't see a pic of your bow anywhere to compare, or overall views.

Here's a background on the sidewinder company:

http://sidewinder-boats.com/portal/windertalk/showthread.php?t=325


Anyway, good luck finding out more. Post more pics of the boat, too

Erik

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

erikgreen said:

Well, doing a bit of detective work on the hull ID, it looks like you might have a "Sidewinder" boat... made by a company called "Cowichan Fiberglass" originally in Duncan, BC. The company went out of business/licensed its ski boat designs or had them copied (one was supposed to be a really good design called 'super sidewinder') out to a number of other companies, one of which was named "Cobra".

If this is the right ID for your boat, it looks like it was supposed to be a well made high performance product. Here's a link to the sidewinder boats board that discusses sidewinder clones, including Cobra:

http://sidewinder-boats.com/portal/windertalk/forumdisplay.php?f=82

The boats I see pics of there are mostly older dagger type high performance boats, but the manufacturer ID fits with yours, as well as the Cobra name, so it seems to fit. I don't see a pic of your bow anywhere to compare, or overall views.

Here's a background on the sidewinder company:

http://sidewinder-boats.com/portal/windertalk/showthread.php?t=325


Anyway, good luck finding out more. Post more pics of the boat, too

Erik

Click to expand...

WHOLLY...Awesome.
Thanks

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

Whoop, didn't see the thumbnail of the bow there.

Looking at your boat it seems like it might not be a sidewinder, or it may be, depending... I think Cowichan could have done custom work on the boat too, which would explain their stamp on it.

It also looks a lot like a rinker v170, with some little differences. Here's a link to a pic of one in a thread here:
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?p=2227486

Also note from the thread that that rinker has a "Cobra" drive, which could explain the name somewhat, although it doesn't make sense that yours has an outboard.

Hmmm... I'm not providing much clarity here, am I?

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

Hmm, no more info showing up here. Looks a lot like a late 1980s rinker outboard bowrider, especially the way the rails don't join at the bow.

I think I'll stop before I propose more potential IDs for it and leave you more confused than before

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

If it was bayliner and your deck was rotten your stringers and transom would be too... So i vote for something else
Welcome to the club!!! I just joined too!

P.S. I own a bayliner with a rotten deck/stringers/transom

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

Sigh...
I'll figure out what this boat is sooner or later.
anyway..
GREAT forum...lots of my questions answered just by using the search function

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

I'm thinking now it MIGHT be a cobia?
Pretty sure the decal says Cobra tho...
Sigh.
Anyway...going to go get some supplies and get back at er.

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

Well did some more work on the phantom boat and made a pretty dumb rookie mistake..
Was using a skill saw to cut out the wood and misjudged the depth.
Well actually didn't realize a taper in the wood.
Anyway ended up cutting through the hull on both sides for about 2 feet each cut.
INSTERT LAUGHTER HERE..

Good news...I confident I can fix it.
To do it I had to take out all the foam and while I was doing that I found another issue...
In a couple of spots along the stringer I found a couple of spots where the fiber was starting the fail. (yes the foam was a little wet)
Water had gotten into the foam about 5mm...not much...but enough that the fiber was starting to fail...SO...I'll repair that now as well.

Questions...
The wood in the stringers is still good...I drilled a few holes to check
should I reinforce the stringers reagardless with wood and fiber over?
I want to run at least one layer of fiber over them JUST to ensure they are sealed.
Any sense in doing that?
When I fix the idiot cuts I did...how many layers of fiber do you suggest?
is there some sort of filler I can use on the bottom side of boat that's water resistent and can be tinted to match the color (white or cream in this case)
Should I run Fiber on the underside. (keep in mind I'll fix the structure from the inside so I'll only have about 4 mm cut to fill.

I'm considering making the floor 1" instead of the original 3/4
reason is to mount a ski pylon and would like more to screw into.
Same with Possible pedestal seats.
Any issues with that?
For the floor I'll use thompsons on the bottom side and then of course fiber and mat on the top.
How many layers do you suggest for the floor?

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

Sigh...just typed out a whole post on the progress and lost it.

Oh well.
Ok rip out essentially done...
Grinding and Sanding like crazy...I'm learning to HATE carpet Glue.
DURBAK for sure...
If anyone knows where I can find that in Calgary, Alberta Canada...OR at least Canada...let me know.

Some pics...
Took a break from sanding to focus on my boo boo spots where I cut/ground through the hull..
I'm Thrilled with my first attempt at Glass..
Using POLY resin and 1.5oz mat.

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

pictures



Sorry for the bad Quality...you guys have seen this 1000 times.

Plan is to do another layer over the boo boos...and then glass over the stringers again
I'm going to add another stringer in the center for peace of mind a little more structure.
Ski locker is out.

Enjoying myself...taking time..
Sanding/grinding for a couple of hours here and there..

Did I mention I HATE carpet glue...what a pain in the buttox

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

****BUMPING FOR THE BOAT IDENTIFICATION****
I still am not sure what this thing is.

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

I think your erik was right.

http://www.boathistoryreport.com/pages/free-report.cfm

I just ran mine through this and it was dead on.

Re: Joining the Club, if you'll have me.

Cruising along.
Got one stringer glassed in...need more practice as I have some air pockets so I'll grind those out and do one more layer...
Word of note to new glassers...
don't be afraid to do your layup in small segments...hard to push bubbles out of bigger pieces.
All and all...great progress and will be looking at installing the deck this weekend if it warms up a little. (-10c here so getting a little chilly to maintain +15c in the shop)

Looking forward to getting the deck in and starting the creative part of the process.
Decided to NOT put a third stringer in (beam) and will use 7/8 decking.
Should be more then enough to install the seats.
Will not screw into the stringers again...everything will be either glass or PL 400 construction aheasive...don't want any opportunity to allow water into the wood at all.
Way ahead of target....for now