About three years ago, I picked up a 17-foot 1981 Sea Ox to poke around in the back bay flats and do some light tackle fishing. For what I picked up the boat for and the amount of time I used it, it was well worth it. Unfortunately, like many boats built over 40 years ago and fished hard, it had seen better days, and the deck was starting to become a springboard. One spot on the bow even became a ‘no-step zone’ as a foot might go through the deck, so I laid down some rug-covered ply, for safety and longevity.
While I probably could have parted ways with the boat, I always liked something about the way the boat rode and its fishability. Sometimes, you can’t replicate a good riding hull and those older lines. Besides, the actual hull of the boat was still in good shape. Additionally, it was the last boat I took my dad on before he passed, so that meant something in my mind as well.
Needless to say, I get these things in my head sometimes, and I just start doing them. So, one evening, while staring at this boat in my driveway, I started removing the console and motor and then proceeded to Sawzall the deck out. I’m sure most of you are familiar with the term “opening up a can of worms.” Well, this was more like opening a 5-gallon bucket of worms. The entire stringer and bulkhead structure of the boat was pretty much mush, and it was also heavily waterlogged with soggy foam. The good news was that I was pretty much able to kick a good portion of the structure out of the boat for the most part. Even with this being the case, I had much paint and fiberglass grinding and sanding ahead of me, which was probably the worst part. After covering up any exposed skin to prevent that dreaded fiberglass itch, I went to work, taking the boat down to a bare hull, which was an ‘on and off’ process that took a couple of weeks.
Once I was happy and had a smooth slate to work from, I started rebuilding the stringer system again. I ended up using a 3/4-inch marine ply for the stringers. With a little help from my uncle, we cut out the shape of the stringers to the contour of the boat hull so that the deck could rest on top flush. We actually modified the original stringer design and added some additional bulkheads for extra support and drainage.
Once all of the pieces were fitted, I epoxied the stringers to the hull with a thickened epoxy paste and screwed the bulkheads all together as well. The stringers were then encased in fiberglass mat and resin. The deck was cut out from 3/4-marine ply and fitted into place. Before laying it down, I put a coat of resin on the bottom side of the deck to protect it. Once again, I used thickened epoxy and stainless screws to attach the deck to the stringers. Thickened epoxy paste was used to fill and gaps or voids around the deck before the first layer of fiberglass went down.
After sanding and prepping the surfaces, I cut the mats of fiberglass to size, running up the walls of the boats a little and used the resin to attach them into place. A shout-out also goes to the team at Steiger Craft for giving me the rundown on how to use the resin for this part. In all, I ended up going with three layers of fiberglass for the deck, roughing each layer up between coats for better adhesion. The new deck was slightly above the old one, so the original scupper holes had to be filled and glassed over. I used a hole saw to drill larger scuppers and ended up using threaded PVC pipe material so that I could screw in a drain cap if needed. The larger scuppers for easier drainage of the boat, too. The console was also glassed into place and touched up as well.
For painting, I sanded down and went over the gunnel with three coats of marine topside, while the deck got four coats of Tuff Coat texture paint. This paint also helps cover up any small blemishes because, of course, I’m no professional.
For power, I did have a Yamaha 4-stroke 40 hp on the boat and it went okay with it but was certainly underpowered. In its place I swapped in a slightly older 2-stroke 90 hp that was extremely clean for its age and since the older 2 strokes are lighter, the 90 hp was not much heavier. Boat wiring and rigging was the last step before sea trials. As I thought, the boat performed better than it ever did and topped out in the low 40 mph range.
My takeaways from this project are that I would be grateful to those professionals who do this kind of work for a living because it’s detailed and labor-intensive! But on the other side of the coin, if you want to tackle a project like this, I say go for it. It can be a pain at times but it’s well worth it when you have something awesome to show for it at the end.
