Boy did you ever! I have the lure collection bug... LOL. I probably have more than some sport shops! If I don't have the right color or size now... something is WRONG!
Just got another couple hundred blanks in the mail today... muhahaha. I'll be taping lures in my sleep pretty soon.
So, John, how's the weather and whatcha catchin'???
I broke down and spent the money on new decals for the Grady. The stupid Grady White stickers go for $40 each and the Triple pinstripe goes for 1.40/Ft. Everything was on sale so i got it all for $112 so i can't complain too much i guess.
I think it looks a lot better and i should have done it sooner.
SO, you getting ready for some ocean fishing? I see what looks like your cutting board mounted to the transom. Did you put new holders back there for it to fit into?
Don't forget to "duck" when you pull the ol' girl outta the barn! Hate to see you lose that radar. Haha
The wheels are off so it will sink low and fit inside and the radar is unbolted so it will fit out the door and i had to cut a 7 foot wide by 1 foot tall "Notch" out of the wall above the door to fit her in. Quite a lot of fun in and out i have to let the air out of the other 2 tires to get it out.
The cutting board is there so it was out of my way in the cabin. Ran some new wires and stuff so i moved it. It's just sittin'
All the big rod holders have been modified. Remember how i had them shimmed with washers to keep them vertical? Well i took them all out and cut the flanges off then re welded the rod holders back together at the proper angles so the flanges were flush and the tubes were at 0 degrees. the flanges are at 3-7 degrees to fit the angled gunwales and the tubes sit vertical. I also added reinforcement blocks inside the gunwales to steady the rod holders so when we hook into some tuna they don't rip off the boat.
I moved the oil tank and built new hatch panels for the livewell and battery compartments. I put a new Captains seat in with 2 foot rests and put another nice seat behing the captains seat on top of the lifejacket hold. I siliconed around all the guages and switches on the dash.
I took everything off the transom and fixed some cracking that was due to some crappy bondo filler. I re painted the whole boat from the rub-rails down. i changed the bottom paint from puek green to blue.
I re-gelcoated the whole cockpit and put a new thicker non-skid sand in the floor.
I raised the Kicher bracket up 2.5 inches so when it is up it is all the way out of the water and doesn't skim while cruising.
A bunch of other little stuff that wasn't perfect from last year, i had never basically built a boat before this, learning curve.
I moved the high speed water pick up from the center to the side. So the water flow doesn't disturb the new transducer.
Only thing left to do is mount the 16 pound solid brass $1000 transducer thru the bottom of the hull(supposedly gives 200 times better performance than the plastic crap we all monut on the transom) i have a serious problem mentally justifying a $2500 fishfinder screen connected to a $99 piece of plastic crap transducer. You can get just as good performance out of a $300 fishfinder they use the same little transducer. The builders at Conch Yachts are going to do this for me.
Ahhhhh.... a foot rest AND a new seat. Heaven to my ears. Hahaha. Can't wait to try it out.
She's gonna look pretty streamlined with all the new paint, decals and re-welded rod holders. Not that the rodholders looked bad last year, but I'm sure being flush to the gunwale they're gonna look sweet.
While they're installing the new 'ducer are they gonna mount a bottom-view window?
Speaking of the bottom... did you paint over the naked fish you had on the bottom of the boat? Haha
So... last question... when ARE we breaking her in on tuna??? I'm pretty sure you can count me and Travis in if you need a "crew". Hint hint wink wink.
YOAdrien....can I ask where you bought the Grady decals? I own a 12yr Grady Tournament 19 that could use a new set of decals and stripes.....Your boat looks great!!