NICKYPOO's Ballast Thread

[duffymahoney]

How big of sacs are you going to be able to fit?

[jason@wakemakers.com]

Looking good! Are you just going to use an epoxy resin to treat that ply, or are you planning on glassing over it as well?

[NICKYPOO]

How big of sacs are you going to be able to fit?

I had FH make me some 24x24x28 customs. The space isn't quite that big but, total distance "traveled" by each surface will be very close to that. My best calculations are right at 475#. Not much compared to real surf machines such as your's but, for a D-Drive its pretty respectable. It will effectively double my previous capacity and its location should make it twice as effective. I'm hoping for some hot rubrail on water action. I don't have much freeboard so it ain't that hard to accomplish. Hopefully now it will just be a flip of a switch and 5min. That's my goal. Its almost hard to believe I've happily been surfing this boat for nearly 10 years on such a hokey set up. Thinking about how much fun I've had with it up to this point really motivates me to get this far superior set up done.

Looking good! Are you just going to use an epoxy resin to treat that ply, or are you planning on glassing over it as well?

Thanks man. I'm still not set on finish. I've been looking at every truck bed lining I can put my hand to but, they are all so coarse. I know the new sacs are tough but, rubbing on that stuff constantly can't be good. I really want something more rubberized. I might just go with some stuff my buddy brought over. Being that its a trunk, I don't need it to be bullet proof, I need it to be waterproof and friendly to the sacs. My loose plan right now is to get everything constructed and fit and then finished and then reassembled. Everything will be removable except the bulkheads. Those will be sealed off and locked in. I might go the resin route for those just to make sure they are on lockdown. The rest of the stuff I'm not too overly concerned about considering the pieces I took out were just 1/4" marine ply with zero treatment besides carpet. I happily boated around like that for 10 years so anything I do to them will be a huge improvement.

[jason@wakemakers.com]

I had a buddy that had his trailer sprayed with liner material from one of the major companies (Line-X, Speedliner, etc.) and they left out the texture beads, so it was just the rubber binder material. Gave it a pretty cool flat black finish that had some grip, but wasn't nearly as rough as a typically bed liner.

[NICKYPOO]

Hmm. Thanks for that little tip. I will definitely look into that. I might just take the boat and all the individual pieces down and have them sprayed. Sure would make my life easier.

[TeamAllen]

There are some materials I use for waterproofing walking decks and roofing that would work. They are all water based and use either fiberglass or polyester mat for reinforcement. Good stuff, but proabbly not easy to locate?
http://www.alldeck.com/
http://www.lifedeck.com/waterproof.html
http://www.garagecoatings.com/Waterproof-Deck-Coating
http://www.hydrostop.com/

[NICKYPOO]

Thanks TA. I have a good friend that owns a coating business, http://durastonenv.com/index.html, and he brought me some samples of some of that stuff so, not tough to find after all. I might still go that way.

[NICKYPOO]

I spent a lot of time on one stupid panel this weekend. I was completely frustrated Sat night. I spent all day trying to fit these three pieces together and finally had to walk away with them not at an acceptable state of completion. It was the first time this project made me sad. Boohoo. Went out Sunday morning, nailed em up, made a few adjustments and BAM!, it slid right in. I was much closer than I had thought. Anyways, this is the blower chase. I wanted it to be sealed off so fitting it to the inside of the hull was a B. It's going to need a little more love to get it perfect but, I'm happy with it. It's just sitting there unattached in the pics. It fits much tighter than it looks. The other side is nowhere near as critical as all it will house is the overflow for the fuel tank.

[lancehon]

Wow that's all looking amazing! That is quite the project

[IDBoating]

Compared to some things I've seen in boats over the years, this is like fine cabinetry. Love the photos, keep 'em coming!

[Finedesigns]

Maybe I missed it in an earlier post, but why are you wanting to put on a rubber type lining instead of carpeting your panels? Your work looks good by the way.

[NICKYPOO]

Good question. I wanted the entire area to be waterproof. Carpeted wood panels are not waterproof. All the carpeted wood panels I pulled out had some sort of rot and I live in the high desert where we see many days of single digit humidity. The only way to eliminate rot is to coat them in one of the modern day coatings. I might actually carpet the cabin side of the seat backs just because they will be direct contact with the rear seat but, beyond that, its gonna be carpet free. No vacuming, no setting up the fans to help dry it out, nothing. Just hose it out and park it.

[IDBoating]

All the carpeted wood panels I pulled out had some sort of rot and I live in the high desert where we see many days of single digit humidity.

I would think that low humidity would help reduce rot. I've always had greater problems with rot in higher humidity environments. I would have expected your low humidity to make rot less of an issue, but it sounds like you are taking proactive steps to control rot specifically because of your low humidity. What am I not understanding?

[NICKYPOO]

No, my point is that even with basically no humidity, wood panels with only carpet for protection are still going to rot.

[IDBoating]

No, my point is that even with basically no humidity, wood panels with only carpet for protection are still going to rot.

Completely agree. I thought you were implying that dryness makes rot worse.

For exactly the reason you mention, I try really hard to not use wood in marine applications. That's why I used Starboard when I did my ballast install - it's absolutely rotproof, workable like wood, dries fast when it gets wet, etc. It costs a bit but I will never ever have to think about it rotting or worry about it getting wet.