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I have been working on this OB15 for about 6 months now and am just finishing her up. This is another OB15 in the style of a flats skiff. The bottom is painted with the epoxy and graphite mix outlined in this forum (about 40% by volume). This extends to just above the chin and from the chine to the sheer it is painted using Sterling's Ice Blue. The decks and cockpit are painted using System Three Orcas White and the non-skid in the cockpit will be done using the non skid additive sold here mixed with System Three paint. Kiwigrip in light blue will be used for the upper decks.

Currently, I am working on finishing paint, non skid and rigging but I do not have any recent pictures that reflect this yet (I don't like to take pictures with it all taped up for painting). Here are some of the pictures of the build and if you want to follow the link at the bottom, you will find more pictures of the build.


Here she is on the molds just after I taped in all of the seams.



Applying primer to the bottom in preparation for the epoxy/graphite application



My three year old boy decides he needs to leave his mark on the boat too



He decided that one hand print was not enough


Got her flipped and in the cradle. The bottom looks pretty good and is finished at this point.


Had to find enough weight to hold the stringers flat against the hull while they dried


Glassing the vertical stringers in as I raised the sole to the level of the inside chine


I should have taken more pictures of applying the sole and pouring the foam under. This is the finished product.


This is a good shot at the shear curve of the bow. I trimmed it down due to my plan to apply decks level with the shear.


I missed a lot of photo ops before this stage also. At this point, all of the decks are installed and glassed


Here is a good shot of her in the light. I washing with soap and water preparing to apply primer


The outside is now painted with Sterling Ice Blue. That stuff is awesome

Now only the sides of the cockpit lack paint and I have the rubrail, hawse pipes, rod holders and hatches installed. I will get more pictures and post them another day. Enjoy the boat porn and here is the link to more pictures I promised.

http://picasaweb.google.com/atxsyndicat ... directlink

I built her to take a tiller motor as I think a full size console just gets in the way. I have included a very small box to put the electronics in and to connect a grab bar like Shine did on his FS17. Also, if any of you are in Texas, I am looking for a good 1995 - 2005 40 hp two stroke motor for my OB15. In texas, it is pretty hard to find good tiller model engines of this size. If I have to I will purchase a tiller kit and add it to the right motor. Please let me know if you have any tips on where I could find one. I don't really want to spend the 6000 on the new etec 30 or 5500 on a new yamaha 4stroke 40.

-Adam

I love the idea of the 40hp 2-stroke tiller drive. A LOT fewer potential mechanical problems.

Really nice looking boat. Love the gunnel rod racks, the finger hold under the rub rail, the ice blue color, etc... ALL the details look great.

I haven't been back to Texas since my "higher education" days. Do all my fishing on the SC coast, now.

G'day Adam,

I had a look at your album, mate that looks very nice........was this your first time building a boat or not.

A few questions, I hope you don't mind, no doubt if I don't ask, somebody else will

With your sheer line, did you lower it or is that standard, if it is lowered how much did you take off.

I like the look of the deck extended outside the line of the rub rails, did you do this for that little bit extra deck, for looks or to stop spray coming up and over.

The deck layout looks good are you going with a portable fuel tanks in the open rear compartments or something else.

The box you have built into the rear of the sole, is that the box your refer to for your electronics and grab rail.

Your paint on the sides looks awesome, it looks like a mirror finish from that photo, did you roll and tip.

Mate great job, keep the porn coming....

Mick

Cracka,

was this your first time building a boat or not.

This is my second stitch and glue boat. The first one I built was designed by another designer though. It was well designed and heavily built, but not very sleek and refined so I decided to build another one.

With your sheer line, did you lower it or is that standard, if it is lowered how much did you take off.

The sheer line was not lowered except for at the bow. I had to trim it preparation for the decks. It needed to have less of a flair and I ended up taking about 1.5 inches off at the highest point ( this was tapered in as it went aft). The trim location was from the bow back to about half way between the first and second bulkheads.

I like the look of the deck extended outside the line of the rub rails, did you do this for that little bit extra deck, for looks or to stop spray coming up and over.

This was done for two of the reasons you mentioned. She should be a very dry boat with enough room on the gunnel decks to walk all the way around. The looks were just a bonus I had not considered.

The deck layout looks good are you going with a portable fuel tanks in the open rear compartments or something else.

I like to have access to the fuel tanks, so one 12 gallon portable is going in the large hatch up front. That is the reason the hatch is so large as I want to be able to remove the 12 gallon tank if needed. The rear compartments have raubud waterproff hatches on them and the compartment in the center of the seat is for my bait well.

The box you have built into the rear of the sole, is that the box your refer to for your electronics and grab rail.

Actually, that box is present mainly to hold my batteries. This serves two purposes. First, this adds weight down low in the boat and acts as a ballast to offset my raising the sole. That is why this box sits between the two vertical stringers as close to the keep as possible. The second reason is to better distribute the weight. Hinged to the top of this "battery box" will be a small console that extends to a little more than the height of the sheer. This will house the electronics and a few drink holders. Mounted to the aft side of this small console will be the grab bar. This will make more sense when I add more recent pictures

Your paint on the sides looks awesome, it looks like a mirror finish from that photo, did you roll and tip.

Yep, roll and tip Sterling. That is some awesome paint. Not near as sensitive as the System Three (being water based, humidity needs to be really high for this one to work right)


I will try to get a few more recent pics since I plan to paint the sides of the cockpit today.

sitandfish wrote:I love the idea of the 40hp 2-stroke tiller drive. A LOT fewer potential mechanical problems.

Really nice looking boat. Love the gunnel rod racks, the finger hold under the rub rail, the ice blue color, etc... ALL the details look great.

I haven't been back to Texas since my "higher education" days. Do all my fishing on the SC coast, now.

sitandfish,

Thx for the good words. I spent a lot of time pondering on this build. I could have been finished two months ago if not for so much pondering.

Hey Adam,
There are a couple of builders right here in your area (and one soon to be, me ), look for Dougsters thread on Texas LB22, also ericsil and Davidtx. If we can give you a hand, don't be afraid to ask.
John

Looks nice. How did you deal with the transition from epoxy/graphite to paint? Isn't the epoxy thicker then the paint, and thus standing proud?

Adam, welcome to the forum. I checked out your pics and you got it goin' on. Kyle is in my neck of the woods (Blanco). Re the pondering thing, two months ain't no time, I'm three years on mine. Heck ponderin' is half the fun. Well, it's some of it. Stay tuned, it's great to hear from a local forum guy.

Glad not to be hisself Dougster

JohnC wrote:Hey Adam,
There are a couple of builders right here in your area (and one soon to be, me ), look for Dougsters thread on Texas LB22, also ericsil and Davidtx. If we can give you a hand, don't be afraid to ask.
John

Thank you for the offer JohnC. I have maybe a weeks worth of rigging and the only items left will be the trailer and motor. Had to wait till last on the trailer as once I put it on the trailer, she won't fit in my garage any more. First launch will be at Canyon lake after I get the motor and trailer sorted.

Steven wrote:Looks nice. How did you deal with the transition from epoxy/graphite to paint? Isn't the epoxy thicker then the paint, and thus standing proud?

I did not deal with this transition well at all, but I will just have to go with what I have for now. The graphite/epoxy stopped at the shine. I stopped the side paint, Sterling, about .25 inches above the chine. I then taped about .25 inches above the lower edge of the sterling all the way around the boat. I then sanded and extended the graphite up to the tape. I use some frog tape to tape the line, but wish I have just used the 3M fineline. The green frog did not seal well even though I used a spoon to seal the edges, so I ended up with not having a very sharp line. The epoxy does stand proud a little and, to the best of my knowlege, I can't do much about it without using a clear coat to hide the transition. I also have this problem where the sterling and system three meet on the transom.

As promised, here are some pictures from this weekend.

From the back. You can see the graphite/paint transition problems really well here.

Paint is finished. Rubrail is on as well as some of the rigging. The spots where primer is showing will get kiwigrip. The middle of the large hatch will also get kiwigrip (after I figure our how I am going to latch that one).

Here are the kiwigrip area's all taped up. You can really see where I am going to put it in this photo.

Also, the gunnel decks and the rear casting decks will get some kiwigrip.

I have added even more pictures to my album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/atxsyndicat ... directlink

That's a beauty

G'day Adam,

I checked your album, the boat is looking awesome mate. I really like the light blue kiwigrip, its sets the boat off nicely. No doubt it will be kinder on the eyes in the bright sun as well.

The console looks good in its home, are the plates in front of it for cooler tie downs (hows that, I'm even talking like you blokes now, we call coolers eskies down here).

Next time your at the boat, and if you remember (you probably know off the top of your head anyhow) what is the length and width of your cockpit, bulkhead to bulkhead, gunwhale to gunwhale (inside) .

Looking forward to seeing it float and see how she performs.

I just noticed the drains in the rear bulkhead, do these run to a sump with a bilge pump do they.

Mick

Cracka wrote:G'day Adam,

I checked your album, the boat is looking awesome mate. I really like the light blue kiwigrip, its sets the boat off nicely. No doubt it will be kinder on the eyes in the bright sun as well.

The console looks good in its home, are the plates in front of it for cooler tie downs (hows that, I'm even talking like you blokes now, we call coolers eskies down here).

Yep, that is exactly what the plates are for. The cooler holder brackets will be mounted there to hold the 94qt cooler that also doubles as extra seating up front. The console will be hinged using detachable hinges to the battery box so that I have good access to the wiring and batteries under it. also, an aluminum grab bar will be mounted to the console.

Cracka wrote:Next time your at the boat, and if you remember (you probably know off the top of your head anyhow) what is the length and width of your cockpit, bulkhead to bulkhead, gunwhale to gunwhale (inside) .

The cockpit length is 7.5 feet, but I do not know the total width and this also varies according to point. I will get the width measurements for you this evening at three separate locations, aft, center and forward, inside to inside.

Cracka wrote:I just noticed the drains in the rear bulkhead, do these run to a sump with a bilge pump do they.

These drains run to the compartments behind them and then to the bilge which will have two pumps installed. One automatic with float control and one manual (in case I really take a lot of water). Originally, I was going to run these drains out the the transom using thu-hull -> hose -> ball valve -> hose -> thu-hull, but after pondering on it for a while and reading postings on this forum, it was decided that there was no way I could make this deck self bailing as the boat is just really too small.

For those that are interested, here are some pictures of the kiwigrip I put on last night.


The blue kiwigrip matches the Sterling Ice Blue really well.

Not perfect, but not bad either.

Yep, the Kiwigrip applied to the rear seat is not quite identical on both sides. Too late now to do anything about it though.

Man, that thing looks good.

Very nice ...love the layout

Just keeps getting better. Really like the toe space under the console and the battery hatch. The blue on white is great.

Beautiful work and great layout. Very cool.

Love the colors really well layed out and nice work.

Tom

Cracka,

This width measurements of the cockpit are as follows. All measurements are in inches.

inside outside
aft 52 69
middle 52 1/2 69 1/4
forward 46 1/2 64

The console is only 18 inches, so plenty of room to walk around. This is also the reason the cooler will be placed lengthwise.

Thanks for getting those measurements Adam. Its a nice size cockpit for when she's a bit too rough to be fishing off the decks! Good length for rod storage, plus longer than 7.5 feet can go back under rear deck to bulkhead, niiiice!!

I had 90% made up my mind to do a FS17 low sheer, but then you came along with this build and layout which is vey nice, and that 2 feet shorter between the two would be easier with storage, man, decisions decisions I'll wait and see what she's like when you get her in the water in regards to draft and performance. I'd love to be able to see and ride in them both, but that aint gonna happen, unfortunately.......hence all my questions as I want to make the right choice, first time.

Have you used much extra ply over the BOM.

Thanks mate, keep those piccies comin when you get them.

On a different subject, I saw the front of the Frontier in your driveway, I have one as well, they are called Navara's down here, I have a white, 2.5 turbo diesel dual cab, its a pretty good rig.

Mick

Hey! very nice work there Wadeg...I like it mate betcha can't wait to get her wet!

Cracka wrote:I had 90% made up my mind to do a FS17 low sheer, but then you came along with this build and layout which is vey nice, and that 2 feet shorter between the two would be easier with storage, man, decisions decisions I'll wait and see what she's like when you get her in the water in regards to draft and performance. I'd love to be able to see and ride in them both, but that aint gonna happen, unfortunately.......hence all my questions as I want to make the right choice, first time.

The FS17 would not use that much more wood then the OB15 if done in a flats style, so don't let the extra materials affect your decision on which design to build. I also plan to build the FS17 but have to find a way to justify it first. I currently have a garvey style boat with a bow transom that is used for light offshore. This one has high sides and makes you feel very safe. Soon (once I launch this OB15), I will also have a good flats boat. This makes it hard to justify building another one. I had the BBV so bad after building the first one that I only made it a year before starting this one. No matter which you decide to build, you will love it though. I am pretty anxious to get the OB15 launched and feel that I am only weeks away (depends if I can get a motor in time)

Cracka wrote:Have you used much extra ply over the BOM.

The extra ply is the minimal item to consider. I believe I used 4 sheets of the 6mm and 9 sheets of 9mm. You also have to consider the exta epoxy, fiberglass and paint when you put the top decks on. When I was reviewing my receipts this week, I realized that I had used more than 13 gallons of epoxy. Along with the epoxy, a lot more glass was used since I glassed both sides of every bulkhead, the inside sides of the hull and all of the decks. All of these extra items are not in the BOM.

Cracka wrote:On a different subject, I saw the front of the Frontier in your driveway, I have one as well, they are called Navara's down here, I have a white, 2.5 turbo diesel dual cab, its a pretty good rig.
Mick

Yeah, I am very pleased with this truck, but it would be a better rig with that diesel in it. Damn tree huggers are shooting themselves in the foot with the regulations on consumer diesels here though. They don't realize that the clean diesels pollute less then the gas engines when the 30% less fuel burned in figured in. Not to mention the less refining needed. I am actually thinking about giving this one to the wife and getting one of the new Mahindra's when they go on sale here in the US in Feb of next year. The first small diesel truck available in the US in 20+ years. Sorry, I am rambling now.

Thanks all for the good words and compliments. I will get more pictures up when I get time to work on her again. This fall T-Ball stuff is really a time sink right now though.

G'day Adam,

Thanks very much for your detailed reply mate, I appreciate your thoughts and efforts to enlighten me. I definately wont be doing anything untill I see how yours does go once in the water. The waiting also has the benefit in that the Aussie dollar is now up to around 92 cents U.S, better than it has been over the past year or so.

I can't believe you guys only get BIG diesels over there, the 2.5 is pretty good for its size, 128 killowatts and 408 newton metres of torque. All that and uses about 11 litres per 100 kilometres around town and 9.5/10 litres on the highway.

Mick

Got a little more work done on the boat. Now all of the painting is done. The rest of the Kiwigrip is on the top decks and the non-skid added to System Three is on the sole. I am glad the paint is finally finished. Now just rigging and wiring. I also pulled the trigger and solved the motor and trailer problems today. I purchased a new 2010 model 40hp Tohatsu TLDI tiller motor. I also ordered a custom built galvanized trailer. The trailer will be done in about 3 weeks which gives me plenty of time to get the rigging finished. Here are some pictures of her current state.

This is a picture of the finished product from the back with the console sitting in it's place.

Here is a closer image of the nonskid applied to the tops of the hatches.

In this one, you can see the cockpit too, but the nonskid is not visible. I could not get any pictures that actually showed the texture of the nonskid.

Mate, that looks great, what a nice job. Congrats on the new motor and trailer, woohoo she will look smart wearing all those nice new bits.

Tell me, the hatch in the splash well, why is it offset to the port side, no doubt there is a reason, just wondering.

Mick.

Cracka wrote:Tell me, the hatch in the splash well, why is it offset to the port side, no doubt there is a reason, just wondering.

Mick.

The motor well access hatch is offset to account for the rigging boot that will be mounted just to the starboard side of the hatch. The power/fuel lines for the motor will routed through there.

Hey Adam,
Looks like you'll be ready to splash very shortly! There are several ramps still open on the north side of Canyon Lake, just 2 here on the south side. The lake is still 14' below its normal level. I really like your color scheme/finish, looks better than most production boats.
John

JohnC wrote:Hey Adam,
Looks like you'll be ready to splash very shortly! There are several ramps still open on the north side of Canyon Lake, just 2 here on the south side. The lake is still 14' below its normal level. I really like your color scheme/finish, looks better than most production boats.
John

At this point, I think I will have the boat done before the trailer is ready. It is being custom built and has a 3 week lead time. Thanks for the heads up regarding the ramps. Canyon is still in a lot better shape then Travis though if that many ramps are still open.
I will leave the ramp selection up to the guy installing my new motor though as we will water test it together which will also be the first splash for this girl.
Thx for the good words.

Man I really missed this one.

Great looking boat Adam.

Daniel

Nice boat! Another OB15 soon to be on the water. If you are looking for decent prices on a 40 horse, try the outboards section of iboats.com. They seem to have some decent prices there at times.

I've got a big 'ol honkin yamaha 60 2 stroke on my Ob15 now (a little overkill, but it always pops right up on plane even when I'm loaded to the gills), and the transom floats its 225lb weight just fine.

Look forward to seeing your OB on the water. Maybe we can get a group of Texas builders together and do some fishing sometime.

AdamG wrote:Nice boat! Another OB15 soon to be on the water. If you are looking for decent prices on a 40 horse, try the outboards section of iboats.com. They seem to have some decent prices there at times.

I've got a big 'ol honkin yamaha 60 2 stroke on my Ob15 now (a little overkill, but it always pops right up on plane even when I'm loaded to the gills), and the transom floats its 225lb weight just fine.

Look forward to seeing your OB on the water. Maybe we can get a group of Texas builders together and do some fishing sometime.

Thx Adam. She is almost done. I am working on rigging right now and once my trailer is done, I will get the game warden to inspect it. Thanks for the tip on iboats, but I found a local guy that sell's Tohatsu motors. He beat the best online price I found and includes the install in the price. I bought a new 2010 model 40 hp TLDI Tohatsu tiller motor (206 lbs) and the guy also gave me a decent price on a custom built galvanized trailer. He already got the motor, so now it looks like I will just be waiting on the trailer. Since it is a custom built, there is a lead time, but I should receive it in one to two weeks.

I agree that we should get a group of Texas builders together and do some fishing (I really don't need much convincing if coastal fishing is involved). Right now I just hope I can get my OB15 in the water in time to catch the flounder run. Once I get the rigging done, I will post some more pictures of the finished boat.

The one piece of rigging I am debating about putting on right now is my CMC setback plate. I am not sure if I should mount this before taking my OB15 to get the motor mounted or not. The man I bought my motor from loaned me a transom drilling template to drill the mounting holes ( these are over drilled to one inch, filled and re-drilled), so I am pretty sure they are accurate. I just don't know about which hole to use no the setback plate. There are three at the top and a slider like on most motors. This two piece setback plate is adjustable, but you have to loosen two very large bolts on each piece, adjust the height, and then tighten the bolts to 100 ft/lbs. I am probably over thinking this, but I don't know if I want to torque something down to that amount while it is mounted on my transom. I am pretty sure the transom would be OK, but am just not so comfortable doing that while it is mounted. I am going to use one some 1/4" aluminum as stiffening backers for all of the transom motor mount holes also.

Your's and FlyOnWall's OB15 influenced my decision on which hull to build a great deal. The deal was sealed when Shine posted the pictures of the flats style OB15 that was launched outside of Miami. I would like to thank all of the builders that posted their entire build. I followed a few of them closely (Cracker Larry's OD18, Shine's FS17, Cape Man's OD18, Plumber Tucks...I can't name them all, so please excuse me if I don't mention you) for quite a while before starting this OB15.

I would'nt worry about torqueing the bolts to 100 ft lb youre engine weight is 206 lb
100 lb of torque is really not that bad on the transom.

If you consider the forces your transom will be under when smashing through wakes or big chop at 30mph, there's not much to worry about with cranking down on a couple of bolts.

AdamG wrote:If you consider the forces your transom will be under when smashing through wakes or big chop at 30mph, there's not much to worry about with cranking down on a couple of bolts.

I am sure you and topwater are right. I guess what I need to decide now is which mounting hole to use. This two piece setup back plate has three upper holes and a slot on the transom side. Once again, it probably does not matter because it is adjustable, but I am curious if any of you have any experience with these things. Here is a link to the one I have.

http://cook-mfg.net/cart/index.php?main ... ucts_id=11

Well, the wiring and rigging is almost finished. I got the set back plate mounted today, now I am only lacking running the fuel line and mounting the grab bar (still waiting for this to get finished). Here are some pictures of my OB15 in her current state.

You can also see the 2x3x1/4 stainless backing plates I used for the upper bolts.

Here, you can see the 2x13x1/2 aluminum that I used as a backing plate for the bottom bolts. I should have cleaned up the bilge more, but no one will see it anyway. You can also see my two bilge pumps. One is directly wired and controlled by a float. The other is switched.

In the motor well, you can see the rigging boot. The wires coming out of it are for my anchor light which I plan to mount on top of the motor (then moved to the poling platform if I ever get one).

You can get an idea of the cockpit layout from this picture

Gotta love the shark eye lights!!

Bloody beautiful...........

Yep those shark eyes look very sleek and the rubrail looks good with the insert in place, very clean.

Where you extended the deck past the sides of the boat, from the rear view you can see a gap between the boats side and the back edge of the rub rail, is it like that all around, or are there blocks between the 2 for strength?

Mick

Cracka,

The gap is present all of the way around. Before putting the upper decks on, I installed a 3/4" "rub rail" around the sheer. I then epoxy glued the upper decks on. After trimming the edges of the gunwales, I installed another 3/4" rail along the outer edge of the gunwales and layered fiberglass over the edge of the decks and down the face of it for added strength. This serves as both a mounting surface for the flexible rubrail and reinforcement for the overhang of the upper decks.

I am a little concerned with only using 3/4" for this outer rail, but needed the flexibility. Anything thicker would not bend well enough to make the curves. If it does give me problems, there are no mechanical fasteners in it, so I can take it off easily using a powered hand planer and install something else.

I debated for a while about bringing the flexible rubrail around the corners and onto the transom, but decided against it as I would need to install a 3/8" strip along the top of the transom due to the lower lip of the flexible rub rail. I already had paint on the boat at this point, so that would have to wait till a repaint.

Adam

Jeez, those pics are down right intimidating! The paint, decks, kiwi, everything, it just looks great. Better than that, you can just see it on the flats with tailing reds all 'round. I can't say I get even close. 'Course my Nina never hears a disparaging word from me

Home on the range Dougster

Hey Adam,
Is your trailer ready yet?
John

boat looks great. Interesting rubrail and I like the console too. Very similar set up to my FS17

JohnC,

The custom built trailer is not ready yet. Some problem with the galvanizer having to clean the galvanizing pits, so it is taking more time the originally quoted. The person I am buying the trailer from has loaned me one so that I can get the boat inspected and legal while waiting for my trailer to get finished.

Shine,

Thx for the comments. I am a bit worried about the rubrail, but it should be ok as long as I don't crash into anything too hard. You FS17 build did influence the design.

wadeg wrote: I am a bit worried about the rubrail, but it should be ok as long as I don't crash into anything too hard.

Yeah, I think the lip will break relatively easy. You could glue up a small block every 10" or so between the lip and the hull. That would stiffen it up quite a bit and it would not show

Yep, that is the plan and can will be added soon. The glass over the edge of the deck and down the face of the rub rail helps also. Before mounting the flexible rub rail to this, I hit it pretty hard with a rubber mallet all of the way around to make sure it was solid, but better to be safe then sorry, so the stiffening pieces will be added. Thx for the input Shine.

Maaaate, whats going on!!!!! your'e holding out on us........

I checked your photo album and saw that you have finished and launched the boat.......no report yet

No mate, in all seriousness, it looks fantastic, she looks like she rides nice and high in the water.

Cracking job mate, congratulations. Give us some feedback on the performance when you get a chance.

Mick

I was waiting till I got my grab bar and all of the electronics mounted before posting the latest results. I did launch her briefly, but this was just a quick water test. I can't get performance numbers before I put a little time on the motor (about 30 minutes run time, so I can't run full throttle yet). My being out of town for the holidays, I won't be able to put the grab bar on and post the performance numbers before the weekend of Dec 7th or so. I will post then. I am just as anxious as you are to see how she does.

Adam

Adam,

I knew there would be a good reason hehehehehe. I could see a hump under the cover, I thought that may have been the grab bar.

Mate, like I said looks great, like you I ca't wait to see how she goes for you.

Good luck.

Mick

Well, no new pictures (forgot the camera), but I do have some initial performance numbers and I got her dirty this weekend. The weekend weather was not very good, but I had to get the boat in the water anyway.

I currently have a 10.5x13 stainless cupped prop and get a top speed of 28mph fully loaded with two 200lb guys, full gas, 8 to 10 gallons of water in the bait well plus 50 to 60 lbs of gear. I don't know what my RPM's are as this is a tiller motor. To solve the RPM issue, I have purchased one of these, http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/ ... 744_524744. Anyone have any experience with them? Pretty simple device as it just uses induction to measure the number of times the spark plug fired.

I am surprised at how slow I can cruise and still fell like she is fully on plane. It is comfortable cruising as low as 16mph, but I like to keep it around 20. I also believe the motor is mounted about 1" to 1.5" too low judging from how much of the motor leg is still in the water while on plane (anti cavitation plate and the plate above it are both submerged). I will lift the motor 1 inch and take her out again this weekend if the weather permits. If my camera decides to work right, I will get some new pictures too.

-WadeG

G'day Adam,

I'm glad you have had the boat out and dirty, how is it going, are you happy with it. Do you have any updated piccies/etc.

I don't mean to hijack, so I hope you don't mind me asking this, a 15' Key West centre console has come up down here on Ebay http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Key-West-center- ... 2304d94389. The boat was imported by a bloke in Sydney who is a yacht importer.

Being an American import I know nothing about them and have not been able to find any reviews as such on the net. I found their website but it doesn't tell much. I posted the question on another forum I frequent but I havn't had many replies. Do you know any thing about these boats at all, good or bad, handling etc, it appears to be very similar to the OB15 and if I got it at the right price it could be a viable option for me.

If you don't mind me asking, how much has your hull cost completed, not including trailer and motor.

Thanks for any info you can give me.

Mick.

Cracka wrote:G'day Adam,

I'm glad you have had the boat out and dirty, how is it going, are you happy with it. Do you have any updated piccies/etc.

I don't mean to hijack, so I hope you don't mind me asking this, a 15' Key West centre console has come up down here on Ebay http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Key-West-center- ... 2304d94389. The boat was imported by a bloke in Sydney who is a yacht importer.

Being an American import I know nothing about them and have not been able to find any reviews as such on the net. I found their website but it doesn't tell much. I posted the question on another forum I frequent but I havn't had many replies. Do you know any thing about these boats at all, good or bad, handling etc, it appears to be very similar to the OB15 and if I got it at the right price it could be a viable option for me.

If you don't mind me asking, how much has your hull cost completed, not including trailer and motor.

Thanks for any info you can give me.

Mick.

Mick,

Sorry it has been a while since my last post and I know that I promised more pictures and performance numbers, but the holidays and weather have not permitted. This weekend I will have the boat out and get some definite performance numbers and new pictures.

I am pretty happy with the hull design and the weight of the boat. She gets up on plane real easy with the 40hp I have and is a very dry ride. I am glad that I put the batteries under the console and the fuel up front as the heavy motor causes the stern to sit a little low when she is not moving. I also worry when coming off plane quickly that water will flood the motor well. I have not seen it happen yet though. The stability of this hull is good, but if you are accustomed to flat bottoms, you would think it was a little tippy. It is not and is actually pretty good for a V hull. I have put two 200 lbs guys on one side and she does not feel like she will tip over. This is a small boat though and you don't want big guys jumping around on it too fast.

That Key West is a good looking boat. I did a little searching and it looks like it is the 1520CC model. Here is a topic on iboats dedicated to the Key West boats. http://forums.iboats.com/Boats/Key-West You can get an idea of how well they are built from there.

I don't mind telling you how much I have in the boat, but I am not sure if that is frowned upon in the forums so send me an email at - a t x s y n d i c a t e at g m a i l . c o m

-Adam

G'day Adam,

Just sent you an email.

Thanks mate.

Mick.

Reviewing this thread I realized that I did not post any truly finished pictures of my OB15. Here are some of the pics I took before selling her.

Very nice!

she really turned out pretty. I like the lines a lot.
wade