Egad!!! Not Another Monark 1644 Project ....

[longjohn119]

A work in progress, some shots of the almost finished front deck

For those about to fish, we salute you!

In case you didn't notice the 2 bulkheads are from the seats I removed, I don't know why most people throw these out

The inside of my little step up/storage compartment. You can see where I added a piece to make up the gap between the old seat/bulkhead and the floor. Once I throw some scrap carpeting in there no one will be any wiser, it'll look like it's factory

 

[belliott]

Looks great.

The plastic hatch cover you have, do you like it? Does it seem sturdy? I was thinking about using one on my build.

 

[bobberboy]

How are you going to finish the edge of the carpet on the forward deck where it meets the painted sides of the boat? I still have to do that on mine and haven't decided how I want to do it.

 

[94silverbeast]

where do you get thoes little doors n such

 

[cavman138]

Looks really good man

 

[wolfmjc]

nice job! =D>

 

[longjohn119]

Looks great.

The plastic hatch cover you have, do you like it? Does it seem sturdy? I was thinking about using one on my build.

Very sturdy, my only complaint is it's heavier in weight than a wooden or even aluminum hatch but I don't regret my purchase one bit we are only talking an extra couple of pounds added to the weight of the boat. I got that one direct from Tempress for $40 but the only color available at that price was OD green, the rest sold at the regular price of $80. I also go a small hatch for $15 to put in the seat.

 

[longjohn119]

How are you going to finish the edge of the carpet on the forward deck where it meets the painted sides of the boat? I still have to do that on mine and haven't decided how I want to do it.

I take a soldering gun with a flat tip used for mending plastic and melt/singe the edges, if you look on the left side just behind the side hatch you can see where I started a section about a foot long where it isn't frayed. It's not perfect and it's not as easy as wood where you can wrap it under and staple it but it looks pretty good when finished. Actually I do this to every exposed edge of carpeting to keep it from fraying in the future. I was going to do some close ups of the left hatch which is done but the batteries went dead in my camera after 10 pictures, I wasted a lot of the batteries just learning the new camera. I'll upload some more pictures of the front deck after I install the seat plate, trolling motor, and electrical stuff.

 

[longjohn119]

where do you get thoes little doors n such

The little side hatches were made from scrap .083" diamond plate cut 12" x12" and are all handmade. Really not much to them, just a piece of diamond plate, a short piece of piano hinge and a piece of 1/2" C channel normally used to trim out the edge of a piece of plywood. I added the pieces of C channel after drilling the hole for the plastic recessed handle because I was afraid the hole would be a weak spot prone to bending. It also adds a little weight to the end opposite the hinge giving it a better 'feel' when using it.

My last boat had long side hatches and no hatch in the middle. After laying out the front I realized with just the center hatch it was hard to access when on the trailer without climbing in the boat so I added the side hatches mainly for access when the boat is trailered but I'm sure they'll get used a lot while fishing too. Right now they don't have any kind of latch but since they weren't designed to be watertight I'll probably keep it simple and just add some Velcro so they don't bounce in rough water.

 

[longjohn119]

I forgot to lead off with the 'before' pictures showing what I had to start with so here they are

 

[longjohn119]

Big day yesterday, finished the last of the carpeting, remounted the console, motor and controls, mounted the trolling motor, lights, anchoring device and fishfinder on front panel. Still have a little seaming and edging to do on the carpet with my soldering gun, other than that it's all the electrical/electronics. Shooting for her maiden voyage on Monday and have a whole bunch of prepared catfish bait I won in a contest on the United States Catfish Association (Formerly the Brotherhood of Catfishermen or BOC) coming for my first real fishing trip late next week (Hopefully between rain events)

I'll take some more pictures after I clean up some of the mess but I will leave y'all with a teaser shot of the main control panel ready for final wiring

And a picture of the livewell timer circuit using some old school RF prototyping techniques, I took me about 15-20 minutes to build it up, I just need to wire it to the switches and control pot on the front panel

 

[longjohn119]

Some shots of the roughed in console and control panel

And something you probably won't see on any other boat on this sight, a pullout keyboard for the netbook to Chartplotter Project https://netbook2chartplotter.blogspot.com

These show how I ran my control cable, steering, motor wiring harness, main fishfinder transducer, electrical conduit and the white cable are for power sockets for LED lighting or general 12V power. I'll detail the lighting power system in a later post when I finish some of the lights.

BTW the box is from a mid 60's Willy's ambulance like the ones you used to see in the beginning of MASH. I gutted the relays and junk inside and put it to use.

Cover panel one, there are 8 screws and beveled washers, only 2 are shown and are just finger tight

And the overall effect is an extremely clean and professional looking install, compare with the before pictures with everything run across the top of the seats and hanging off the side.

 

[dyeguy1212]

Looks good... hope you have some strong batteries :shock:

 

[longjohn119]

Looks good... hope you have some strong batteries :shock:

Two batteries and the ability to have the motor charge both. Computer system uses less power than the navigation lights and doesn't need an auto power adapter to run. Even running the GPS and cellular modem together it uses less than 10 Watts (A third of the computer system I used the last couple of years). All lighting except the nav lights are low power LED. (Nav lights will eventually be LED too.) Stereo system is mechless and uses SD cards or USB thumb drives instead of CD's or cassette which cuts it's power consumption. I may even add a pulse width modulated motor speed control for the livewell pump if it's too much running full bore like I suspect it will be, that cuts the current use of the motor. An hour on the trolling motor will probably use more juice than everything else put together in a 12 hour trip.

 

[belliott]

Your boat looks great, I'm really impressed with the carpet. That is the first keyboard, I've seen on a boat. You must plan on doing some serious fishin.

 

[longjohn119]

I make my own GPS maps and I have a color Garmin fishfinder that has a NMEA depth output so I can make my own depth maps. I was using a 15" laptop the last couple of years but I'm transforming a 10.1" netbook into a touchscreen tablet style PC that's going to mount so it sits right in front of the steering wheel. If I set up and program the computer right (It's voice enabled over Bluetooth also) I shouldn't need the keyboard except to troubleshoot a problem but I added it in permanent just in case. The keyboard is only a 1/4" tall, completely waterproof and you can jump up and down on it and it'll still work. You can see what I've done so far on it at my blog https://netbook2chartplotter.blogspot.com I got sidetracked with this boat project but it should only take a week to 10 days to finish up the netbook project depending on how much fishing the weather allows me to do.

I don't plan on buying another boat until I retire which will be at least 10 years so I'm making this the way I want it and building it to last. The only wood in the boat is the transom board and a piece of 3/4" plywood backing up the console. The only thing I should ever have to replace is the carpet and since it's kept in a garage it may last 10 years or more, my last boat had 7 years on the carpet and still looked pretty good except for a couple of stains. That Home Depot remnant carpet may not be official Marine but it wears good and cleans up well with just some cheap dollar store foaming carpet cleaner, rub it in with a sponge and vacuum when dry. I mainly catfish so the carpet gets slimed and muddy when running lines or just from camping in a slough or island complex on the river so they take a beating. Marine backing is more important over wood than aluminum anyway

 

[longjohn119]

Even though the Netbook to Chartplotter project isn't complete I did get it together enough to set up the Ram Mount System and mount it to the boat. So here are some pictures that will give you an idea of what I'm trying to accomplish with the twin projects

And a couple with the seats installed

 

[longjohn119]

I just thought I'd add that my little less than $400 converted netbook will take the WAY over-hyped iPad, eat it up and spit it out. I have everything the iPad has plus:

Built-in wireless internet (Cellular internet)

Built-in GPS

Voice Control over Bluetooth

FM stereo transmitter for streaming MP3's to any nearby FM radio

Built-in Wireless mouse

'Cubed' desktop interface https://www.thinkinbytes.com/en/products/cubedesktop/features.php

The only thing an iPad has over mine is a slightly better operating system/interface (for now)

 

[belliott]

I'd like to build one of those fancy lap tops for my boat, but I'm afraid I would end up with fried fingers and a bunch of worthless burnt up components

 

[dyeguy1212]

I just thought I'd add that my little less than $400 converted netbook will take the WAY over-hyped iPad, eat it up and spit it out. I have everything the iPad has plus:

Built-in wireless internet (Cellular internet)

Built-in GPS

Voice Control over Bluetooth

FM stereo transmitter for streaming MP3's to any nearby FM radio

Built-in Wireless mouse

'Cubed' desktop interface https://www.thinkinbytes.com/en/products/cubedesktop/features.php

The only thing an iPad has over mine is a slightly better operating system/interface (for now)

Yeah but you won't look half as cool.. and that's the whole point 8) :lol: