Alumacraft MV1448 Seadoo IB jet, Still jetting

[Ranchero50]

What an awesome evening on the water but first, the rod holders are the poop. I didn't think about it too much until I hopped in the boat and the whole floor was open. First pic is of the boat how it looked when we got back. Lots of open space now.

Second pic shows the simple nylon bungy cord we used to hold the rods. It worked remarkable well, no more bouncing while going down the road. One rod was just sitting on the floor of the boat and held with the bungy and it stayed put too. The cord isn't even tight.

Third pic is of our little friend, the Mayfly. He and she was out in force tonight. I saw some as we got upriver and stopped there to see if we would have a hatch tonight. Full moon, warm water temps and the fish were going nuts. We were using tried and true black jitterbugs and torpedoes and for the first two hours before dark it was amazing. The oldest and I both caught several 12" class smallies and a couple smaller guys too. I had two 12" missiles launch lure and all 2-3' out of the water, fighting like crazy all the way to the boat. Broke one jitterbug, ripped the line eye out of the spoon. Once darkness set in the Mayflies hatched and the water came alive. Constant gulps, splashes and ripples across the surface. The fishing slowed because they were too busy eating the dead Mayflies. The air was heavy with white bugs and even a couple dozen Dobsons were buzzing around.

Now, the next stage is adding some lights. The kid said the hump in the rod covers would be a great place to mount them and I agree so tomorrow we'll pull the covers and make opening for light to show through and mount the lights under the covers so there is no glare.

Truely and incredible evening.
Jamie

PS, I took some video of it and will post them up to Youtube in a bit.

 

[Ranchero50]

Working on the front deck today. Long time coming but it's working out. Will have two lights up front to illuminate the storage underneigth and the casting deck.

Jamie

 

[Ranchero50]

Simple fix to unruly troller wiring...

1/4" pilot.

Step drill to fit a 1" rubber grommet.

Tucked and hidden.

Cardstock template?

Finished hull corners. Took about an hour for each side to fit and then weld. Lots of trimming and fitting.

I'm still up in the air between pool noddles vs. rigid foam. Pool noodles at $1.88 each add up pretty quickly. I'd need 32 to equal one 4'x8'x2" sheet of foam board. I have some 2" thick closed cell insulation I may load test to see how much it holds up before commiting to the pool noodles.

Jamie

 

[Ranchero50]

Nothing really picture worthy but I adjusted the trailer so I could slide the boat further up about a foot. With the pods on the back it's hard to see the trailer lights...

I've also been tinkering with the rear deck, relocating the oil tank so I can access the bilge pump from the back opening. The oil tank will be accessable from the gas tank cover.

Hoping to go get some metal tomorrow to finish the deck framing and maybe even cut up some decking. I've been thinking about just welding a good bit of it down. I also need to go to the discount stores to see if I can find some of the interlocking padding for under the carpet.

Other projects are get the air horns hooked up and get the rear rod tubes installed.

Heck, might even go fishing too :wink:

Jamie

 

[Ranchero50]

Ok, been neglecting the thread again so update time. Been fighting high temps in the shop, hard to weld at 90`+...

Relocated the oil tank. I'm trying to get the rear of the hull accessable through the openings I'll have in the floor and moving the tank from over the pump to behind the tank (about 4") will make it easier to get to the bilge pump and other stuff down there.

Along the same theme I moved the exhaust from over the pump inlet to the left side pod. Used the lathe to turn down some scrap to make flanges, a chunk of 2.5" stainless and some rubber hose connected the dots. You can see the old port over the pump. I was getting a lot of backsplash from the rubber hose and it was loud. Now the boat sounds similiar to a jetski (imagine that) even though the exhaust port is still out of the water all the time.

Another fix was changing how the pisser line was routed. Seadoo had a T in the pisser because the pisser was also the engine drain. I don't need the pisser, can't see it when running anyways, so I made a T into the main head drain for the block drain. Goal is to keep the water and corresion out of the engine when it sits.

Finally on the back of the hull I relocated the speedo and transducer to the pod trim tabs to try and reduce the backsplash some more. I plan on making a one peice ride plate that spans across the pods under the pump but I'm not sure how the pump inlet will like that. I was having trouble loading the pump last night, or I should say it didn't load fast and surge the hull out of the water, not sure why. May end up making a load grate...

And another addition was the rear rod storage tubes. They work as good as the front ones, all the reels end up together and now I can take a total of ten rods.

It was hot out so we headed to the river around 6pm. Ran up river and saw a lot of new rocks outof the water so we shut down and walked upriver picking up trash and noticing all the metal scrapes on the boulders. Found a couple that were ankle deep that didn't show anything but a ripple... After the nice cooling walk we snuck further up to the chute and fished back down across the ridges and rocks. Had to hop out once so we didn't broadside a monster. Ended up at dusk at the base of a fishtrap with a small mayfly hatch. We were anchored in 3' of water casting across both sides of the V that were under a foot at places and pulling 10-12" smallmouth out every other cast of so. Pretty good fishing until full dark, then trolled over to the deep water and ran home. Depth finder was only showing 2.8' for most of it. We only saw one other boat come up, an outboard jet that crunched a rock before they gave up.

Three nights of work before we can go out again. I hope the grass starts to grow so it backs the water up at least a foot...

Jamie

 

[orion_134]

Why didn't you make the pods level with the bottom of the boat?

 

[fender66]

This is an awesome build. Wish I had welding skills....and the tools to do it. :mrgreen:

 

[Ranchero50]

Why didn't you make the pods level with the bottom of the boat?

I think I went into it a few pages back but the gist was to keep the wetted hull to a minimum by using a step to induce air similiar to what hydro racers do. Less wetted hull equals more speed. I'm not sure exactly where it went wrong, either weight balance or hydrodynamics of the pods sucked the rear down to induce the porposing.

It's all worked out in the end, the tabs work well. I'm thinking of a way to make them active to help pop the hull out of the water either using springs or a handle under the seat. I've been working on this boat for three years and learning a lot in the process.

Fender, no skills, only stubborn tinkering

As a quick update, the boat is on jackstands while I reinvent my bunk setup.
Jamie

 

[benjineer]

Love the rod tubes. Might have to try that. I gotta get mine off the floor.

 

[Flatbotm]

Hey Jaime,
I picked up the golf club tubes today for .47cents each. Unfortunately I missed the part about the holes needing to be 1.40. I'm going to try 1 and 3/8 and using the die grinder to round it the extra bit. Or I thought of punching the holes to 1.5 and using some rubber edge trim to snug them up. I have a tool for my plasma for cutting circles but I'm not sure if I can go that small. Any other ideas?
Thanks
Selby

 

[Ranchero50]

Hey Jaime,
I picked up the golf club tubes today for .47cents each. Unfortunately I missed the part about the holes needing to be 1.40. I'm going to try 1 and 3/8 and using the die grinder to round it the extra bit. Or I thought of punching the holes to 1.5 and using some rubber edge trim to snug them up. I have a tool for my plasma for cutting circles but I'm not sure if I can go that small. Any other ideas?
Thanks
Selby

Selby, go big and silicone them. That's the last step once my carpet is put on the end caps. $.47 is a pretty good deal, I like them and in practice if I run the rod in with the top against the wall the line guides don't catch.

Jamie

 

[Flatbotm]

Thanks Jaime. I'm going to try the 1 and 3/8 hole saw on a test piece first because I would rather them fit tight. My hitachi electric die grinder might woop those holes into shape quick.

 

[Ranchero50]

Been busy, a bit of a trailer retro and some more metal in the boat. First off, pulled the hull off the trailer last week because one of the bunks died a rotten death. Ended up just bolting down a pair or bare pine 2x4's with a layer of UHMW strips for the hull to slide on and added some strips on the center so the strake wouldn't rub on the catwalk while unloading.

Other oddball new is I mounted my plastic barrell fenders. Used just one bolt per mounting arm so they can move a bit if needed. So far they look funny but work well.

And finally I fitted the metal to put the rear deck on. Matt is pretty happy with it. I'm going to have one access door for the pod with the exhaust and an access door behind the seat.

Took the old girl out this evening anf it's a whole different boat. Not sure why but the pump isn't loading like it should. I'm still running 6800rpm but it doesn't feel loaded, wants to cavitate too easily. I'm thinking it's something I did when I moved the sonar transducers back on the trim tab, changed the water flow or pressure at the pump inlet. I think I'm going to lower the rear edge of my grate 1/2" or so with washer and see how it does tomorrow. The boat performed well, shut it off before the nasties and just idled up through them no drama. Floated back over the boulderfields and passed over a pile that was around 6" deep without touching. Cuaght a few bass, relaxed for two hours and called it a night.

We need rain...
Jamie

 

[Ranchero50]

Haven't done anything with the boat except put gas in it and get it wet, twice a week. Life is good

Jamie

 

[Ranchero50]

My LED lights showed up so I've been tinkering with some mounting bars. I was going to make them out of aluminum but I don't have the right size so I cut up some white plastic wood which is giving me a fit because a 12" chunk of 1"x.75" is too flimsy in a 6" vise. The LED's I got are from eBay, 24 lamps per strip, I had 14 strips shipped from China for $20. I test fit the lamps in one of the test mounts and they really throw some light. I can read writing on the wall 20' away and the bugs aren't swarming around the green bulbs.

I also have the bilge blower waiting and the switch showed up for it as well.

I'll try to get some pictures up tomorrow, want to fish it Monday evening.

Jamie

 

[mmf]

Man, I really like the 55 gallon barrel fenders, I gotta make me some like that! I think I will use a black barrel instead of the blue though. Are yours mounted high enough to clear the tire on a big bump? Thanks for showing these!......... 8)

 

[Ranchero50]

Thank you sir, I've had the fenders for a year or so but just didn't want to put them on since they were so 'blue' and I couldn't find black or even a white barrel to cut up. They clear by about 2", more than I've ever seen the springs compress. I wanted to keep them low profile so the boat can float over them.

Jamie.

 

[Ranchero50]

Ok, got the lamp holders / mounts made today. I wanted to make them out of aluminum but didn't have any 1/2"x1" stock laying around so I made them out of plastic trim wood for house exteriors, a poor substitute. I planned on putting six on the front deck, five on the back an the rest under the covers and by the console. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Jamie

 

[Ranchero50]

Ok, after an evening on the water I now know that these things are too dang bright as they are mounted now. They glare just having the tips of the bulbs visible so I'm thinking about putting them up in the covers. They also attracted some bugs and made us look like ghouls going down river.

Jamie

 

[Anonymous]

Those lights are AWESOME.

Any thoughts on maybe selling me a few?!