DKSkelly

Just a shot from while the boat on a mooring for a week or so.

Trev: I have not gotten that sense with my hull. From your video I can see what you are talking about though. For whatever it's worth, I placed the console so that the center of the wheel would sit just about where it would be with Graham's original configuration. The Yamaha F60 weighs 112 kg. The battery sits in the stern compartment on the starboard side. Lighter gear in the port compartment. Anchor and line are stored in the bow compartment and other light gear under the bow seat. The 25 gallon fuel tank is sitting in the position as designed and I haven't noticed much affect of fuel level on trim. However, I definitely have noticed that trim and handling change pretty substantially based on where people are sitting. My family have gotten used to me moving them around to trim the boat depending on conditions. A little weight in the bow (a 10 or 12 year old) definitely helps going into a chop! I will be interested to hear what effect the foil has. My boys love all of the rodholders along the gunwale of your boat. They are bugging me to drill some holes! Dave

Hi Trev: Couldn't get the video to upload here so I sent you a message. Let me know if you have trouble with it. Dave

Oyster: Well spotted! The Ocean Pointer and the West Pointer skiffs from Six River were definitely inspirations for the coaming and rubrail treatment and some other details. Trev: The tank is located as spec'd by Graham between F2 and BH3. A 25 gallon Moeller tank. Because I don't have a seat against that aft bulkhead, I built out the 'box' forward of the bulkhead to bring the fuel fill and vent lines from the bilge up to the deck.

Just back from our first cruise. We towed up to Grand Isle, Vermont and spent a couple days camping there and fishing for smallmouth bass in Lake Champlain. Then we left the vehicle and trailer at a marina on Grand Isle and headed to the North end of the Lake and out via the Richelieu River. We crossed the border and put into the customs wharf. From there we continued up to St. Jean where we picked up the South end of the Chambly Canal: 9 locks and 7 mobile bridges in 19 km. The locks (and some of the bridges!) are hand operated and part of a historic park. The staff were great. We left the boat at the marina in the Chambly basin and spent a few days with friends in Montreal before heading South for the return trip. The boat performed flawlessly. The whole trip was more than 140 miles and we used 16 gallons of gas. With four people, gear and a full tank of gas, top speed was 25 knots heading into the wind/chop. There are always little things you would do differently after you complete a build but I have to say I am really happy with this one. The hull, in particular, is just outstanding. Light, quick to plane, soft ride, dry. Graham knows his stuff!

Oyster: Great timing to ask about drink holder. I am making a rod holder mounted bait station of similar design so I had it on the bench this morning. The drink holder was made quickly out of an end cut from a piece of mahogany plus other stuff I had around. The mount is made from closet pole with a spacer glued on so that it will wedge tightly in the rod holder and not slop back and forth. It is at a few degrees off perpendicular so it will be relatively horizontal when sitting in the rod holder (zero degree rod holder, but deck is cambered). It is way overbuilt. If a can of soda weighed 12 lbs instead of 12 ounces, it would handle it fine! If I was doing it again wouldn't have drilled the hole for the closet pole all the way through but it doesn't bother me enough to redo it. Dave

Thanks for all of the positive comments. Third trip this morning. Filled up after we got back and it took 9 gallons to top up the tank after 8 hours running time. Really happy with the efficiency of these new outboards (and also the lunch of fresh sea bass!).

Second outing this morning. Ran ca. 20 miles over to Long Island and did some sea bass fishing on the way back. Ran very comfortably at 18 knots or so in the chop. Opened it up and at 5900 it was doing 25 or 26 knots with three people and a full load (25 gal) of fuel. I think I will look at a different prop at some point but no rush on that. Lots of fun just the way she sits.

Looks fantastic. Congratulations!

Good taste indeed! Will definitely keep in touch. I have spent some time in your part of the world. Lived 1.5 years down south of Sydney and have travelled around T'ville, good friends living in Kuranda, etc. I love Queensland and Oz in general.

Thanks for the responses. I will definitely post some more photos when I get her out on the water again. The boat moves along well with the 60. I haven't opened it up yet but got up to ~25 knots at just over 5K. I took a guess, with some advice, on the prop so that may change after I get to know the boat better.

Hi All: I just completed an OB 20 build and had a chance to speak with Graham at the WoodenBoat Show in Mystic yesterday. I came away encouraged to post some pictures particularly after Graham showed me photos of Trev's beautiful OB 20 Center Console. Looks like we had the same idea half a world apart! Photos show the boat coming out of the shop after 3+ years and the first launching a couple of weeks ago. - Dave