# Poor Man's NMZ



## DuckNut (Apr 3, 2009)

Looking good.

Here is a thought for you on making it easily removable. If you were to trim the piece so it fit just inside the hull but also just under the rail cap and then added some cleats to the hull it would slide right into place and pull out with ease when you want it out.


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## Brett (Jul 16, 2008)

I always enjoy seeing how someone else looks
at a problem and then fabricates a solution.

                               

And the saw cord trick is the reason I have GFCI's
on all my garage outlets. Safety first, always!


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## mark_gardner (Mar 18, 2009)

nice job, keep up the good work  lord knows i've cut my fair share of cords too :-[ ;D


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## FSUfisher (Jul 16, 2007)

Well, the insanity didn't stop at cutting my saw cord. Turns out, I'm not good at fiberglassing vertical or odd surfaces. Oh well. Also, you can never be too prepared when you're sanding fiberglass. 
After about an hour of sanding the cutout for the hatch and the hatch itself, I finally realized why I couldn't get everything square: I had the hatch turned upside down and had fiberglassed the wrong side. Damn, but life goes on. I figured I'd have the hatch be a different texture as some hatched do and just go with it. I traced the outline for the locking handle while talking to my neighbor and quickly cut it out. That's when I realized, Crap! I measured the outside radius of the handle and just basically ruined my hatch. Luckily, I had collected some wood flour (a cure-all) and had just a little bit of epoxy left over. I tried some magic with it a couple of hours ago. Let's hope that trick works.

Sanding is about done, and now I just need to install hardware, fix (hopefully) my hatch blunder, and paint. I'll probably have pictures up in a day or two.


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## FSUfisher (Jul 16, 2007)

I "finished" my project at 3:30 in the morning. It's one of those things where you can see the finish, and you just want to complete the task at all costs. In part because of this, the fit and finish of my new deck is kinda crappy by my standards. Oh well.









The underside about halfway through the sanding.









Installing the hardware was probably the most exciting part of this whole process.









The top somewhere during the sanding process. I think I have ADHD, so this didn't go over too well. The "fine sanding" was done with 100 grit paper. That was enough for me.









This gives a good idea of the finish of the sides. The top of the deck turned out pretty nice, but everything else is a different story. I did go back and touch this up after the picture as it bugged me too much.









Somewhere around 2:00 a.m. I basically broke the vertical part of the deck of while sliding the whole thing into place. I wanted a tight fit; turns out the fit was tighter than I planned. This was almost a big setback, as the vertical part had many functions, including to hold the rear of the deck in place and offer moment bending resistance. I ended up making the wooden braces in the picture and screwing them into place. I think they will do the job of keeping everything together.









Picture taken today.


















Side view. You can see how high the deck sits. I kind of wanted it this way, as it gives just a little more height when fishing or poling. I don't have a fancy picture editing program, so compromise my registration numbers and I'll make your life miserable!!

I'm really glad to have this done. Cleaning the garage this morning was one of the best parts of the whole process. I can breathe in there again. Also, the smell of epoxy that infiltrated my house is going away, and I no longer have little brick boogers from breathing in epoxy, paint fumes, sawdust and fiberglass shavings (masks were useless). The itch is gone as well.

Sadly, there was a much smaller project that went on simultaneously that I am much more excited about. I used my first cutting board this evening to cut up some chicken breasts. The best part was knowing that a good portion of the still useful cutting board is on the back of my other boat. I bought the thing from Wal-Mart a week or so ago and sawed off somewhere around five inches. The goal was to make a mounting surface for my new fish finder's transducer, as I didn't want to drill extra holes in my hull. The cutting board did the trick and looks pretty sharp as well. I think I heard this idea on this site a while back, and it works great!










[smiley=1-thumbsup2.gif]


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## DuckNut (Apr 3, 2009)

That is a really nice job.


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## Snookdaddy01 (Jan 23, 2010)

Awesome job.


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## FSUfisher (Jul 16, 2007)

Thanks guys. It looks better in the pics than in real life. Apparently the rain tomorrow is going to hold off until the evening, so hopefully I'll get a chance to test it out!


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## FSUfisher (Jul 16, 2007)

Had to take it out a while ago even though it was 55 degrees outside with 20+ mph winds.



















Couldn't get an action picture on the front deck because the dog kept getting in the way.


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## mark_gardner (Mar 18, 2009)

compromise my registration numbers and I'll make your life miserable!!





i pitty the fool who compromises my registration numbers  ;D decks look good dude


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## oysterbreath (Jan 13, 2009)

Nice Mod! Is that a 40lbs trolling motor you are using? How does she push the Poor man's NMZ? Are you using a single battery?


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## FSUfisher (Jul 16, 2007)

It's actually an old Motor Guide 28 lb. thrust model. It runs off of 12 volts, so yes, one battery. At least this boat is keeping it simple for now. I must say I am impressed with the speed and the longevity of a charge. By myself I think I've GPSed it at about 4 mph. So far I have yet to really wear out the battery in a day's trip (Wal-Mart brand bought in 2006 I believe). If I put a 40+ lb. thrust on there I would think I had an outboard!


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## oysterbreath (Jan 13, 2009)

> It's actually an old Motor Guide 28 lb. thrust model. It runs off of 12 volts, so yes, one battery. At least this boat is keeping it simple for now. I must say I am impressed with the speed and the longevity of a charge. By myself I think I've GPSed it at about 4 mph. So far I have yet to really wear out the battery in a day's trip (Wal-Mart brand bought in 2006 I believe). If I put a 40+ lb. thrust on there I would think I had an outboard!


That's good to hear. I've been curious if a 12v 40lbs thrust and two 12v batteries in parallel would be a decent little set up. If you're pushing yours well with a 28 and getting decent distance with a single battery then I'm sure my proposed set-up will do!


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