5 And A Half Years In The Making .....

[kmcrosby78]

Well, a couple of weekends ago, I finally finished the front casting deck and put new carpet on the nose of my tinny, 5 and a half years after trying to get it all done before a trip to Monduran Dam. Back then, I'd acquired the tinny from my brother in Rocky, and the floorboards were all spongy and cr@p. So with the help of a mate, we traced the template, cut the new floorboards out with a jigsaw and sanded the edges until it took the shape. We also cut out a large access flap in the centre of the floorboards and braced the perimeter with flat angle (you'll need to forgive me if my terminology of what was used on this project isn't quite right - going from memory from obviously quite a while ago .... ). The finished floorboard is still going very strong now and the ability to put my toolbox, flares and a few lure trays under the floorboards has been a godsend in a 14ft tinny.

Back then, I also cut out a front casting deck from ply, sanded it and primed it ready for use, plus cut the carpet out, but ran out of time to finish the project. Also back then the nose of the boat had a section of carpet that covered about the front third and was an ugly blue colour that matched the previous floorboards. I had extra carpet so cut out a piece to cover the whole of the nose, and back then I hurriedly tried to remove the existing yucky carpet, but ...... then realised how hard it was to remove it all .........

So ...... in the ensuing 5 and a half years I've done heaps of reno's on our house and tidied up the yard, had two kids, done a heap of schoolwork from home (oh and gone fishing .... ) and finally got around to finishing everything.

With the casting deck, which fills the void between the front bench seat and the storage shelf under the nose, I had been pondering over the years what flaps were required and what I would put under there. I'd always had a milk crate with the anchor/s in this section, along with the battery box, and knew I wanted to move the anchor up under the nose. I ended up realising a few weeks ago that I could just keep the piece of ply hole without cutting it into sections to create flaps, and could use two pieces of wide aluminium angle iron (that I salvaged from our old kitchen when we pulled it out) to sit on top of the divider at the start of the front shelf (hard to explain in words ..) and then use this to attach two brackets which would allow the whole casting deck to be flipped upwards, allowing access underneath.

This made completing the job much easier as the carpet could be glued on in one whole piece, so bit by bit on a couple of different days whilst the boys were asleep (you get very short windows of time when you have two young kids ...) I had the carpet done, two strips of flat angle to brace the board, and two strips of aluminium angle iron screwed into the front of the bench seat and the facing edge of the front storage shelf, and I was ready to attach the brackets and complete the job. I used a section of a material belt and attached it to create a tag that could be grabbed to lift the casting deck up, and things were done, and I am VERY happy wth the outcome.

Having been out last weekend in it whilst fishing with bait at the river mouth, I have realised that the benefits of now having a decent sized casting deck are not only that I can stand up there and cast lures or a castnet, but that I now have a large flat section that I can put my tackle box, esky and whatever else on, which thus clears the main deck and creates a lot more room to move around (and hopefully fight fish ... ).

Longwinded post as usual but hopefully it helps someone - feel free to ask questions if you are considering doing similar.

[kmcrosby78]

I also removed the carpet on the nose as best I could - I realised that I didn't have to remove every last skerrick of carpet (and the glue) as it was always going to be covered in new carpet anyway .... I thought I had a photo of the new carpet on the nose but haven't so I'll add that photo tomorrow.

[Binder]

5 years - Be just about ready to start at the beginning again

[kmcrosby78]

Bit more presentable .....  Ended up cutting it into three sections as figured it would be easier to glue on. Happy with the outcome.

[benno573]

I'm just laughing at how many times you said the word "flaps" 

 

looks the goods mate!

[kmcrosby78]

Haha - you've clearly been spending too much time with @ellicat ........ or is it the other way around .......

[benno573]

Come fishing with us next time and you let us know! 

[kmcrosby78]

9 hours ago, benno573 said:

Come fishing with us next time and you let us know! 

Haha - I'll try anything once .....