leftcoastangler Posted March 8, 2018 Report Share Posted March 8, 2018 New to the forum and thought I'd share my pics and story while I go through the restoration of my 1993 Hewes Bonefisher 16. My first boat was a 1995 J14 Carolina skiff with a 25 hp Mercury tiller engine. The CS was a great starter boat and caught lots of fish over the 5 years I had her, but it was time to move on to something a little bigger and better. I've always loved the look of the classic lappy hulls and I finally got my hands on one back in September of 2017. I bought the boat from Three Rivers Marine in Crystal River when I saw it on a Craigslist ad. I came across this forum, which has been a wealth of information, and saw a post from a user with a similar boat (CaptCrunch). His post on the restoration of his 92 Bonefisher 16 inspired me to reach out to him for some further info. I live in St. Petersburg and decided to use the same boat builder for my restoration. Dropped the boat off to Deno Boatworks at the end of December. Too many new updates to list, but this boat will be fully updated and hopefully like new again in the coming weeks. I haven't taken too many pics of the progress so far, but I'll take some soon and post if anyone is interested. As you can see from the pics included, I decided to re-power with the brand new Yamaha VMAX 90 SHO engine. It's possible that I'm one of only a few on the Gulf Coast who own this engine, but I'm sure this is the only Lappy that I've seen with a 90 SHO engine on it. I'm excited to get it in the water and get some performance stats soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Im chumming Posted March 22, 2018 Report Share Posted March 22, 2018 nice, man post more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whichwaysup Posted April 6, 2018 Report Share Posted April 6, 2018 agreed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftcoastangler Posted April 11, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2018 going in a different direction with the restore process, but there’s been a little progress since my last post. I’ll share pics when I have the boat back home at the end of the week. thanks for the interest! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captcrunch Posted April 23, 2018 Report Share Posted April 23, 2018 Would like to hear from you about the project. Cant Crunch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanaflatsfish Posted April 23, 2018 Report Share Posted April 23, 2018 On 4/11/2018 at 1:32 AM, leftcoastangler said: going in a different direction with the restore process, but there’s been a little progress since my last post. I’ll share pics when I have the boat back home at the end of the week. thanks for the interest! did you replace the fuel tank? if so, please post pics..if not, why? dc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftcoastangler Posted April 25, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2018 I did not replace the fuel tank. The owner before me never reported any leaks, the dealership that had the boat on consignment did all of the maintenance on that boat and also tested the tank before putting it on sale. They didn't find any leaks. I never smelled any gas in that area and never saw any signs of leaked gas either. The guy who is doing work on the boat also felt that the tank was in great shape. The appearance of the tank is also pretty *** good for a 25 year old boat. Super clean overall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftcoastangler Posted March 22, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2019 Well, figured I'd update the story because who doesn't love a good horror story?! I'm gonna start at the beginning and go to the present day. I don't care about naming people or calling anyone out because it's the least this clown deserves after what he did to me. As I stated in my first post, my boat was dropped off to John Denisco at Deno Boatworks in Tampa. Denisco somehow has maybe two molds that he has in production and one is a 17' knockoff Lappy style boat. I gather this is how the other forum member found him and only part of why I actually decided to get involved with him. I am by no means saying anyone is responsible for this other than myself and the a**hole who did this "work". His quote back in November of 2017 was middle of the road for what I was looking to do, which included some fiberglass repairs on the deck, transom, rod holders and other areas, some painting, a full rewire with rigging of purchased electronics, rigging of my brand new 2018 Yamaha SHO 90 and some other things. Every person, including John, quoted me about 3 months on the work that I was looking to have done. I dropped the boat off in December of 2017. After 6 months of going to his shop and seeing little to nothing done to my boat, dealing with his attitude and excuses and STILL paying this guy close to $6,000 for the work he botched, I was able to get my boat back in June of 2018. The pictures attached are just a small glimpse into what his finished product looked like after 6 months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftcoastangler Posted March 22, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2019 As you can see, his work was terrible. He painted overspray on the entire top deck of my boat, all over my hydraulic steering cylinder and cables, my brand new Yamaha gauges, helm cover, throttle shifter and brand new rub rail which he installed. Every single item that this guy installed on my boat was damaged by him, except (thank God) for my brand new engine. My steering wheel wasn't even fastened to my helm and console and this guy had the nerve to tell me to put it on the water the day I got it to test it out. Digging deeper, I could see that the wiring was so bad that the boat was totally unfit and unsafe to put in the water. The list is too long to go over. After 6 months of dealing with this guy it was all I could do to pay him (which he demanded before releasing my boat) and get my property away from him. I documented everything and immediately called a surveyor to do a full report. After the surveyor's report and observing first-hand the damage done, I knew the boat couldn't go on the water. I contacted an attorney and have been talking with him to find a way to recoup my funds from this guy's egregious work and total lack of professionalism. It took me 7 months to afford the necessary work to get the boat on the water. Now comes the happy ending. I have since had several people look at the boat. The first step was to get a new re-wire from someone that I believe to be one of the best in my area, Jose Borjas with Kustom Boatworks. He worked for many years wiring Calcutta Boats at their facility in Palmetto, FL. Jose did a full re-wire and installed all new Lumitec lighting throughout. the attached pics were taken during his process of the re-wire. The first few pics show what the inside of my console looks like now, the rear starboard hatch, the battery storage hatch and my deck lights. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftcoastangler Posted March 22, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2019 I'm re-finishing the gunwale rod holders myself which is why everything is taped off, but here is a picture of how my console looks today. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftcoastangler Posted March 22, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2019 I had the splash well modified to fit my BayStar hydraulic steering and had some fiberglass work done around that area. My first day out on the water was last Thursday with my Dad and it was a good day, to say the least. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrLappy Posted March 22, 2019 Report Share Posted March 22, 2019 Boat looks great. How does it run with the 90 SHO? What mph and RPM’s are you running? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftcoastangler Posted March 22, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2019 Thanks! I was only out for a couple hours last Thursday so I had to stay below 2,000 rpms to start the break-in process of the engine. As soon as I can get going and go WOT I’ll share my experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurem Posted March 22, 2019 Report Share Posted March 22, 2019 WOW, what a transformation! Looks great! It is unfortunate that you had problems with the original vendor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftcoastangler Posted March 25, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2019 On 3/22/2019 at 2:51 AM, MrLappy said: Boat looks great. How does it run with the 90 SHO? What mph and RPM’s are you running? So I’m not totally comfortable with this boat/engine yet, but with the engine trimmed almost all the way down and no tabs I got to 38mph and 5200 rpm’s with my 4 blade 12.7x19p Merc Spitfire x7. Its the prop that was given to me by the dealership I bought the engine from. I hope to try a 17p maybe and see if there’s a significant difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurem Posted March 25, 2019 Report Share Posted March 25, 2019 The spitfires x7's seem to be great props for the smaller 90-115 HP motors. It says the max RPM range for you motor is 6K. I believe I would try the 17 spitfire and trim it out and let it rip! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftcoastangler Posted March 25, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2019 1 hour ago, lurem said: The spitfires x7's seem to be great props for the smaller 90-115 HP motors. It says the max RPM range for you motor is 6K. I believe I would try the 17 spitfire and trim it out and let it rip! Yea I actually just got off the phone with Ken @ Prop Gods. I told him I hit those numbers yesterday with the motor basically trimmed all the way down. He seemed to think if I play with the trim and get a little less drag I might be able to get a few more mph and more RPM with current prop. If I don't after trying that, maybe he has a 17 I can try that might give me the results. I'm new to all this stuff so it's all a learning experience. First lesson learned: don't bring your girlfriend on the boat when you're trying to prop test and go WOT lol. She was pretty freaked out and had a lot to do with my conservative approach to testing things out yesterday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurem Posted March 25, 2019 Report Share Posted March 25, 2019 haha, props testing is best done alone so you only scare yourself! Always find a long fairly smooth straight away and open it up WOT. Hit the trim button a little at a time and let the boat settle each time, trim a little more and let it settle. You will get to a point where you trim and the motor gets louder (prop starts slipping) but you are not going any faster. Trim the motor back down to the previous setting and remember that setting (how many bars) on your trim gauge. Remember to trim back down when slowing down or getting ready to turn. You can always trim back up or trim the engine more level to get the best trim angle for the speed you are running. I hope this helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftcoastangler Posted March 25, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2019 7 hours ago, lurem said: haha, props testing is best done alone so you only scare yourself! Always find a long fairly smooth straight away and open it up WOT. Hit the trim button a little at a time and let the boat settle each time, trim a little more and let it settle. You will get to a point where you trim and the motor gets louder (prop starts slipping) but you are not going any faster. Trim the motor back down to the previous setting and remember that setting (how many bars) on your trim gauge. Remember to trim back down when slowing down or getting ready to turn. You can always trim back up or trim the engine more level to get the best trim angle for the speed you are running. I hope this helps Everything bit of advice is helpful. Thanks for your feedback! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSN651 Posted May 16, 2019 Report Share Posted May 16, 2019 Any updates? Looking good! Chuck 😁 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftcoastangler Posted May 27, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2019 Haven't worked the prop situation out yet, but that'll be the next priority. I did recently fill, resin, fiberglass and gel coat the under gunwale rod holders and added SeaDek to the cockpit floor, center console, my Yeti, and the forward raised deck. I wish I took more pics of the rod holder project, but basically what that entailed was sanding the seats of the rod holders down, mixing resin and coating over the areas of the 4 racks to create a smoother working surface, shaping and eventually sanding marine filler "America's Cup" from FGCI (Bondo-like substance) on the surface, then cut and laid fiberglass down over the rod holders, coated that with resin and finally rolled gel coat over the racks to finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSN651 Posted May 27, 2019 Report Share Posted May 27, 2019 Looks good man Chuck 😁 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.