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New to Me - MA 18 w/ Questions


CRD Dawg

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Thanks all for the info and feedback. Did a little research on the brass tubes and how the flaring tool would work. Sounds like this situation may not be the best application for that. At least not for the deck drains. Just wanted to ensure I’m not getting any water between the deck and hull on the deck drains, and definitely not any seeping into the transom from the splashwell drains. 

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A lot of discussion on those brass tubes in the whaler community. Doing some research you can find post on replacing those tubes with pvc and using resin to seal everything up. There are also plastic through hulls that slide into each other and lock together. Those would seem to be easy to seal. 

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Thanks for the info. Sounds like PVC tube is probably a better option. Just need to do some research on options. Anyone know the dimensions of the tubes? (Mine’s not immediately accessible.) I assume they are measured by OD of the tube? Anyone ever removed one? Not sure how to carefully do that.

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  • 1 month later...

So I thought I’d bring this thread back up as I’ve learned a few things over the winter on this refurb project that might assist some folks when looking at MA 18’s with the old stringer design, as is well documented here. Mine had the same stringer design as Which Way Is Up, and had the same failure. It was contained internally, no external hull issues were found. Thankfully due to his thread, I spotted it immediately when I first saw the boat, the surveyor I hired verified it, and it allowed me to negotiate a fair purchase price. Honestly, it’s not really that expensive to repair if you have a good glass shop and you can get access, now that we know what typically lies beneath, thanks to the great stringer thread. I think I’ve read it end to end 10 times. My glass guy was not overly concerned with the failure, and actually noted how heavily the boat seems to be constructed, relatively speaking for a flats boat. He felt that the thickness and design of the transom as is, should be plenty to support a 4 stroke. He did not have a theory on the failure as a major structural design flaw, just that it was not tabbed sufficiently there in his opinion.

I will say this forum is an INVALUABLE resource. Thanks to all to that contribute here. When I was originally looking, I was choosing between the Egret 189 and the MA 18, and there were 2 deciding factors that pushed me to the Maverick - 1) Price and 2) Aftermarket support in the form folks here sharing their knowledge.

Now, addressing some of my questions from previous posts - and thanks everyone for their input on those items.

1) Scuppers- after further review with the glass guy doing the work this winter, I decided not to touch the scuppers. He felt they were very well seated in the transom, and should be left alone. For the deck scuppers, my plan now is just to get a dremel tool or something similar and grind the port side down flush where it sticks out over the deck, and just reseal the starboard side which appears to be original.

2) Cleats and rod holders - I’ve learned a lot about construction of the boat in the back, there’s a lot of foam and not a ton of access. It appears that in many areas, the foam is actually providing some structure. I think that may be noted somewhere in the stringer thread and is already known, but until I saw it, I didn’t fully understand how much is back there and the function it appears to provide. I am definitely not an expert on boat design and construction.  I’ve decided after making some access ports in the rear of the boat for other reasons, I want to take my time before cutting into what is currently a very clean, uncluttered and water tight deck. Don’t want to cut in the wrong place, with the wrong combination of cleat, and end up soaking foam I can’t access. This will have to wait.
 

Now to get caught up to present day, I have about 3 months of pics of the boat being de-rigged and repaired.

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List of items to address after the survey and running the boat last fall as is:

1 - Repair port stringer

2 - Repair keel rash

3 - Refinish transom 

  • Repair scarring from previous jack plate
  • Repair / fill all holes from trim tab cover plates, they will not be reinstalled, they make it harder to maintain the tabs and just more holes for potential water intrusion. May be wrong, just my humble opinion.
  • Repair / fill holes from trim tabs, they had been R&R’ed previously and not well sealed. I wicked water out of the holes with Q-Tips. Not much, but they were moist. Did this for 2 weeks and also used a fan to dry out in driveway. Glass guy opened up, cleaned out, and verified dry before moving forward.

4 - Repair edge of helm seating locker and large bow locker opening where cord stops were anchored, they had frayed the fiberglass in the hatch edge opening. Hope to add gas shocks later.

5 - Repair hairline crack in starboard hatch floor where battery rests, battery to be moved to console

6 - Add access hatches in helm seating locker and starboard locker

7 - Add access hatch in splashwell for better access for stringer repair and better bilge access later

8 - Clean up and re-rig, add electronics and trolling motor.

9 - Address all the other stuff you find along the way...

 

Will try to get some pics up as time permits.

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So here’s a few pics of the boat derigged with items to address at the glass shop.

Moderate keel rash to about midship, this was all beneath the keel guard, the big one wasn’t deep but looked ugly, had been sanded and smoothed out and covered up. Most of the spots are actually left over stick um from the foam tape the held the keel guard on. That was a miserable task removing. Used my wife’s hairdryer and plastic paint scraper. Still a fair amount of rash though.

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Scarring in transom from jack plate circled. You can also see in this pic in the top of the trim Tab pockets, where the actuators were mounted, a portion of glass has been ground away so the cylinder wouldn’t rub against the hull. Not sure if that was normal. Also, sloppy use of some sort of thick rubbery puddy to act as a spacer.

BA8464C8-131C-400D-AD7C-C699997BFF5A.thumb.jpeg.b7b7b281db449f1fd3298af566428111.jpeg

Stringer delamination pics and a pic from the stringer thread showing location of mine marked in red.
 

AA7330A3-9B03-4A2D-99CE-CB537DFA5D4E.jpeg

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Wicking moisture from trim Tab holes. Also put a fan from an old bouncy house my kids used to play in inside the bilge and ran it for 4-5 hours at a time on and off for weeks. Not sure how, but when I closed everything up, I could also feel a faint breeze coming thru the trim Tab holes when Q-Tips were removed. Was a little concerned I could feed Q-Tips almost all the way in before they bottomed out and stopped.

0C398039-EADE-409D-9B26-ED4F68BD3B5C.thumb.jpeg.40e25ed02d569329d1ec9d719eb11bcc.jpeg

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11 hours ago, Wanaflatsfish said:

Let's be specific....MA18 (LOL)....my little girl will be in the contest for best MA17 :)

dc

 

Hey Capt,

Enjoying your thread. Keeping an eye on it as I’m sure there’s plenty for me to learn from it. Gonna be sweet when you’re done. Replacing the tank is that big item we’ll all have to address at some point. Hope I got a few years left on mine. Looks like our consoles are very similar.  Best of luck with the rebuild.

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12 hours ago, RacerxV6 said:

29A33EFA-E7C6-4C6F-B894-190AFDF9594A.thumb.jpeg.7994f72727bc080f3b6b390072c0ee50.jpeg

This has to be the most amazing looking picture of a hull I have ever seen.  Absolutely beautiful...!!!  

Thanks, I will say, when I got the call to come inspect it while it was on the lift and make some decisions, this angle kinda caught me off guard. I had never really seen the boat from quite this angle. When it’s sitting on the trailer, the winch blocks the view and you just don’t get the same effect. This pic motivated me to capture the rebuild in pics. She sure does look pretty mean just staring at you. 

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10 minutes ago, CRD Dawg said:

I know, I know, I hear ha! Lol. I will admit this, sometimes she does look a little neckid without one, but the transom’s almost done and dang it sure looks clean. The thought of putting any extra holes back in it is already keeping me up at night... 

from the small amount of research ive done. The platforms that can accomodate a newer engine, have all 4 legs on the back deck. Atleast thats the case with mine. If that helps ease your mind on adding one. They def look better with a platform. Its looking good!

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Thanks! Will keep it in mind down the road for sure. 

So the first items addressed were the trim tab pockets and holes. All holes were opened up a bit and cleaned out just to be sure, verified to be dry with good glass, then filled with dowels. I need to ask again, but I do not believe they were balsa, it was some sort of composite material supposedly. Not sure if that sounds right or not. As I understand it, the holes were filled with an epoxy/resin maybe? The dowels were sanded to size and soaked with epoxy, before being pressed in place. They cured this way for about a week until being sanded flush, filled and being sanded again.

Edit - fixed the sideways pic. You can see in the 4th pic down that captures the upper portion of the trim tab pocket, where the glass had been ground away below the upper mounting holes, due to the tab actuator rubbing against the hull. Not sure if that was normal or if there was supposed to be a spacer used that wasn’t.

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For the transom, it had been spot sprayed previously when the aforementioned poling platform was removed, but the area of the transom that was scarred by the jack plate was just painted over and bugged me. Also, on the transom where it transitions from vertical to horizontal on the top of the transom going into the splashwell had been poorly faired. Also drove me crazy. So scarring was ground out and properly reglassed and top of transom was ground out and also reglassed and faired. Glass guy said he could find no evidence of structural issues.

Before:

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FC265FE4-491E-45B8-BCAF-725123527E61.thumb.jpeg.83d7b46a402b776cae26279c338928a9.jpeg743A98FA-8EF7-4518-888E-453629C2C927.thumb.jpeg.f48a09c18984d3d8585c71ed567e9c0e.jpeg

 

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