Another small but functional boat upgrade!

[McMXi]

If you've ever owned a small boat you'll know that storage can be a problem. I wanted to get a little more storage as well as gain better access to the inside of the hull for inspection purposes. I recently bought a Klein Tools camera that connects to my phone and wasn't able to snake it into some areas so figured this access door would help.

It's felt like spring here so I took the chance yesterday to stop by the boat storage facility and check another upgrade off the list, well almost. I'll need to use some 5200 to seal the door to the fiberglass and buy some stainless steel machine screws to finish the installation of the access door, but the hard work is done.

I learned recently that boats over 20 feet in length don't need flotation foam in the hull so it makes sense why this Robalo is 20 ft and 7 inches long!

Here's the before photo showing the location of the new access door. It's in the bow area and directly below the small square shaped seat cushion.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Sweet upgrade:

With as little of snow as we have gotten, I worry about the state of the lakes this coming season!

 

[chim]

Nice and clean installation, congrats!

 

[bird dogger]

And here I thought you were next going to show us your home made door & casing mold. Then laying up the new parts with fiberglass matting and gel coat!! Or maybe you just left those pics out???

 

[Hugo Habicht]

And here I thought you were next going to show us your home made door & casing mold. Then laying up the new parts with fiberglass matting and gel coat!! Or maybe you just left those pics out???

I was expecting the same. Was that not done with the instrument panel?

Doesn't matter, great result, well done !

 

[DONLI]

If you've ever owned a small boat you'll know that storage can be a problem. I wanted to get a little more storage as well as gain better access to the inside of the hull for inspection purposes. I recently bought a Klein Tools camera that connects to my phone and wasn't able to snake it into some areas so figured this access door would help.

It's felt like spring here so I took the chance yesterday to stop by the boat storage facility and check another upgrade off the list, well almost. I'll need to use some 5200 to seal the door to the fiberglass and buy some stainless steel machine screws to finish the installation of the access door, but the hard work is done.

I learned recently that boats over 20 feet in length don't need flotation foam in the hull so it makes sense why this Robalo is 20 ft and 7 inches long!

Here's the before photo showing the location of the new access door. It's in the bow area and directly below the small square shaped seat cushion.

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From one Boataholic to another Looks great, good work!
As owning many boats (lost count after about 6) there is never enough storage until you get to over 40ft, then it might be iffy.

Don

 

[McMXi]

I was expecting the same. Was that not done with the instrument panel?

Yep. I created a custom center console arrangement last year and it was a brutal and stressful job for a fiberglass novice. The problem was the lack of a large enough flat surface on which to mount the new electronics so I had to build up the center section with sheets of CSM and biaxial fiberglass. In hindsight it would have been easier to buy a large piece of acrylic, but what you find with mass produced boats is that a lot of corners are cut and the attention to detail isn't very good. I was able to address other issues that really annoyed me, for instance, the cut out for the binnacle was a disgrace, but I rebuilt the area and upgraded the binnacle and now it's how it should have been from the factory.

I have some other upgrades to complete, but I can take care of them incrementally, and not lose two months of boating time as I did last summer.

From this ....

... to this.

 

[McMXi]

Sweet upgrade:

With as little of snow as we have gotten, I worry about the state of the lakes this coming season!

Flathead Lake and the Flathead River are full right now due to so much rain this winter. It should be ok as long as the water is allowed to flow out through the dam.

 

[Splinters and Sparks]

Very nice work.

 

[Old Machinist]

Nice hatch install!

I bought one of those Klein Tools cameras that connects to a phone a few years back. At the time they didn't have the app for it on the play store and after downloading it from the Klein web site I couldn't get the camera to work on my phone so I returned it. I have tried a couple of the cheap ones that do work on my phone but they don't seem to have a usable image for what I tried them on.