"Anotha one" - Skipjack 24 Project

[sharkythesailor]

I just picked up a 24 fly a few months ago that was in rough shape and I'm trying to turn it into a do-it-all rig. Boat came with a diesel that needed a rebuild so got that to a machine shop and now I'm looking at offshore-proofing this thing while I wait for the engine to come back.

I feel like a great modification would be to raise the deck 3-4 inches. With the diesel in the back, the two small scupper holes that are there now sit right at the water line with nobody in the boat. Opening one of the plugs with someone in the back would be like putting a 1" hole in the boat. Raising the deck would allow me to move the scuppers up above the swim step and make the boat self bailing. I could also build a better engine hatch seal, shorten the engine box, and possibly have some more room for fish box/bumper storage.

I have two questions about this. First, I asked a professional fiberglass/boat repair guy how he would do it, and he said to just epoxy fiberglassed 2x4's right onto the existing deck and build the new marine plywood/glass deck right on top of the old one! I want to know if anyone else recommends this? It would save cutting out the old one and might be less work but there would be lots extra weight left on the boat and I'm worried that water and whatever else would pool up between the old deck and the new deck and cause problems. I also would lose the possible benefit of more room for fish box. I want to know if anyone else recommends this way of doing it?

Second, if I were to cut out the old deck and build the new one without it, how would I go about changing the structure/supports to raise it 3-4 inches? I've read about people screwing wood into the stringers to raise their height and building on that. Has anyone done this that can explain the process step by step or show me pics?

I guess I have a third question and that's whether anyone would recommend just leaving the boat as is. Like how often is water really coming over the gunwales/transom? Is the benefit of this project worth the work? I'll definitely waterproof the deck hatches and engine box no matter what but relying on bilge pumps to save my ass if (when) shit hits the fan isn't appealing to me.

What do yall think?

-Mark

 

[tbev]

I don't make it out as much as a lot of guys do, but I'm pretty sure I tough out nasty weather as well as anybody in a similar size boat. I haven't had any problems with excessive water in the bilge of my 24f, certainly nothing that would lead me to believe raising the deck would be worth it. I've seen it done and it's way cool, but I certainly wouldn't do it, especially if I had other things to do to get the boat seaworthy before I could go fishing. If I were to do it I'd say your friend is probably right, building over the existing deck would be much easier, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.
FYI I recommend checking your fuel tank out, any screw, bolt or hole in your transom and stringers for rot before you start anything. You want to know exactly what's required before you start. Pull the bolts holding the motor mounts on and see what condition the wood is in below and your drain plug, and then those are two places I found rot that I wasn't looking for.

Good luck, she's gonna be sweet when she's done either way.

 

[sharkythesailor]

I don't make it out as much as a lot of guys do, but I'm pretty sure I tough out nasty weather as well as anybody in a similar size boat. I haven't had any problems with excessive water in the bilge of my 24f, certainly nothing that would lead me to believe raising the deck would be worth it. I've seen it done and it's way cool, but I certainly wouldn't do it, especially if I had other things to do to get the boat seaworthy before I could go fishing. If I were to do it I'd say your friend is probably right, building over the existing deck would be much easier, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.
FYI I recommend checking your fuel tank out, any screw, bolt or hole in your transom and stringers for rot before you start anything. You want to know exactly what's required before you start. Pull the bolts holding the motor mounts on and see what condition the wood is in below and your drain plug, and then those are two places I found rot that I wasn't looking for.

Good luck, she's gonna be sweet when she's done either way.

Thank you for writing this out! Very helpful and makes sense. Fuel tank looks like it was replaced with the repower and transom and stringers seem to be good from what I've looked at so far. I think I may try a new/different approach to draining the cockpit. You ever heard of someone using drains and a shower sump box instead of scuppers/draining into the bilge? I could drill holes in the corners of the cockpit and run those to the sump box and run that to a thru hole.

 

[tbev]

What are you referring to when you are talking about water in the cockpit? I'm assuming that's the reason you were considering raising the deck up, am I correct? Can you elaborate on the problem your having a little bit for me please, I'm missing something.

I just re-read your original post and it seems to me that your concerned with water coming over the gunwale, or getting into the boat somehow, and becoming a problem. Regardless of whether or not you add or raise the deck your always going to have a little water coming into the boat, that's what they make bilge bumps for. I thing you should be fine totally depending on a main pump with a backup to clear the water from the bilge. Any water that gets onto the deck is going to end up down in the bilge, it's going to roll down into the bilge behind the doghouse at the transom and get sucked out of the bilge by the pump. I added two additional big (2000gph) pumps just so if I ever get the chance to back down on a monster tuna in nasty conditions and take a tidal wave over the back I wouldn't have to worry. In normal situations I think a 500gph pump is probably more than adequate. As for water on the deck going out those two one inch holes in the back, I don't really thing that's dependable, like I said it's going to fall into the bilge not go out those two holes, that's been my experience. I'm building a new doghouse because I need to accommodate new headers. When I make the new one I plan on extending it aft to the transom and 3in off the deck to stop water from falling down into the bilge. I want to do this so I can pull those plugs and hose blood out the holes. I'm not sure how it's going to works yet, as you mentioned those holes I believe are under water when your not under way. My goal is to keep blood from going down into the bilge if I can, not sure just yet.

 

[sharkythesailor]

What are you referring to when you are talking about water in the cockpit? I'm assuming that's the reason you were considering raising the deck up, am I correct? Can you elaborate on the problem your having a little bit for me please, I'm missing something.

I just re-read your original post and it seems to me that your concerned with water coming over the gunwale, or getting into the boat somehow, and becoming a problem. Regardless of whether or not you add or raise the deck your always going to have a little water coming into the boat, that's what they make bilge bumps for. I thing you should be fine totally depending on a main pump with a backup to clear the water from the bilge. Any water that gets onto the deck is going to end up down in the bilge, it's going to roll down into the bilge behind the doghouse at the transom and get sucked out of the bilge by the pump. I added two additional big (2000gph) pumps just so if I ever get the chance to back down on a monster tuna in nasty conditions and take a tidal wave over the back I wouldn't have to worry. In normal situations I think a 500gph pump is probably more than adequate. As for water on the deck going out those two one inch holes in the back, I don't really thing that's dependable, like I said it's going to fall into the bilge not go out those two holes, that's been my experience. I'm building a new doghouse because I need to accommodate new headers. When I make the new one I plan on extending it aft to the transom and 3in off the deck to stop water from falling down into the bilge. I want to do this so I can pull those plugs and hose blood out the holes. I'm not sure how it's going to works yet, as you mentioned those holes I believe are under water when your not under way. My goal is to keep blood from going down into the bilge if I can, not sure just yet.

Liquid from any source: Wave over the back, blood in the boat from fishing, water in the boat from dive gear, a washdown hose or washing down in general. I've got 2 large bilge pumps in case of emergencies but I don't want water in the bilge at all after paying bukku bucks for this engine rebuild. The less exposed it is to salt water the better. So because of the submerged plugs at the deckline I'm trying to figure out an alternate system get water out of the cockpit reliably.

What I'm thinking of now is putting drains in the cockpit deck that lead into some enclosed space away from the engine where it can be pumped out of the boat by a third bilge pump just for that purpose. Ideally there would be some kind of strainer around the pump and a way to access the enclosed space in case some fishing line or fish guts or something got down there.

Think it would work?

 

[SkipJack Boats]

I just picked up a 24 fly a few months ago that was in rough shape and I'm trying to turn it into a do-it-all rig. Boat came with a diesel that needed a rebuild so got that to a machine shop and now I'm looking at offshore-proofing this thing while I wait for the engine to come back.

I feel like a great modification would be to raise the deck 3-4 inches. With the diesel in the back, the two small scupper holes that are there now sit right at the water line with nobody in the boat. Opening one of the plugs with someone in the back would be like putting a 1" hole in the boat. Raising the deck would allow me to move the scuppers up above the swim step and make the boat self bailing. I could also build a better engine hatch seal, shorten the engine box, and possibly have some more room for fish box/bumper storage.

I have two questions about this. First, I asked a professional fiberglass/boat repair guy how he would do it, and he said to just epoxy fiberglassed 2x4's right onto the existing deck and build the new marine plywood/glass deck right on top of the old one! I want to know if anyone else recommends this? It would save cutting out the old one and might be less work but there would be lots extra weight left on the boat and I'm worried that water and whatever else would pool up between the old deck and the new deck and cause problems. I also would lose the possible benefit of more room for fish box. I want to know if anyone else recommends this way of doing it?

Second, if I were to cut out the old deck and build the new one without it, how would I go about changing the structure/supports to raise it 3-4 inches? I've read about people screwing wood into the stringers to raise their height and building on that. Has anyone done this that can explain the process step by step or show me pics?

I guess I have a third question and that's whether anyone would recommend just leaving the boat as is. Like how often is water really coming over the gunwales/transom? Is the benefit of this project worth the work? I'll definitely waterproof the deck hatches and engine box no matter what but relying on bilge pumps to save my ass if (when) shit hits the fan isn't appealing to me.

What do yall think?

-Mark

Great little iconic boats. They are good to work and modify but my experience is people crash when trying tore-do the electrical system. When you get to that p[point call me or send me a message.

If you rip it all out and start over it will be much easier. I had two different 24 projects that friends were working on at my place and they both got abandoned at that point.

Back then not so much demand for them. I wish I kept them for someone. But I had parts everywhere and had them hauled away.....sorry guys.

 

[SkipJack Boats]

Liquid from any source: Wave over the back, blood in the boat from fishing, water in the boat from dive gear, a washdown hose or washing down in general. I've got 2 large bilge pumps in case of emergencies but I don't want water in the bilge at all after paying bukku bucks for this engine rebuild. The less exposed it is to salt water the better. So because of the submerged plugs at the deckline I'm trying to figure out an alternate system get water out of the cockpit reliably.

What I'm thinking of now is putting drains in the cockpit deck that lead into some enclosed space away from the engine where it can be pumped out of the boat by a third bilge pump just for that purpose. Ideally there would be some kind of strainer around the pump and a way to access the enclosed space in case some fishing line or fish guts or something got down there.

Think it would work?

Great advice!
When I was a saltwater guy for Basspro I would tell guys who bought old boats to do all of this. They had no interest in replacing old bilge pumps because of the expense.
I always recommend two pumps and even a high water alarm. But in a few minutes they would be pushing a cart with $400.00 worth of stereo equipment and they would be explaining to someone that they were now captains and would take them out fishing for a good price. Gene pool correcting itself.

 

[SkipJack Boats]

BTW I have known people who make a collection box with a automatic bilge and it works great.
we like to have a boat that is dry at the end of a trip. In other words no water at all .
The worst thing for a boat is freshwater. It's will cause dry rot and saltwater kills dry rot. Rain and washing a boat is the main cause.
Still with that being said I would chase every leak no matter how small.

 

[Dragon]

Since you don't want any water in the bilge at all. I would raise deck and add adequate drains. not sure a reservoir is the answer for a wave?? Nothing mechanical just get the water Out!

My 2 pesos

I did not know that!! saltwater kills dry rot...its the fresh water...

 

[sharkythesailor]

Hey its been a minute. So work is still goin on the boat. A few matters came up that were more important than the sump box so I've moved it down the list. Will update.

Something that I'm wondering about now is the exhaust elbow setup on these boats. Is there a *good* way to do them?

I'm not sure if mine is set up the right way. I know it's hard because the motor is heavy and sits below the water line and there really isn't a lot of space in the engine bay for complex exhaust system fabrication. Nevertheless, like I've mentioned before I've put some coin into the rebuild and want to give the motor the best environment possible.

I'm attaching pics of the innards of the motor before she got cleaned up, machined, and sleeved. It seems that water made its way into the block somehow. I was talking with a mechanic and he said that this could come from abuse of the engine as well like someone overheating it/running it hard but I'd like to hear some opinions from you guys. Posted these pics on boat diesel and people said check exhaust configuration.

Anybody got experience with the skippy 24 exhaust setup?

 

[tbev]

If you had stock manifolds that were left on too long its pretty common to have developed a leak of salt water into the jugs from the manifold. It is manifolds are wear items and need to be pulled every year to check. Especially if your running seawater thru the motor. The exhaust valvees on a boat are an especially important part of a boat motor, but it arguably the most important difference between a car motor and a boat motor. Cars don't sit at a high rpm for extended periods of time like a boat does. Two of the most important things to spend money one imo on a boat motor are exhaust valves and manifolds. I was in a hurry to get fishing so I ran a set of stock styled manifolds I had from my previous motor, they still have a season left in them. But I have a set of stainless sleeved headers from Bassett I'm modifying to run on my new notor, I'll have that done in a few weeks, but I'll post pics if you want. Right now I'm running the manifolds out thru the hull. It was a pretty simple setup to build coming from the factory exhaust that went thru the drive. I'll dig up a pic or two of the manifolds to hull later, he's pics of the thru hulls. (I previously had stainless thru hulls w rubber internal flappers from seadog I think, one of the flappers fell out on day one). Another pretty easy thing to do is incorporate a heat exchanger and keep seawater out of your new engine.

 

[tbev]

Here's the inside, I just a handful of silicone couplers and two heat exchangers. There's also a smaller exchanger for engine oil and hydraulic fluid but the big one has a second one below it you can't see

 

[tbev]

Pics

 

[sharkythesailor]

If you had stock manifolds that were left on too long its pretty common to have developed a leak of salt water into the jugs from the manifold. It is manifolds are wear items and need to be pulled every year to check. Especially if your running seawater thru the motor. The exhaust valvees on a boat are an especially important part of a boat motor, but it arguably the most important difference between a car motor and a boat motor. Cars don't sit at a high rpm for extended periods of time like a boat does. Two of the most important things to spend money one imo on a boat motor are exhaust valves and manifolds. I was in a hurry to get fishing so I ran a set of stock styled manifolds I had from my previous motor, they still have a season left in them. But I have a set of stainless sleeved headers from Bassett I'm modifying to run on my new notor, I'll have that done in a few weeks, but I'll post pics if you want. Right now I'm running the manifolds out thru the hull. It was a pretty simple setup to build coming from the factory exhaust that went thru the drive. I'll dig up a pic or two of the manifolds to hull later, he's pics of the thru hulls. (I previously had stainless thru hulls w rubber internal flappers from seadog I think, one of the flappers fell out on day one). Another pretty easy thing to do is incorporate a heat exchanger and keep seawater out of your new engine.

View attachment 1248205

View attachment 1248206

All of the parts are being gone through and tested before installation so hopefully it'll work out. I am just worried that I don't have enough height in the exhaust configuration to keep water from flowin in and through the turbo. The guy who owned the boat a few people before me actually posted it for sale here on BD once upon a time and mentioned a new turbo and exhaust elbow but looking at the inside of the engine I'm wondering if it was done right. Posting a picture of the engine when it was still installed.

Your setup is really clean! I never thought of installing the heat exchanger away from the motor I thought they had to be together. I bet it makes servicing it very easy. Thank you for taking the time to write and post pictures this helps! Maybe a solution could be as simple as installing flaps on my exhaust outlet like you've got on yours.