# Captain Ahab's 16' Mirrocraft



## jkbirocz (Mar 18, 2011)

Well as long time members of this fine site, it was only typical of Captain Ahab and I not to make good examples of ourselves and take plenty of pics of his boat while we are working on it. I cannot be blamed as I cannot find my battery charger for my camera, but I did finally take some pics with my phone. We started a few weeks ago with making a new transom and working on the frame of the decking. We are using 1"x1" and 2"x2" angle for the frame with lots of diamond plate and flat stock mixed in. We have pretty much been winging it and have been going along with trial and error. We will be left with a huge front deck, a low deck in the middle and a deck in the back. 

Throughout the build so far I have ended up bleeding by the end of each workday, the highlight was me almost taking my pinky off with a cuttoff wheel on my grinder. It's healing back fine and is almost completely closed up after less than two weeks, so all is well. It has been slow going fighting the weather and Captain's 2yr old running around hiding tools and whatnot, but we are getting there. My hopes are that the decking will be cut and ready to go on by next week, with only electrical stuff to worry about after that. 

We have decided to leave outside of the boat the original color and nice and beat up and just make a sleeper of a bass machine :lol: 
While it may not look much better when we are done, it will definately fish a lot better than only bench seats to stand on, and two transom trolling motors. It will now have two rear and a bowmount foot control for electric only lakes.

Needless to say these pics suck, but with the weather getting nice it is hard enough to work on the boat rather than fish, let alone take the time to take pics. Of course we didn't take any before pice either #-o 

Rear deck frame and part of console






Part of front deck frame, and start of battery tray





A little more of front deck fram and battery tray





Finished battery tray 





Complete tray and front deck frame


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## Jim (Mar 18, 2011)

Let the games begin! :beer:

Cant wait to fish out of it in the fall! :shock:


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## SlowRollin' (Mar 18, 2011)

"I have ended up bleeding by the end of each workday, the highlight was me almost taking my pinky off with a cuttoff wheel on my grinder."

Ain't that the truth! It's impossible to get an honest feel for the work that goes into the mod's until you tear into one. I started on my project two weeks ago when my vacation started and I'm looking forward to going back to work tonight...I'm beat.

I have to say your battery tray looks better then my whole boat right now. I like how you've placed it in the center to keep the weight distribution even. 

Stay on it and give lil' Ahab a disposable camera and tell him to go at it. Those pics will be priceless!


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## jkbirocz (Mar 23, 2011)

Well everything is coming along nicely, hopefully we get some decent weather this weekend and next week to get the decks sealed and painted. All of the framing is complete and we have the back deck and low deck cut. I only took a pic of the back deck, but I will take more when we get the front deck cut. We went light on the framing and will probably add in a few more supports after we see how solid the decks are once they are cut and in place, so far so good though. It's all coming together and taking far too long.....we wanna fish #-o


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## jkbirocz (Jun 2, 2011)

So yeah....we totally didn't take pics of this project. So here are the pics of the mostly finished product. Incredibly the thing still floats, and has had 4 trips so far and has performed flawlessly. Still some adjustments to do, but it is well on its way to slaying toadie bass


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## fender66 (Jun 2, 2011)

Looks pretty darn good to me! Thanks for the pic update...I've been waiting with baited breath. :LOL2:


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## Waterwings (Jun 2, 2011)

Nice work, guys! 8) =D>


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## hiker_tech (Jun 3, 2011)

That looks great! I really like the metal frame work. You should get several fun years out of that rig.


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## charlietuna (Jun 3, 2011)

Looks good....but that Mirrocraft mint green? My arms are still sore from sanding that hideous paint off mine....LOLOL :mrgreen:


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## Captain Ahab (Jun 3, 2011)

charlietuna said:


> Looks good....but that Mirrocraft mint green? My arms are still sore from sanding that hideous paint off mine....LOLOL :mrgreen:



It is all sorts of shades of green brown and some dark red (fish blood) 

No way in hell am i paining the outside - that does not get me more fish so it is not imprtant

heck, i even broke down and got cup holders for hell boy!


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## laxpro388 (Jun 6, 2011)

hey man looking great its nicerthan mine right now. I havealmost the same one and wanted to do the same type of brackets as you did. Only question i have is did you just bolt on to the ribs of the boat or weld on? whats your beam width too?


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## Captain Ahab (Jun 7, 2011)

laxpro388 said:


> hey man looking great its nicerthan mine right now. I havealmost the same one and wanted to do the same type of brackets as you did. Only question i have is did you just bolt on to the ribs of the boat or weld on? whats your beam width too?




Welded to the ribs would be best but I used SS self taping sheet metal screws with bolt heads and some 5200 I think the beam is around 5' 

If you are doing the same boat I can offer you some tips - Instead of building a center frame (like I did) just run your aluminum "L" pieces from port to starboard and then brace down to the ribs. We built an elaborate box in the middle that was really a waste of time - it is super strong but turned out not to be necessary and overkill. 

Are you planning on mounting a pedestal seat? If so, you want to make a 'sandwich" out of aluminum sheet for the base. I use 1/2' plywood for my boat to save weight so i reinforced it with diamond plate anywhere there would be pressure.


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## Captain Ahab (Jan 11, 2013)

I am now going to add a fixed 50 lb TM to the stern to replace the two I have there now!


We are gonna fly down the lake maybe as fast as 5 mph

Anyone know how to convert a foot control TM to a fixed position?


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## overboard (Jan 11, 2013)

Brings tears to my eyes! Fished out of a 14' Mirrocraft for years; same color.
Didn't look pretty, and didn't leak a drop!


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## Brine (Jan 11, 2013)

Captain Ahab said:


> I am now going to add a fixed 50 lb TM to the stern to replace the two I have there now!
> 
> 
> We are gonna fly down the lake maybe as fast as 5 mph
> ...



Would be an easy trade down here.


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## Captain Ahab (Jan 12, 2013)

I would be happy to trade is anyone has a large enough fixed mount TM


want at least a 55


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