# SeArk 1872 MV delivered this week. Now the fun begins



## Bob Landry (Nov 23, 2014)

My new SeaArk 1872/MagicTilt Trailer was delivered this wee. The deal is finished with the rigging and now my part begins. Lots of electrical upgrades in the mill. I'm going to replace the 4 position switch panel with a Blue Sea 8 Sw/CB panel. When the T-top goes on after Christmas, it will have Lumitec flood lights for the fore and aft deck. I havnt decided on where I'm going to hang the sonar screen, from the T-top or do a console mount. It's a 10" screen so I'll have to wait until the top is on and see what makes sense. The Fusion Stereo and the VHF gets transferred from my old trade in, will add an hour meter and also USB charging and 12V outlet.
On the back end, it gets a second battery or the trolling motor and electronics, a Blue Sea ACR to charge batteries simultaneously, and a on/off battery switch to combine batteries for emergency starting. I'll epoxy starboard mounting pads under the console to attach terminal strips and bus bars so I don't have to drill holes in the console. I'll update this thread as the work progresses.

My new SeaArk 1872 was delivered yesterday, and Aaron and his guys at Action Marine in Austin jumped on it. It is now rigged and waiting for the funds to get put in the appropriate account, and it's a done deal. 

Start Battery and Racor filter installed




Motor and JackPlate mounted




Hydro Dynamics Rapid Jack Manual Jack Plate




This is how the riggers drill perfected spaced holes, and we though they were just eyeballing it.




Just delivered and waiting to be rigged




Bow deck. This thing is almost big enough to dance on. There's storage under the step and under the larger hatch is the 30 gallon gas tank. The hatch for the anchor(not shown) well wasn't an option on my model, but we convinced SeaArk to send me a hatch and I'll cut a hole for it.
I also orded it with no live well or box in front of the console. A cooler with a seat cushion will provide extra seating when required. I ordered the boat in that configuration because I wanted the additional area in front of the console.




The view from the rear. The console looks kind of bare with no grab rail, but it's getting a custom T-Top right after the first of the year at Custom Marine Concepts in Houston.




It will probably get either a door on the console for neater looking storage or maybe a storage hatch under the leaning post. 

It needs a lot of fish slime.


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## rscottp (Nov 23, 2014)

That's a great looking boat. You must be excited, I know i would be with a spanking new ride!


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## WPS (Nov 23, 2014)

Nice boat & nice trailer too!


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## LeftCoastAngler (Nov 24, 2014)

Nice rig. My buddy had a SeaArk before.
It was truly a fishing machine.


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## jhunter1 (Nov 24, 2014)

Congrats on the new boat. I just picked my seaark 170 rxjt with 75 hp etec this past weekend. Seems to be a really well built boat.


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## Lowe 2070 CC (Nov 24, 2014)

https://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m94/rlandry6/sa6_zpsb18920ce.jpg

What is that welded aluminum bracket on the left side of the transom?


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## Bob Landry (Nov 24, 2014)

Lowe 2070 CC said:


> https://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m94/rlandry6/sa6_zpsb18920ce.jpg
> 
> What is that welded aluminum bracket on the left side of the transom?



That is a step to assist in getting back in the boat in the event you fall overboard. I'm told that a new federal law requires it on boats of a certain size range, but I haven't researched it. It wasn't anything I ordered as an option. It does seem like a pretty good idea, though


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## Bob Landry (Nov 24, 2014)

jhunter1 said:


> Congrats on the new boat. I just picked my seaark 170 rxjt with 75 hp etec this past weekend. Seems to be a really well built boat.



How do you like the etec so far? We do the test run on mine tomorrow and if all is well, I take possession.

I was in Hot Springs a couple of weeks ago and drove down to Monticello to tour the SeaArk plant. I was blown away by the amount of aluminum that goes into these boats. I won't say you couldn't tear one up, but you would have to do something REALLY stupid, especially with everything being .125" aluminum.


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## Badbagger (Nov 24, 2014)

Congrats Bob =D> Looks SWEET and now the FUN begins and let me help you spend a few bucks :mrgreen:


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## Bob Landry (Nov 24, 2014)

Badbagger said:


> Congrats Bob =D> Looks SWEET and now the FUN begins and let me help you spend a few bucks :mrgreen:



I appreciate the offer, but I think I got it.. LOL


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## jhunter1 (Nov 25, 2014)

I really like the etec so far but only took it out once. I have abother etec that is a 2012 with over a hundred hours on it without an issue. Im sure you will be happy with yours.


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## LeftCoastAngler (Nov 25, 2014)

Gonna do a bow mounted trolling motor?


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## Bob Landry (Nov 25, 2014)

LeftCoastAngler said:


> Gonna do a bow mounted trolling motor?



Yes, I have one for it. I had SeaArk not attach the mount so that I could positiob it so the head of the trolling motor osen't hang over the side of the boat like many of them do.I also have a quick mount for it.


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## SaltyGhost (Nov 26, 2014)

Looks Awesome! I'm loving my SeaArk and I'm sure you will too.


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## Badbagger (Nov 26, 2014)

Bob, how did she run? I'm thinking you made need a 4 blade Rogue SS prop - These boats are ass end heavy. I bet it flew! I was running over 50 and not at WOT with the 115. Once my new Layton Bay is done being built, I'm thinking of looking around for a used SeaArk 1652 MVT. With what I'll have into my Layton, I'm not running that joker in any skinny water. I was so impressed with the Etecs, my new Layton Bay has an Etec 200HO sitting new in the crate when she's done... same color combo you have.

Great choice =D> 

So fill us in brother


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## Bob Landry (Nov 26, 2014)

Badbagger said:


> Bob, how did she run? I'm thinking you made need a 4 blade Rogue SS prop - These boats are ass end heavy. I bet it flew! I was running over 50 and not at WOT with the 115. Once my new Layton Bay is done being built, I'm thinking of looking around for a used SeaArk 1652 MVT. With what I'll have into my Layton, I'm not running that joker in any skinny water. I was so impressed with the Etecs, my new Layton Bay has an Etec 200HO sitting new in the crate when she's done... same color combo you have.
> 
> Great choice =D>
> 
> So fill us in brother



We ran it yesterday with a 15" pitch prop. The RPM @WOT was 5800, so we put a 17" on it. I havn't run it with the different prop, but the mechanic said a 2" change in the prop will change it 300 RPM, so that should get it down close to the mid point of the operating range. I didn't have a speedo or GPS, so I don't know how fast it was running. It was fast enough that my eyes watered the entire time. The tech said when propping one, the determining factor is where the RPM tops out at WOT, and speed is what it is. Attitude seemed good and it got on plane like a scalded ape and ran nice on plan. Had a little pull to starboard, but we adjusted the "fin", and I can tweak that if I need to. The boat is everything I expected.

I got my second battery in today as well as the Blue Sea ACR, ANL fuses, and terminal strips. Wiring, particularly battery cable takes a lot of time if you do it right with the heat shrink, cable ties, and all of the other stuff that makes it look right. I'll finish it tomorrow and will post a photo of it. Sea Ark did not leave me enough cable for the trolling motor wiring, so I had to revise my plan or run new cable and that wasn't worth the additional cost or time..


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## Bob Landry (Nov 29, 2014)

Got the deck hatch for the anchor well put in today. Still have the trolling motor mount and it will be pretty much done ntil it's time to get the T-top done.


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## Bob Landry (Nov 30, 2014)

Slow day today. Mounted the spare tire carrier and the trolling motor bracket. Hopefully it gets splashed tomorrow for it's first big run up the lake.


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## JoshKeller (Dec 8, 2014)

personally, if it was me, I'd prop it out so it was right at the top of the RPM range with just you and regular gear in it. that way when you load it down and add another person or two, itll fall into the middle and wont be lugging the motor.


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## wlshafor (Dec 11, 2014)

Nice looking boat


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## wlshafor (Dec 11, 2014)

You live in Austin TX? I'm in Round Rock


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## Bob Landry (Dec 11, 2014)

wlshafor said:


> You live in Austin TX? I'm in Round Rock



Yep, live in North Austin


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## Bob Landry (Dec 14, 2014)

I thought that I had posted these, but I guess I didn't. This is the completed electrical system for motor starting, battery charging, and battery combining for a dead starting battery. 
A Blue Sea ACR charges both batteries when the motor is running, both batteries are fused with 100A ANL fuses going to the ACR. The cable to the trolling motor is protected by a 60A Blue Sea resettable circuit breaker and the console is fed with #8 marine wire and also protected by a 25A circuit breaker. The storage areas by the batteries are lined with vinyl diamond tread matting(Not shown) to prevent stuff from sliding around.









A Starboard door with a locking SS latch covers the openin the console nicely..


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## Badbagger (Jan 11, 2015)

Looks GREAT BOB!


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## Bob Landry (Jan 15, 2015)

I got it back from the T-Top place Tuesday. Glenn @ Custom Marine Concepts in Spring,Texas did it and this thing is a work of art. Glenn and his guys are the toppest of the notch, both to deal with and their product. I also had him build me a short leaning post to replace the one that came on the boat. The leaning post and the rear fishing chair were the same height so the chair was unusable as it was. I could have bought a taller post but I wanted to be able to sit down to drive and I wanted some storage under the seat. The short leaning post cured all three issues. The top has front and rear deck Lumitec flood lights. I'll wire them to separate switches on the panel and also add a couple of Lumitec Led strip lights at the bottom of the console for courtesy/night fishing lights. Those strips were salvaged off my G3 before I traded it. I did a console flush mount with the Stereo because the Humminbird display takes up all of the console top and the VHF will be mounted in the T-Top.

The mounting bases for the top are 3/8" aluminum plate attached to the floor by drilling and tapping into the subfloor supports and screwed down with 1/4-20 machine screws I'm a believer in machine screws over self tapping ones. Everything that I installed was done that way. Even if you are only working with 1/4" plate, with 1/4-20 screws you still have 5 threads holding, so nothing is going to go anywhere.

My original thought was to have a cooler rack integrated with the front of the T-Top, but I realized that when I did not want to use a cooler(The console was ordered without a bait well or storage box) for seating, that space would still be taken up and would be unusable exept to set a tool box down in, so I opted out of that idea. I'm going with the Kennedy Cooler hold down for the cooler seat. I'll fabricate an additional set of deck plates for the hold downs and that gives me the option of using the either a 54 or a 96 quart cooler for a seat. I think the success of this setup is credited to having each space do multiple functions. 
I found a place in North Carolina (Fin-Addict)that builds Starboard stuff at a reasonable price and I had two storage boxes that fit on each side of the leaning post and that each hold two 3700 Plano tackle boxes. That lets me swap out between electrical connectors and mechanical fasteners for work with fishing tackle boxes. They also did the door on the front of the console. It looks a lot nicer than an open hole that stuff gets thrown into.
I still have to order speakers for the stereo. The plan for today is to install the GPS speedometer and complete the T-Top light wiring to the switch panel. It's been fun, but it's time to go fishing and I really need some good weather.













Here is a shot of the tackle box holders. The advantage of custom building is that you can make stuff to fit in spaces where it wouldn't normally fit. These go just right on each side of the leaning post.

The console only came from SeaArk with a tach and fuel gauge, so everything else was installed by me.













The white gizmos attached to the rib in the upper right corner of the bottom pic are holders that I fabricated out of Starboard that accommodate removable fishing rod holders. The holders for each side are three rod Starboard holders from Boat Outfitters. I wanted them removable so that when not fishing, they aren't sticking out to snag stuff or get run into and broken.


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## Badbagger (Jan 15, 2015)

GREAT WORK Bob! Outstanding :mrgreen:


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## Bob Landry (Jan 15, 2015)

Badbagger said:


> GREAT WORK Bob! Outstanding :mrgreen:



Thanks, Tom. Your SeaArk build was quite an inspiration.


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## Badbagger (Jan 15, 2015)

You did me proud brother! I've got another SeaArk project idea for the perfect little skinny skiff with a tiller. 1652 MVT and some custom sheet metal work. Not this year though, my Layton build on tht has my full attention. My wife has my full attention as well, the damn Layton is going to end up costing me 1.5 times what I paid for my first house LOL :mrgreen: 

So the skinny tinny SeaArk project is a year out but came across the idea quite by accident with some photos I found.


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## Bob Landry (Jan 15, 2015)

Well, go easy on this one. I can;t afford to do another one.. LOL


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