AluminumAlloyBoats.com

Not to muddle up Alloytoy's thread I want to ask a question. Did the math of required aluminum to build a pilothouse on my 21ft Seahawk. Added weight will be in the neighborhood of 400lbs. To save a little on the weight I will use Plastic and Canvass on the back. Is that to much? The roof will be 6'6"tall from the deck. Boat weighs approximately 2800lbs. Powered by a 150hp Yamaha 4 stroke and a T-8 kicker. 70 gallon fuel tank amid ship. Boat currently has a canvass top that requires me to duck while under it. Top is 6 years old and starting to show its age.

I would reuse the front three windows and add two sliders on the sides. Besides the amount of work that it would take what are some of the other issues that I should worry about?

I will be removing my radar arch and mounting the radar to the top of the roof as well as adding the required rocket launchers.

John, think about making it a bolt-on top. Unless what you build really ties in well with the boat's factory fit & finish the project could hurt its resale value if welded on. Doesn't Motion do that as an option on their boats, a removable hardtop/pilothouse?

This Top was added and it looks like it is a bolt on. He posted this back in the spring on http://www.ifish.net. He said he is happy with it. He does think the side windows are too small. added weight he thinks is 150 lbs. What I am talking about is a true pilot house with the glass leaning forward. You can see the roof supports in on of the pics; 4 ea. How many to I need for a 8' L X 7' W roof. what spacing 2', 16", or 1'. Top will be made of 5052 sheets of .125" thick welded together.

I think the attached pictures of the boat looks OK but I can not stand up in it and drive it if it was mine. My head would be hitting the structure unless I was standing in the hatch. Plus I could not see. my windows would be located higher by about a foot or so. Alloytoy's rough drawing is what I like and want to do.

Oh, I thought you were going to leave your existing windshield untouched and build up from there like the boat above. My gut feeling is a full NW pilothouse structure is going to be uncomfortably heavy for your sled. 400 lbs? Stand-up operation with radar & stuff on top of that? I'd get some input from NR or a similar builder. Hate to see you end up with something that doesn't handle properly. I'd suggest you think about moving to a boat built more like what you want like an OS. In the end it will cost you less and you'll enjoy it more IMO.

I do appreciate the comment and I am thinking along those lines. BUT the 60 to 70 thousand makes it kinda hard.
I was and am hoping to get a favorable input. Hewes and a few of others do make a hard top Pilothouse style boat. The new Northriver site is showing a Seahawk with a half hard top with the original style windshield in place with canvass stretching back to connect it.

thanks

http://www.pacificpilothouse.com/videos-shipshape.html
Some weigh 170 lbs. Click on <pilot house finder>. Bottom of page click on <View all Pilothouses>.

Jetty says Bastard I say Hybrid. Bonded and bolted to the deck.

Mark
2325 Wa Pacificskiff

We just did this pilot house conversion for a Zodiac. Ali weight was approx 500 lbs but this includes consoles and seat boxes etc. It also needed to be built down to the sole so there is more material there.

400lbs is two guys. Does having two extra people on your boat effect it much?

When you're finished will the boat be worth more or less than it currently is?

I would not be as concerned with overall weight, but more concerned with the change of center of gravity. That zodiac pilot house looks cool, but awful top heavy. The smallest hardtop that Hewes does is a 22'x8'. Not many full cabins under 22 foot. Just my 2cents and you get it for free.

Our Ironwood is an excellent little cabin set on a 19 footer - I've seen nicely done 17 foot cabin alloy boats and the odd 16 footer works if you are going more to the awning sheet and tube style instead of a fully welded plate construction.

IronwoodIsland wrote:Our Ironwood is an excellent little cabin set on a 19 footer - I've seen nicely done 17 foot cabin alloy boats and the odd 16 footer works if you are going more to the awning sheet and tube style instead of a fully welded plate construction.

We'd love to see more pics of your boats

I had a new 21' North River Seahawk built in 2005 they would not put a hard top on anything less than 22'er at that time I did not ask why but it might have had to do with stability. They wanted $8K for the hard top option at that time.

In 2006 they made some changes to the hull and all later models had a wider bottom and taller sides that may make it possible. I would contact them they are still in business for now the bank is running them ask them about adding the house and see what they say. See if they will give you a price on doing the work that would at least tell you if it should be done.

Mike

I will keep the basic layout and build a hard top like the pictures I posted above. I talked to a local boat builder in Marysville WA. He thinks a top built with .100" plate with 1" X 2" tube will be strong enough and as well as lighter then my original idea of a true pilothouse out of .125". about a 200 lb deference. We shall see.

I am in the process of fabricating and installing of a Pilothouse on My 21' Seahawk along with enclosing the bow with a new set of bow rails.
Aluminum used is 5052 alloy .100" thick. The structure/extrusion is made the same alloy.

Still a lot of work to do. The basic support structure is tacked in. It will look like the drawing below. Will be adding 10 windows to it three in the front above the originals, 2 more each side, and three windows of which one of them will be on a sliding door on the back. Added weight will be in the 200 to 250 lb range. The gap in the supports are for clearance so my big head won't contact it only thing on the top will be a raft. The big gap over the helm will be the mount for my radar. It will be a sheet of .160 rolled to fit the contour of the roof.

The mounts are courtesy of Troy aka Fishnazzi. Thought we might upgrade the shop with some fish beauties.

I am still working; not as fast. But side projects keep popping up and kicking me.
Last Night on craigs list I found some windows for $15 apiece they are fixed widows that are safety glass that shatters. Two are at 24" X 48" for the sides, two @ 18" X 60" for the back glass and one more at 18" X 48" for slider door.

Trimmed to fit the front side panels. Had a issue of the cabin being 9' and the Sheets of Aluminum are 4' X 8' I had to cut the Panels for the side first at 56" then rotated the panel so its 48" length was at the top and then cut it for the fwd panel. If I had bought 4' x 10' sheet it would have increased my cost and my waste. I can live with it.

Troy did come over and helped. He took out the floor boards plus I hired a local kid to help clean the shop and boat. We also trimmed out the roof panels with 3/4" pipe for the front and sides along with a 1.5" pipe along the back edge. I will mount my rod holders to this Pretty much the same way I had the ones on the radar arch the O/B ones will go out at a 45deg angle and act as my outriggers.

Tomorrow night I have to work at 5 pm till 11 to catch a plane and turn it so it can leave for Charleston SC. The morning I have a friend coming over to help set up my Generator Transfer Box. So I might not get to much done but will have the aft sides ready to be tacked up. then I need to work on the back portion of the house.

Continued on with locating and spot welding in the aft port side and the aft portion of the roof. The Starboard side needs to be trimmed a 1/4" or so along the bottom edge to get it to fit.

I did start to lay out my windows. The front facing will most likely be trimmed by an inch or two at the top to get an another wiper motor in there with three wiper blades rigged to it.
The view from the side has three pictures. One with the window 3" from the bottom edge, one 9.5" from the bottom edge and the last with it 3" plus a second window 5" wide X 48". What do you all think I should do?

A wahoo for your pleasure.
Damn extra shot of my dirty windows is no charge

Lot of info was lost Les. Sorry to hear and feel the agony of the site being done. I have been posting the updates on BD.com Washington chapter. Hope you all like it and the pictures.

I did pull out my floorboards to clean the bilge and now that they are out . Question do I put in Aluminum floor instead of Wood?
Diamond plate or sheet .125" with epoxy (I have it on hand 5 gals, white) and grit

pro? less up keep on the vinyl floor. needs to be replaced now. 5 yrs old. torn and worn

Con? costs more money. less access if welded in.

Think about wire chases in the overhead.

Used fir Speaker wires,Anchor light, deck spot lights, radar, VHF coax just to name a few.

John, yes we lost some good info. but at the beginning of my crash we lost 13 months of posts , we got it to only 21 days so far .

Bobby is right on about the CHASE for you wires and goodies . I would use 2 or 3 pipes or channels for chases .

I am perty tired from the last few days [ rebuilding a forum ] to remember , where did you end up getting the Glass for your windows and was it a pain to get cut ?

She is looking good.

I bought five windows for $15 apiece got to call the guy back and buy two more 18" X 48". The other ones in the front and fwd sides will be Laminated safety glass inset in rubber The same Guy has some of that glass too. I give him the patterns and he will cut it for me. How much has not been determined yet but cheaper than the regular glass shop. Stringing my wire thru plastic hose snaked down the vertical supports. Ceiling supports are 1" X 2" X .060" walled tube. Radar plug will not run down it. I will run it on the forward side of the supports with zip ties or as we call them where I work, Panduits. I will be adding a shelf to each side. and still trying to source the right size side windows that are sliders. Cheap

Ya mean some alloy boats come without alloy decks welded in?

JETTYWOLF wrote:Ya mean some alloy boats come without alloy decks welded in?

Marine plywood with vinyl fabric covering. ordered up my diamond plate and sheet today from Bruce at Coldwaterboats in Marysville, WA Cheaper that way.

I am trying to come up with a slider door that I can build and use. 27" wide door with window. Tracks top and bottom. Should they slide on plastic or rollers? what should I use for the tracks?

I promised the pictures of some of my progress. My picture of the fish box aft bulkhead.Should hold about 70 gallons of water or a big mess of fish. Tuna that is and Ice. Water as ballast if needed do to the pilothouse addition

(Les side bar Bloodydecks has a neat Attachment where you can upload 8 or so pictures at a time instead of ONE. PIA)

The fwd windows are cut out after much debate and repositioning of the cut lines when a friend came over to lend his eye to the proper positioning of the forward ones.

The rod holders for the back have a 3/4"D X 2"long standoff welded to them. I drilled a hole and put the standoff inside then my son tigged it.

The Side rod holders are 10" long with hole drilled in 1/2" from the end. The pipe slipped through and then bent. then cut to size. We located it on the side of the boat. welded it in then set the angles and positions of the tubes.

The Anchor Rope Pipe/Houser is a piece of 4" pipe put in to the 20 ton press and made into an oblong tube and then welded to the flange and a cap was made with a hole that will face aft for the rope and chain to pass

Looking AWESOME Will you be leaving the lower (original) glass in the boat or covering that with alum sheet Very nice work