1974 Mako 15 Build

[Thunderhorse]

Hello to the forum! I've owned the 1974 Mako 15 with '96 Johnson 50 pictured below for about 7 months now. This little beast has been ridden hard and put up wet (wet-slipped) for the past six months until she was trailered home after thanksgiving. She has (pics in order) soft floors, a bad transom, a strange hull crack on the keel just behind the bow, and potential prior trailering accident damage at the port transom cap.

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We got her ("Water-Ready!") on a Saturday morning for a good deal after randomly getting the boat itch while drinking Friday night. In my excitement, I almost sank her when the wife and I put her in to bring her to the canal out back of the house. I forgot the bilge plug, even though I grew with a boat... When I realized my mistake, and had water coming out of the bilge hatch, I throttled up and cranked the wheel to get to shore; the steering cable metal end clamp split at the tilt tube and the cable pig-tailed out while sinking! I hand-steered the engine to beach her on shore (with the wife working the throttle) only to find that the bilge pump was wired with household twist-on connectors and non-functional). I had to macgyver the bilge plug in with a random washer as a flat head, hot-wire the bilge while standing in the water next to the boat, then fish the steering cable back into the cable while using the same washer to tighten a strap screw-clamp to make up the split metal steering cable end clamp. We made it back home to the seawall; realizing on the flats along the way that the TT motor brushes were dirty and functioned at-will.

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I have installed a new steering cable, helm, and SS wheel, a new dual battery setup with seperate house/motor/parallel switch and new electronics, a stereo with amp and speakers, bought and installed a used TT assembly, engine bracket, and new tilt tube, and I've rebuilt the carbs (twice, this old 2T dies at idle, but run's like a bat out of hell at WOT). Thinking this 50 will blow up, I purchased a '89 Rude 70 that I'm rebuilding at .030 over to replace the 50. I'm about to begin a rebuild on this beast, but I haven't seen a full 15 rebuild thread.

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That being said, I'm hoping to be able to piece together all of the information from other hulls and 15 threads on this site to provide a tutorial to others with such ambitions.

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Since she is the first boat for my wife and I, her name is "The Beginning"

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[Thunderhorse]

I never use the computer after work and I only troll others work at work, but here is an update.





To begin, a tent in the driveway to please the neighbors.



Popping the hatch again, should have known that much foam would mean more...



Foolishly decided to mark the fish boxes to cut first...





I gave up on that route and:







The floors were a mess as expected, and these fish boxes were a b*tch:







After three weekends:

[Thunderhorse]

To continue the update, removed the interior transom skin to save for modifications; no fish boxes going back in...





Found this nice delam-looking section in the center stringer:



Right over the keel crack (or blister/delam? thoughts/opinions?



Decided to tackle that when we flip the boat in the yard and moved on to the transom inner skin removal:





Nice hollow spot in the port side, cracking noted prior now makes some sense... Got all that removed and moved her to the yard for a cleaning:





Glassed the outter skin, went with vinylester:



Then built a form table on the boat and laid up the transom: 2 layers each of 1708 & 1808 alternating:



Popped right off thanks to some wax and pva:



Rough shaping for hull (with dust from sanding, no bubbles here):



Mocked up, going to pour with arjay, and need to figure out how to lay up a fresh layup on both the outter and inner skin, somehow correctly space the skins, then tab in the inner skin into the hull. I'm thinking a hotter mix of peanut butter for the cove bead and tabbing.



I don't want to get stuck with kicked resin, out of square inner transom skins, arjay leaks, or much more crap about how long this is taking...

Got the inner skin cut down to height and mocked up with the saved skin from above and prepped all surfaces tonight.

All thoughts on spacing the skins with fresh green skin glass (with time for tabbing to kick then pour arjay) are appreciated.

[Sailor]

Going all in! What are your plans for modifications? Looks like you could put in some in floor storage where the fish boxes used to be. A bilge hatch would be nice. Going to be a nice Mako when you are done!

On the transom I don't see any reason to hot coat prior to the pour. I've got some plugs I cut out of my transom and six years later, sitting in a jar of water the skin is bonded tight to core.

[Thunderhorse]

All in is the way to go! I was debating in deck storage back where the fish boxes are, but I'm torn between having the space for some additional day tanks (she only has an 11 gal tank under the console currently)... May think about doing the storage with day tanks on top.

I'm definitely going to reinstall the bilge hatch, but the design of stringer to transom tie-in at the bilge has me perplexed. The factory only ran half a stringer back on the port and starboard in a box formation, then cut the top out...

Sailor - anything special you did prior to the pour besides the usual roughing up? I had to google search Mary Esther, but I figured out your close to my brother up there at Eglin!

[krizm200]

Wow! Now I know what is under the deck of my 1974 Mako 15! The floor is very solid, so I did not have to rebuild anything under the floor. I like the removal of the fish boxes, I could use the extra room. I have a battery in each one. My 15 has been a great little boat. I really enjoy taking it out on the lake (fresh water). Let me know if I can help with anything, especially measurements. I have not gone to the extent you have on the hull, but I have rebuilt all the electrics, finished some holes and gouges in the bow, and replaced the engine (Merc Thunderbolt 800 1972 that finally gave up) with a four stroke Honda 60. Trailer is completely rebuilt too, less the springs. I might do that the end of summer.

[Sailor]

I think I hit the existing glass with 60 or 80 grit so there were deep grooves for the arjay to have a good mechanical bond but I think that was it. An added chemical reaction would have been nice but had to hot coat and then get everything setup AND leakproof in time.

What motor are you putting on? 11 gallons would go a long way with a new four stroke. []

[Thunderhorse]

Going to throw the johnson 50 back on until I can finish the 89' evinrude 70 rebuild (boat takes precedence since that little 50 runs like a champ).

Going to try to fillet the inner skin in place tonight after work... If I can get it done quickly with a hot mix I may even shoot to pour.

See any issue with tabbing the inner skin in after the fillet and pour?

[Thunderhorse]

Krizm - Can you pull a measurement for me to make sure this thing hasn't moved any? I'm looking for the width from cap to cap at the transom (preferably inside measurement).

[krizm200]

Took a couple of measurements for you:

The leading edge of the Transom (inside the boat) from side to side is 51.5 inches.

The top of the sides lined up with the front edge of the transom is 52.25 inches.

The exterior of the sides lined up with the front edge of the transom is 62 inches.

Hope this helps.

[Thunderhorse]

Thank you good sir,

I'm not going to lie, I thought my boat was a "Friday Boat", but I'm matching up almost perfectly (Building Construction tolerance is 1/8" and I'm inside of that).

Do you mind showing me what your bilge hatch looks like from the inside and outside?

[krizm200]

Happy to get you all the pics you want any part of the boat. Looks like this forum is going down for a few days. If you want pics sooner, I have a gmail account. I think you can find it in my profile, or go with my user name (the krizm200) and add the gmail extension. If you can wait, and I will add them when the forum comes back up. I was recruited to sing in a choir tonight so I am heading out the door.