Seats and Plastic Parts

The seats are built! All of these seats (benches, really) are removable to reduce weight when moving the boat around on land.

  

There will be a small floor in the cavity in front of the tank so the bow seat will have almost normal height leg room. I expect this seat to be the most comfortable of all. It is also high enough so our little dogs can put their back feet on the seat and front feet on the breast hook so they can see out.

I'm leaning now towards covering the main floor with a grey low pile outdoor carpet rather than wood. Carpet is WAY cheaper, lighter weight, more comfy on bare feet, and less slippy. Turns out there is a whole industry for bass boat carpeting so there is a lot to choose from. Who knew.

There will be 2 additional wicker folding seats that are free standing that can go anywhere on the front floor.

Like this maybe?

Made by me, or purchased?

I have been making plastic parts for the helm station and other stuff. Here is the combined bow stem extension and bow chocks part.

 

It is not attached yet, but will be bedded and screwed into the gunwales. Its function is both for aesthetics and to guide any bow line from the faux capstan (not shown) over the bow. The piece of wood I used for the bow stem was not long enough to stick up like is typical, so this part adds that height. A little weird, but still looks better than leaving it flat.

 

Under the breast hook is where this very small battery lives. It powers the bow lights. It too is easily removable. It weighs only a little over a pound but everything helps. For simplicity, there will be no switch for the bow lights. They get plugged in to turn them on.

Moving aft, these two little posts will hold up the central handle, which will be mounted at the forward end of the (hopefully Chestnut!) table. The handle is for assistance when boarding.

This is the bracket that will be glued with high temperature silicone glue to the side of the motor to measure the motor temperature. The gage that shows 17 deg. C is quite an amazing little piece of electronics. I got this many years ago, not sure from where. It is always "on" and yet still works after all these years. It will probably die right when the boat gets in the water. :)

 

The compass is actually for scuba divers to wear on their wrist. It has fancy snap-on features on a ring under the bezel that I am sort-of using to mount it to the top of the helm station. This is the smallest traditional read compass I could find. (The compass arrow points to magnetic north, as opposed to a direct read compass where you look at it from the side and it reads the orientation "directly", always confusing to me).

     

And lastly, the stern light. Not sure why it looks pink. It is bright white. The wires that go to this light go thru the black part (the part I designed and printed) and down thru the block of wood at the very end of the fantail deck so they will be completely invisible. It should look pretty cool. Especially since it is actually WHITE.

The plastic parts, except for the bow chocks, will be screwed to their mounting places after everything is varnished, which can't happen until I get the boat house warm enough for varnishing.

Tasks remaining are building the "engine cover" (ballast tank plumbing); building the helm station, putting all the stuff in the helm station, and wiring everything; installing the bow and stern lights; designing, sourcing, and installing the faux smoke stack (maybe no smoke stack?); installing the floor (carpeting?); cleaning up the surfaces that will be varnished; and varnishing.

And lastly, one of the coolest parts of the whole project: designing and building the canopy.

Maybe Unicorn doesn't need a smoke stack?